HOMILY VI.] HOMILIES ON TIMOTHY. 497 that none may be captivated by these things? " Flee youthful " imaginations, " but " Follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart." He calls virtue in general, " righteousness " : godliness of life, " faith, meekness, charity." What is meant by " those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart " ? It is as if he said, Rejoice not in those who only call upon the Lord ; but those who call upon Him sincerely and unfeignedly, who have nothing of deceit about them, who approach Him in peace, who are not contentious. With these associate thy self. But with others be not easy, but only as far as lies in you, be peaceable. Ver. 23. " But foolish and unlearned ques tions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes." Do you see how he everywhere draws him off from questions ; not that he was not able to over throw them ; for he was well able. For had he not been able he would have said, Be diligent, that thou mayest be able to refute them ; as when he says, " Give attendance to reading, forbysodoing thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee." (i Tim. iv. 13, 16.) But he knew that it was useless to enter at all into these dis putes, that there will be no end of it, save contentions, enmities, insults, and reproaches. These "questions" therefore "avoid " ; so that there are other questions, some relating to the Scriptures, some to other things. Ver. 24. " And the servant of the Lord must not strive." Not even in questions ought he to strive, for the servant of the Lord must keep far from strife, since God is the God of peace, and what should the servant of the God of peace have to do with strife ? " But be gentle unto all men." How is it then he says, "Rebuke with all authority" (Tit. ii. 15); and again, " Let no man despise thy youth" (i Tim. iv. 12) : and again, "Rebuke them sharply"? (Tit. i. 13.) Because this is consistent with meekness. For a strong rebuke, if it be given with gentle ness, is most likely to wound deeply : for it is possible, indeed it is, to touch more effectually by gentleness, than one overawes by boldness. " Apt to teach " ; that is, those who are willing to be taught. For " a man that is an heretic," he says, " after the first and second admonition reject." (Tit. iii. 10.) "Patient." He has well added this, for it is a quality which a teacher above all things ought to possess. All things are vain without it. And if fishermen do not despair, though often they cast their nets for a whole day without catching anything, much more should not we. For see what is the result. From constant teaching, it often hap pens that the plow of the word, descending to the dpth of the soul, roots out the evil passion that troubled it. For he that hears often will at length be affected. A man cannot go on hear ing continually without some effect being pro duced. Sometimes therefore, when he was on the point of being persuaded, he is lost by our becoming weary. For the same thing occurs, as if an unskillful husbandman should in the first year dig about the vine he had planted, and seeking to reap some fruit in the second year, and again in the third, and gathering nothing, should after three years despair, and in the fourth year, when he was about to receive the rec ompense of his labors, abandon his vine. And having said, " Patient," he is not satisfied, but goes on to say, Ver. 25. " In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves." For he that teaches must be especially care ful to do it with meekness. For a soul that wishes to learn cannot gainany useful instruction from harshness and contention. For when it would apply, being thus thrown into perplexity, it will learn nothing. He who would gain any useful knowledge ought above all things to be well disposed towards his teacher, and if this be not previously attained, nothing that is requisite or useful can be accomplished. And no one can be well disposed towards him who is violent and overbearing. How is it then that he says, " A man that is an heretic, after the first and second admonition, reject"? He speaks there of one incorrigible, of onewhom he knows to be diseased beyond the possibility of cure. " If God peradventure will give them repent ance to the acknowledging of the truth." Ver. 26. "And that they may recover them selves out of the snare of the devil." What he says amounts to this. Perhaps there will be a reformation. Perhaps ! for it is un certain. So that we ought to withdraw only from those, of whom we can show plainly, and concerning whom we are fully persuaded, that whatever be done, they will not be reformed. " In meekness," he says. In this temper, you see, we ought to address ourselves to those who are willing to learn, and never cease from con versing with them till we have come to the demonstration. 1 " Who are taken captive by him at his will." It is truly said, " Who are taken captive," 2 for meanwhile they float in error. Observe here how he teaches to be humble-minded. He has not said, if peradventure you should be able, but, " if peradventure God should grant them a recovery"; if anything be done, therefore, all 1 That is, we ought not to be provoked by their slowness of apprehension to break off. 2 cf^ioyprj^eVoi, " taken alive," applied to fish enclosed in a net.