WORKS OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [HOMILY III. off this fear. But like a horse obedient to the bridle, having the thought of hell seated upon it, walking orderly, it will both speak and utter things profitable ; and neither youth nor riches, nor an orphan state, nor any other thing, will be able to injure it, having its reason so firm and able to hold out against everything. By these discourses let us regulate as well our selves as our wives too, our servants, our children, our friends, and, if possible, our enemies. For with these discourses we are able to cut off the greater part of our sins, and it is better to dwell upon things grievous than upon things agreeable, and it is manifest from hence. For, tell me, if you should go into a house where a marriage is celebrated, for a season you are delighted at the spectacle, but afterwards having gone away, you pine with grief that you have not so much. But if you enter the house of mourners, even though they are very rich, when you go away you will be rather refreshed. For there you have not conceived envy, but comfort and consolation in your poverty. You have seen by facts, that riches are no good, poverty no evil, but they are things indifferent. So also now, if you talk about luxury, you the more vex your soul, that is not able perhaps to be luxurious. But if you are speaking against luxury, and introduce dis course concerning hell, the thing will cheer you, and beget much pleasure. For when you con sider that luxury will not be able to defend us at all against that fire, you will not seek after it ; but if you reflect that it is wont to kindle it even more, you will not only not seek, but will turn from it and reject it. Let us not avoid discourses concerning hell, that we may avoid hell. Let us not banish the remembrance ofpunishment, that we may escape punishment. Ifthe rich man had reflected upon that fire, he would not have sinned ; but because he never was mindful of it, therefore he fell into it. Tell me, O man, being about to stand before the Judgment-seat of Christ, dost thou speak of all things rather than of that? And when you have a matter before a judge, often only relating to words, neither day nor night, at no time or season dost thou talk of anything else, but always of that business, and when thou art about to give an account of thy whole life, and to sub mit to a trial, canst thou not bear even with others reminding thee of that Judgment? For this reason therefore all things are ruined and undone, because when we are about to stand be fore a human tribunal concerning matters of this life, we move everything, we solicit all men, we are constantly anxious about it, we do every thing for the sake of it : but when we are about, after no long time, to come before the Judgment- seat of Christ, we do nothing either by ourselves, or by others ; we do not entreat the Judge. And yet He grants to us a long season of forbearance, and does not snatch us away in the midst of our sins, but permits us to put them off, and that Goodness and Lovingkindness leaves nothing undone of all that belongs to Himself. But all is of no avail ; on this account the punishment will be the heavier. But God forbid it should be so ! Wherefore, I beseech you, let us even if but now become watchful. Let us keep hell be fore our eyes. Let us consider that inexorable Account, that, thinking of those things, we may both avoid vice, and choose virtue, and may be able to obtain the blessings promised to those who love Him, by the grace and lovingkindness, &c. HOMILY III. 2 THESSALONIAXS i. 9, 10. " Who shall suffer punishment, even eternal destruction from the face of the Lord, and from the glory of His might, when He shall come to be glorified in His Saints, and to be marveled at in all them that believed." THERE are many men, who form good hopes not by abstaining from their sins, but by thinking that hell is not so terrible as it is said to be, but milder than what is threatened,, and temporary, not eternal ; and about this they philosophize much. But I could show from many reasons, and conclude from the very expressions con cerning hell, that it is not only not milder, but much more terrible than is threatened. But I do not now intend to discourse concerning these things. For the fear even from bare words is sufficient, though we do not fully unfold their meaning. But that it is not temporary, hear Paul now saying, concerning those who know not God, and who do not believe in the Gospel, that " they shall suffer punishment, even eternal destruction." How then is that temporary which is everlasting? "From the face of the Lord," he says. What is this ? He here wishes to say