332 WORKS OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [HOMILY III. erty is tolerable, but without him both health and riches are intolerable. He has another self: I am straitened, because I cannot instance by an example. For I should in that case make it appear that what has been said is much less than it ought to be. And these things indeed are so here. But from God the reward of friendship is so great, that it cannot be expressed. He gives a reward, that we may love one another, the thing for which we owe a reward. " Pray," He says, " and receive a reward," for that forwhichwe owe a reward, because we ask for good things. " For that which you ask," He says, "receive a reward. Fast, and receive a reward. Be virtuous, and receive a reward," though you rather owe a reward. But as fathers, when they have made their children virtuous, then further give them a reward ; for they are debtors, because they have afforded them a pleasure ; so also God acts. "Receive a reward," He says, "if thou be vir tuous, for thou delightest thy Father, and for this I owe thee a reward. But if thou be evil, not so : for thou provokest Him that begot thee." Let us not then provoke God, but let us delight Him, that we may obtain the kingdom of Heaven, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be the glory and the strength, world without end. Amen. HOMILY III. i .THESSALONIANS ii. 9-12. " For ye remember, brethren, our labor and travail : for working night and day, that we might not burden any of you, we preached unto you the Gospel of God. Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and righteously and unblamably we behaved our selves toward you that believe : as ye know how we dealt with each one of you, as a father with his own children, exhorting you, and encouraging you, and testifying, to the end that ye should walk worthily of God, who calleth you into His own kingdom and glory." THE teacher ought to do nothing with a feel ing of being burdened, that tends to the salva tion of his disciples. For if the blessed Jacob was buffeted night and day in keeping his flocks, much more ought he, to whom the care of souls is entrusted, to endure all toils, though the work be laborious and mean, looking only to one thing, the salvation of his disciples, and the glory thence arising to God. See then, Paul, a man that was a Preacher, an Apostle of the world, and raised to so great honor, worked with his hands that he might not be burdensome to his disciples. " For ye remember," he says, "my brethren, our labor and travail." He had said previously, " we might have been burdensome as the Apos tles of Christ," as he also says in the Epistle to the Corinthians, " Know ye not that they which minister about sacred things eat of the things of the Temple? Even so also did Christ ordain that they which proclaim the Gospel should live of the Gospel." (i Cor. ix. 13, 14.) But I, he says, would not, but I labored ; and he did not merely work, but with much diligence. Observe then what he says ; " For ye remem ber," he has not said, the benefits received from me, but, " our labor and travail : for working night and day, that we might not burden any ot you, we preached unto you the Gospel of God." And to the Corinthians he said a different thing, " I robbed other Churches, taking wages of them that I might minister unto you." (2 Cor. xi. 8.) And yet even there he worked, but of this he made no mention, but urged what was more striking, 1 as if he had said, I was main tained by others when ministering to you. But here it is not so. But what? "Working night and day." And there indeed he says, " And when I was present with you, and was in want, I was not a burden on any man," and, " I took wages that I might minister unto you." (2 Cor. xi. 8, 9.) And here he shows that the men were in poverty, but there it was not so. On this account he frequently addresses them as witnesses. For " ye are witnesses," he says, " andGod also " ; God was worthy to be believed, but this other was that which most fully assured them. For that indeed was uncertain to those who were ignorant of it ; but this was without doubt to all. For do not enquire whether it was Paul who said these things. Much beyond what was necessary he gives them assurance. Where fore he says, " Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and righteously and unblamably we behaved ourselves toward you that believe." It was proper to praise them again. On this ac count he sets these things before them, which were sufficient to persuade them. For he that stood there in want, and did not receive any thing, would much more not receive anything 1 Or " wounding "; jrAi)/cTiicu)Tepoi .