from the bodies of those who receive them, so too in this case, insults are constituted real and dishonourable ones, not from the folly of those who offer them, but from the weakness of the insulted. For if we know how to be truly wise, we are incapable of being insulted, or of suffering any serious evils. Some one it may be hath offered thee an insult, but thou hast not felt it? thou hast not been pained. Then thou art not insulted, but hast given rather than received a blow! For when the insulting person perceives that his blow did not reach the soul of those who were reviled, he is himself the more severely fretted; and whilst those who are reproached remain silent, the insulting blow is turned backwards, and recoils of its own accord upon him who aimed it. 26. In all things then, beloved, let us be spiritually wise, and poverty will be able to do us no harm, but will benefit us exceedingly, and render us more illustrious and wealthy than the richest. For tell me who was poorer than Elias? Yet for this reason he surpassed all the wealthy, in that he was so poor, and this very poverty of his was his own choice from an opulence of mind. For since he accounted the wealth of all riches to be beneath his magnan- imity, and not worthy of his spiritual wisdom, therefore he welcomed this kind of poverty; so that if he had considered present things as of much worth, he would not have possessed only a mantle. But so did he contemn the vanity of the life that now is, and regard all gold as clay cast into the street,1120 that he possessed himself of nothing more than that covering. Therefore the king had need of the poor man, and he who had so much gold hung upon the words of him who had nothing more than a sheepskin. Thus was the sheepskin1121 more splendid than the purple, and the cave of the just man than the halls of kings. Therefore also when he went up to heaven, he left nothing to his disciple save the sheepskin. “By the help of this,” said he, “I have wrestled with the devil, and taking this, be thou armed against him!” For indigence is a powerful weapon, an unassailable retreat, an unshaken fortress! Elisha received the sheepskin as the greatest inheritance; for it was truly such; a more precious one than all gold. And thenceforth1122 that Elias was a twofold person; an Elias above and an 354 Elias below! I know ye account that just person blessed, and ye would each desire to be that person. What then if I show you that all among us, who are initiated,1123 have received something far greater than he did? For Elias left a sheepskin to his disciple, but the Son of God ascending left to us His own flesh! Elias indeed, cast off his mantle, before he went up; 1120 Comp. Ps. xviii. 42. 1121 μηλωτὴ, 2 Kings i. 2, LXX., lit. sheepskin, the Hebrew is which does not fix the material, they may have judged by 2 Kings i. 8. 1122 Sav. ἐκ τότε. 1123 Or μεμυσταγωγημ™νοι. The baptized: those who were admitted to the mystic privileges of the faithful; a term adopted from St. Paul’s μυστήριον, 1 Cor. iv. 1. It was also used in the ancient mysteries. See Bingham, b. i., c. iv., sec. 1, 2. 492 Homily II