396 WORKS OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [HOMILY V. Corinthians he said, " With such a one no, not to eat." (i Cor. v. n.) But now the major ity do not think this a great evil. But all things are confounded and corrupted. With adulterers, with fornicators, with covetous persons, we mix freely, and as a matter of course. If we ought to withdraw ourselves from one who was only supported in idleness, how much more from the others. And that you may know how fear ful a thing it was to be separated from the com pany of the brethren, and what advantage it produces to those who receive reproof with a right mind, hear how that man, who was puffed up with sin, who had proceeded to the extreme of wickedness, who had committed such fornica tion as is not named even among the heathens, who was insensible of his wound for this is the excess of perversion he after all, though such an one, was so bent down and humbled, that Paul said, " Sufficient to such a one is this punishment which was inflicted by the many. Wherefore confirm your love toward him." (2 Cor. ii. 6, 8.) For as a member separated from the rest of the body, so was he at that time. But the cause, and that from which this was then so terrible, was, because even the being with them was thought by them a great bless ing. For like men who inhabit one house, and are under one father, and partake of one table, so did they then dwell in every Church. How great an evil therefore was it to fall from so great love ! But now it is not even thought to be a great evil, because neither is it considered any great thing when we are united with one another. What was then in the order of punishment, this, on account of the great coldness of love, now takes place even apart from punishment, and we withdraw from one another causelessly, and from coldness. For it is the cause of all evils that there is no love. This has dissolved all ties, and has disfigured all that was venerable and splendid in the Church, in which we ought to have gloried. Great is the confidence of the Teacher, when from his own good actions he is entitled to reprove his disciples. Wherefore also Paul said, " For yourselves know how ye ought to imitate us." (2 Thess. iii. 7.) And he ought to be a Teacher more of life than of the word. And let no one think that this is said from a spirit of boasting. For it was as reduced to necessity that he spoke it, and with a view to general advantage. " For we behaved not ourselves," he says, " disorderly among you." From this do you not see his humility, in that he calls it, "for nought," and "disorderly behavior"? " We did not behave ourselves disorderly among you," he says, " neither did we eat any man s bread for nought." Here he shows that perhaps also they were poor ; and tell me not, that they were poor. For he is discoursing concerning the poor, and those who obtained their neces sary subsistence from no other source than from the work of their hands. For he has not said, that they may have it from their fathers, but that by working they should eat their own bread. For if I, he says, a herald of the word of doc trine, was afraid to burden you, much more he who does you no service. For this is truly a burden. And it is a burden too, when one does not give with much alacrity ; but this is not what he hints at, but as if they were not able to do it easily. For why dost thou not work? For God hath given thee hands for this pur pose, not that thou shouldest receive from others, but that thou shouldest impart to others. But " the Lord," he says, " be with you." This prayer also we may offer for ourselves, if we do the things of the Lord. For hear Christ saying to His disciples, " Go ye and make dis ciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost : teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you : and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." (Matt, xxviii. 19, 20.) If ye do these things, assuredly. For that the promise is not made to them only, but to those also who walk in their steps, is manifest from His saying " to the end of the world." What then does He say to those who are not teachers ? Each of you, if he will, is a teacher, although not of another, yet of himself. Teach thyself first. If thou teachest to observe all things whatsoever He commanded, even by this means thou wilt have many emulating thee. For as a lamp, when it is shining, is able to light ten thousand others, but being extinguished will not give light even to itself, nor can it lighten other lamps ; so also in the case of a pure life, if the light that is in us be shining, we shall make both disciples and teachers numberless, being set be fore them as a pattern to copy. For neither will the words proceeding from me be able so to benefit the hearers, as your life. For let a man, tell me, be dear to God, and shining in virtue, and having a wife ; (for it is possible for a man having a wife and children and servants and friends to please God ;) will he not be able much more than I to benefit them all? Forme they will hear once or twice in a month, or not even once, and even though they have kept what they have heard as far as the threshold of the Church, they presently let it drop away from them : but seeing the life of that man con stantly, they receive great advantage. For when being insulted he insults not again, does he not almost infix and engrave upon the soul of the insulter the reverence of his meekness? And though he does not immediately confess the