HOMILY II.] HOMILIES ON TIMOTHY. 479 mon expenses, but we have no community of alms. Such were the friendly doings in the time of the Apostles ; they brought all their goods into the common stock. Now I do not require you to bestow all, but some part. " Let each lay by him in store on the first day of. the week, as God has prospered him," and lay it down as a tribute for the seven days. In this way give alms, whether more or less. " For thou shalt not appear before the Lord empty." (Ex. xxiii. 15.) This was said to the Jews, how much more then to us. For this cause the poor stand before the doors, that no one may enter empty, but each may do alms at his entrance. Thou enterest to implore mercy. First show mercy. He that comes later owes the more. For when we have been first, he that is second pays down more. 1 Make God thy debtor, and then offer thy prayers. Lend to Him, and then ask a return, and thou shalt receive it with usury. God wills this, and does not retract. If thou ask with alms, He holds himself obliged. If thou ask with alms, thou lendest and receivest inter est. Yes, I beseech you ! It is not for stretch ing out thy hands thou shalt be heard ! stretch forth thy hands, not to heaven, but to the poor. If thou stretch forth thy hand to the hands of the poor, thou hast reached the very summit of heaven. For He who sits there receives thine alms. But if thou liftest them up without a gift, thou gainest nothing. If the king, arrayed in purple, should come to thee and ask an alms, wouldest thou not readily give all that thou hast ? But now when thou art entreated through the poor, not by an earthly but a heavenly King, dost thou stand regardless, and defer thy gift ? What punishment then dost thou not deserve ? For the being heard depends not upon the lift ing up of thy hands, nor on the multitude of thy words, but upon thy works. For hear the prophet, " When ye " spread " forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you : yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear." (Isa. i. 15.) For he ought to be silent, who needs mercy, and not even to look up to heaven ; he that hath confidence may say 3 much. But what says the Scripture, " Judge for the fatherless, plead for the widow, learn to do good." (Isa. i. 17.) In this way we shall be heard, though we lift not up our hands, nor utter a word, nor make request. In these things then let us be zealous, that we may obtain the promised blessings, through the grace and lovingkindness, &c. HOMILY II 2 TIMOTHY i. 8-10. " Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner : but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the Gospel according to the power of God; Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began; but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Sav iour Jesus Christ." THERE is nothing worse than that man should measure and judge of divine things by human reasonings. For thus he will fall from that rock 2 a vast distance, and be deprived of the light. For if he who wishes with human eyes to appre hend the rays of the sun will not only not appre hend them, but, besides this failure, will sustain great injury ; so, but in a higher degree, is he in a way to suffer this, and abusing the gift of God, who would by human reasonings gaze in tently on that Light. Observe accordingly how Marcion, and Manes, and Valentinus, and others who introduced their heresies and pernicious 1 He means in human transactions, where money advanced al ways has a certain value beyond a deferred payment. 2 Trerpas, the rock of faith, but one suspects Treipos, " that en deavor," to be the true reading. doctrines 4 into the Church of God, measuring divine things by human reasonings, became ashamed of the Divine economy. Yet it was not a subject for shame, but rather for glorying; I speak of the Cross of Christ. For there is not so great a sign of the love of God for man kind, not heaven, nor sea, nor earth, nor the creation of all things out of nothing, nor all else beside, as the Cross. Hence it is the boast of Paul, " God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." (Gal. vi. 14.) But natural men, and those who attribute to God no more than to human beings, stumble, and become ashamed. Wherefore Paul from the first exhorts his disciple, and through him all others, in these words : " Be not thou ashamed of the testimony of our Lord," that is, 5 " Be not ashamed, that thou preachest One that was cru- 3 Gr. " says," but he means " with propriety," for irapprjcrioi f\<av is the usual expression for one who has real claims. B. reads 6 Se iu? To-p-y " but this man, as if he had claims." 4 B. " those who gave birth to the other heresies, and introduced pernicious doctrines." B. " He means the death of Christ." The word " Testimony " might be rendered " Martyrdom," and such is the original idea of Martyrdom: see Euseb. Eccl. Hist. v. a.