346 WORKS OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [HOMILY V. What then do I advise, so as to extirpate the roots ? So many of you as have young sons, and are bringing them up to a worldly life, 1 quickly draw them under the yoke of marriage. For since whilst he is yet young desires trouble him, for the time before marriage, by admoni tions, threats, fears, promises, and numberless other methods restrain them. But at the season of marriage, let no one defer it. Behold, I speak the words of a match-maker, that you should let your sons marry. But I am not ashamed to speak thus, since not even Paul was ashamed to say, " Defraud ye not one the other " ( i Cor. vii. 5 ), which seems more shameful than what I have said ; yet he was not ashamed. For he did not pay heed to words, but to the acts that were set right by words. When thy son is grown up, before he enters upon warfare, or any other course of life, consider of his mar riage. And if he sees that thou wilt soon take a bride for him, and that the time intervening will be short, he will be able to endure the flame patiently. But if he perceives that thou art re miss and slow, and waitest until he shall acquire a large income, and then thou wilt contract a marriage for him, despairing at the length of the time, he will readily fall into fornication. But alas ! the root of evils here also is the love of money. For since no one cares how far his son shall be sober and modest, but all are mad for gold, for this reason no one makes this a matter of concern. Wherefore I exhort you first to regulate well their souls. If he find his bride chaste, and know that body alone, then will both his desire be vehement, and his fear of God the greater, and the marriage truly hon orable, receiving bodies pure and undefiled ; and the offspring will be full-charged with bless ing, and the bride and bridegroom will comply with one another, for both being inexperienced in the manners of others, they will submit to one another. But one that begins when younger to wax wanton, and to have experience of the ways of harlots, for the first and second evening will praise his own wife ; but after that he will soon fall back into that wantonness, seeking that dissolute and disorderly laughter, the words that are full of base import,- the dissolute deport ment, 2 and all the other indecency, which- it is not tolerable that we should mention. But a woman of free estate would not endure to make such exhibitions, nor to tarnish herself. For she was espoused to her husband to be his part ner in life, and for the procreation of children, not for the purposes of indecency and laughter ; that she might keep the house, and instruct him 1 [i.e. not designing them to religious celibacy. J. A. B.] 2 <r\rjiJiaTa 6taxe/fAa<r/ie> a. See OJ1 I Tim. i. 17, Horn, iv., where he advises the wife to please her husband by modesty and simplicity. also to be grave, not that she might supply to him the fuel of fornication. But the gestures 3 of a harlot seem to you agreeable. I know it. For the Scripture says, " The lips of a strange woman drop honey." (Prov. v. 3.) For on this account I take all this trouble, that ye may have no experience of that honey, for it straightway turns into gall. And this also the Scripture says, "Who for a season is smooth to thy throat, but afterwards thou shalt find her more bitter than gall, and sharper than a two-edged sword." (Prov. v. 3, 4, Sept.) What sayest thou? Bear with me speaking somewhat impure, if I may say so and expressing my self as one shameless and unblushing. For I do not submit to this willingly, but on account of those who are shameless in their actions, I am compelled to speak this sort of words. And many such we see even in the Scriptures. For even Ezekiel, reproaching Jerusalem, utters many such things, and is not ashamed. And justly. For he did not say them from his own inclination, but from his concern. For although the words seem to be indecent, yet his aim is not indecent, but even highly becoming one who wishes to banish uncleanness from the soul. For if the shameless soul does not hear the very words, it is not affected. For a physician wish ing to remove a putrid sore, first thrusts his fingers into the wound, and if he does not first defile his healing hands, he will not be able to cure it. So it is with me. Unless I first defile my mouth, that heals your passions, I shall not be able to heal you. But rather neither is my mouth defiled, nor his hands. Why then? Be cause the uncleanness is not that of nature, nor from our own body, 4 as neither in that case from his hands, but from what is another s. But if where the body is another s, he does not refuse to dip his own hands, tell me, shall we refuse, where it is our own body? For you are our body, sickly indeed and impure, but ours nevertheless. What then is this which I say, and for which I have made so long a digression? A garment indeed which your slave wears, you would not choose ever to wear, being disgusted on account of its filth, but you would rather go naked than make use of it. But a body that is unclean and filthy, and which is used not only by your slave, but by numberless others, that will you abuse, and not be disgusted? Are you ashamed at hearing this? But be ashamed of the actions, not of the words. And I pass over all other things, the rudeness, and the corruption of their manners, the servility and illiberality of the 3 [One MS. has " words," which seerns to suit the connection better. J. A. B.] 4 Downes would read crro^aTO!, " mouth."