134 WORKS OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [HOMILY XVIII. idolaters. " But I never made an idol," a man will say, " nor set up an altar, nor sacrificed sheep, nor poured libations of wine ; no, I came into the church, and lifted up my hands to the Only-begotten Son of God ; I partake of the mysteries, I communicate in prayer, and in everything else which is a Christian s duty. How then," he will say, "am I a worshiper of idols?" Yes, and this is the very thing which is the most astonishing of all, that when thou hast had experience, and hast "tasted" the lovingkindness of God, and " hast seen that the Lord is gracious" (Ps. xxxiv. 8), thou shouldest abandon Him who is gracious, and take to thy self a cruel tyrant, and shouldest pretend to be serving Him, whilst in reality thou hast sub mitted thyself to the hard and galling yoke of covetousness. Thou hast not yet told me of thy own duty done, but only of thy Master s gifts. For tell me, I beseech thee, whence do we judge of a soldier? Is it when he is on duty guarding the king, and is fed by him, and called the king s own, or is it when he is minding his own affairs and interests? To pretend to be with him, and to be attentive to his interests, whilst he is advancing the cause of the enemy, we declare to be worse than if he breaks away from the king s service, and joins the enemy. Now then thou art doing despite to God, just as an idolater does, not with thine own mouth singly, but with the ten thousands of those whom thou hast wronged. Yet you will say, " an idolater he is not." But surely, whenever they say, " Oh ! that Christian, that covetous fellow," then not only is he himself committing outrage by his own act, but he frequently forces those also whom he has wronged to use these words ; and if they use them not, this is to be set to the account of their reverence. Do we not see that such is the fact ? What else is an idolater ? Or does not he too worship passions, oftentimes not mastering his passions? I mean, for example, when we say that the pagan idolater worships idols, he will say, " No, but it is Venus, or it is Mars." And if we say, Who is this Venus? the more modest amongst them will say, It is pleasure. Or what is this Mars? It is wrath. And in the same way dost thou worship Mammon. If we say, Who is this Mammon ? It is covetousness, and this thou art worshiping. " I worship it not," thou wilt say. Why not? Because thou dost not bow thyself down? Nay, but as it is, thou art far more a worshiper in thy deeds and practices ; for this is the higher kind of worship. And that you may understand this, look in the case of God ; who more truly worship Him, they who merely stand up at the prayers, or they who do His will ? Clearly enough, these latter. The same also is it with the worshipers of Mammon ; they who do his will, they truly are his wor shipers. However, they who worship the pas sions are oftentimes free from the passions. One may see a worshiper of Mars oftentimes gov erning his wrath. But this is not true of thee ; thou makest thyself a slave to thy passion. Yes, but thou slayest no sheep ? No, thou slayest men, reasonable souls, some by famine, others by blasphemies. Nothing can be more frenzied than a sacrifice like this. Who ever beheld souls sacrificed ? How accursed is the altar of covetousness ! When thou passest by this idol s altar here, thou shalt see it reeking with the blood of bullocks and goats ; but when thou shalt pass by the altar of covetousness, thou shalt see it breathing the shocking odor of hu man blood. Stand here before it in this world, and thou shalt see, not the wings of birds burn ing, no vapor, no smoke exhaled, but the bodies of men perishing. For some throw themselves among precipices, others tie the halter, others thrust the dagger through their throat. Hast thou seen the cruel and inhuman sacrifices? Wouldest thou see yet more shocking ones than these? Then I will show thee no longer the bodies of men, but the souls ofmen slaughtered in the other world. Yes, for it is possible for a soul to be slain with the slaughter peculiar to the soul ; for as there is a death of the body, 1 so is there also of the soul. " The soul that sin- neth," saith the Prophet, " it shall die." (Ezek. xviii. 4.) The death of the soul, however, is not like the death of the body ; it is far more shocking. For this bodily death, separating the soul and the body the one from the other, re leases the one from many anxieties and toils, and transmits the other into a manifest abode : then when the body has been in time dissolved and crumbled away, it is again gathered together in incorruption, and receives back its own proper soul. Such we see is this bodily death. But that of the soul is awful and terrific. For this death, when dissolution takes place, does not let it pass, as the body does, but binds it down again to an imperishable body, and consigns it to the unquenchable fire. This then is the death of the soul. And as therefore there is a death of the soul, so is there also a slaughter of the soul. What is the slaughter of the body ? It is the being turned into a corpse, the being stripped of the energy derived from the soul. What is the slaughter of the soul ? It is its being made a corpse also. And how is the soul made a corpse? Because as the body then becomes a corpse when the soul leaves it destitute of its own vital energy, so also does the soul then be- 1 [As in other places, the text of Field is here incomplete. (ia<nrep yap ecm. \|/u^^s 0dvaTO<;, " ^ ux ) >"P ^ atiapravovaa.," etc.) It omits tne clause, iacrirep yap e<rn cruJ/iiaTos flavaro?, which is so necessary to the sense and which is attested by excellent manuscript authority, and adopted by Savile. G. A.]