138 WORKS OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [HOMILY XIX.
not foolish, but understand what the will of the
Lord is ; and be not drunk with wine, wherein
is riot."
For indeed intemperance in this renders men
passionate and violent, and hot-headed, and
irritable and savage. Wine has been given us
for cheerfulness, not for drunkenness. Whereas
now it appears to be an unmanly and contempti
ble thing for a man not to get drunk. And
what sort of hope then is there of salvation?
What? contemptible, tell me, not to get drunk,
where to get drunk ought of all things in the
world to be most contemptible? For it is of
all things right for even a private individual to
keep himself far from drunkenness ; but how
much more so for a soldier, a man who lives
amongst swords, and bloodshed, and slaughter :
much more, I say, for the soldier, when his
temper is* sharpened by other causes also, by
power, by authority, by being constantly in the
midst of stratagems and battles. Wouldest thou
know where wine is good? Hear what the
Scripture saith,
"
Give strong drink unto him
that is ready to perish, and wine unto the
bitter in soul." (Prov. xxxi. 6.) And justly,
because it can mitigate asperity and gloominess,
and drive away clouds from the brow.
"
Wine
maketh glad the heart of man" (Ps. civ. 15),
says the Psalmist. How then does wine pro
duce drunkenness? For it cannot be that one
and the same thing should work opposite effects.
Drunkenness then surely does not arise from
wine, but from intemperance. Wine is bestowed
upon us for no other purpose than for bodily
health ; but this purpose also is thwarted by
immoderate use. But hear moreover what our
blessed Apostle writes and says to Timothy,
"
Use a little wine for thy stomach s sake, and
thine often infirmities."
l
This is the reason why God has formed our
bodies in moderate proportions, and so as to
be satisfied with a little, from thence at once
instructing us that He has made us adapted to
another life. And that life He would fain have
bestowed upon us even from the very beginning ;
but since we rendered ourselves unworthy of it,
He deferred it ; and in the time during which
He deferred it, not even in that does He allow
us immoderate indulgence ; for a little cup of
wine and a single loaf is enough to satisfy a
man s hunger. And man the lord of all the
brute creation has He formed so as to require
less food in proportion than they, and his body
small ; thereby declaring to us nothing else
than this, that we are hastening onward to
another life.
"
Be not drunk," says he,
"
with
wine, wherein is riot"; for it does not save 2
i i Tim. v. 23. Cf. Vol. IX., 335.
1 [auiCfi: suggested by the word aaioria. ("riot") which imme
diately precedes, and which is derived from au>u>. Compare aviana.
in Thayer s A^. T. Lexicon. G. A.]
but it destroys ; and that, not the body only,
but the soul also.
Ver. 1 8, 19, 20, 21. "But be filled 3 with the
Spirit ; speaking one to another in psalms and
hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making
melody with your heart to the Lord ; giving
thanks always for all things in the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ to God. even the Father;
subjecting yourselves one to another in the fear
of Christ."
Dost thou wish, he says, to be cheerful, dost
thou wish to employ the day? I give thee
spiritual drink ; for drunkenness even cuts off
the articulate sound of our tongue ; it makes
us lisp and stammer, and distorts the eyes, and
the whole frame together. Learn to sing psalms,
and thou shalt see the delightfulness of the
employment. For they who sing psalms are
filled with the Holy Spirit, as they who sing
satanic songs are filled with an unclean spirit.
What is meant by
"
with your hearts to the
Lord"? It means, with close attention and
understanding. For they who do not attend
closely, merely sing, uttering the words, whilst
their heart is roaming elsewhere.
"Always," he says, "giving thanks for all
things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ
unto God even the Father, subjecting yourselves
one to another in the fear of Christ."
That is,
"
let your requests be made known
unto God, with thanksgiving" (Phil. iv. 6);
for there is nothing so pleasing to God, as for a
man to be thankful. But we shall be best able
to give thanks unto God, by withdrawing our
souls from the things before mentioned, and by
thoroughly cleansing them by the means he has
told us.
"
But be filled," says he, "with the Spirit."
And is then this Spirit within us? Yes, in
deed, within us. For when we have driven
away lying, and bitterness, and fornication, and
uncleanness, and covetousness, from our souls,
when we are become kind, tender-hearted, for
giving one another, when there is no jesting,
when we have rendered ourselves worthy of it,
what is there to hinder the Holy Spirit from
coming and lighting upon us? And not only will
He come unto us, but He will fill our hearts ;
and when we have so great a light kindled within
us, then will the way of virtue be no longer diffi
cult to attain, but will be easy and simple.
"Giving thanks always,"
4
he says, "for all
things."
3
["The imperativepassive finds its explanation in the possi
bility of resistance to the Holy Spirit. The contrast does not lie in
oii-os (wine) and n^eO/aa (spirit), otherwise these words would have
stood at the beginning of their clauses, but in the two states, that
of intoxication and that of inspiration." Meyer. G. A.]
4
[" This giving thanks always, etc., is a third modal definition
of the Be filled with the spirit," likewise coordinate with the two