but a soldier who is afraid of death, will never perform a noble action. Thus then neither will a Christian man, if fearful of dangers, perform anything great or admirable; nay, besides this, he will be apt to be easily vanquished. But not so is it with the man who is bold and lofty minded. He remains impregnable and unconquerable. As then the Three Children, when they feared not the fire, escaped from the fire, so also we, if we fear not death, shall entirely escape from death. They feared not the fire (for it is no crime to be burnt), but they feared sin, for it is a crime to commit impiety. Let us also imitate these and all such, and let us not be afraid of dangers, and then we shall pass safely through them. 15. As for me, “I am not a prophet nor the son of a prophet,”1258 yet I understand clearly thus much of the future, and I proclaim, both loudly and distinctly, that if we become changed, and bestow some care upon our souls, and desist from iniquity, nothing will be unpleasant or painful. And this I plainly know from the love of God toward man, as well as from those things which He hath done for men, and cities, and nations, and whole popula- tions. For He threatened the city of Nineveh, and said, “There are yet three days,1259 and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”1260 What then, I ask, Was Nineveh overthrown? Was the city destroyed? Nay, quite the contrary; it both arose, and became still more distinguished; and long as is the time which has elapsed, it has not effaced its glory, but we all still celebrate and admire it even to this day.1261 For from that time it hath been a sort of excellent haven for all who have sinned, not suffering them to sink into desperation, but calling all to repent- ance; and by what it did, and by what it obtained of God’s favour, persuading men never to despair of their salvation, but exhibiting the best life they can,1262 and setting before them a1263 good hope, to be confident of the issue as destined in any wise to be favourable. For who would not be stirred up on hearing of such an example, even if he were the laziest of mortals? 1258 Amos vii. 14. 1259 τρεῖς ἡμ™ραι. Thus it has always been read in the Septuagint, even from the first ages of the Church (note in Ed. Par. 1834). But this reading, it should be remarked, is not supported by the Targum, or the Vulgate, or Syriac, which all read forty days, as in the Hebrew copies. (St. Jerome on the passage corrects the error, and Theodoret says that the Syriac, and Hebrew, and the translations of Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion, read forty. Origen, Hom. XVI. on Num. xxiii. 19, Ed. Ben. ii. p. 330, d. corrects the LXX. from the Hebrew.) 1260 Jonah iii. 1261 Nineveh was entirely ruined in the reign of the Emperor Hadrian, and though it was afterwards rebuilt by the Persians, and not finally destroyed till about the seventh century, it seems probable that St. Chrysostom alludes here rather to its moral than to its actual glory at that time. 1262 βίον ˆριστον, “best life.” The article is not used, and the words added seem nearly to express what is in- tended to be understood. 1263 Gr. The good hope, i.e., the hope of the better alternative. 532 Homily V