462 WORKS OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [HOMILY XV, ing our souls, some sin as readily as if there were no such thing in existence, what enormities should we not have committed, if it had not been declared and threatened? So that, as I have ever said, the threatenings of hell show the care ofGod for us no less than the promises ofheaven. For the threat cooperates with the promise, and drives men into the kingdom by means of terror. Let us not think it a matter of cruelty, but of pity and mercy ; of God s concern and love for us." If in the days of Jonah the destruction of Nineveh had not been threatened, that destruc tion had not been averted. Nineveh would not have stood but for the threat, " Nineveh shall be overthrown." (Jonah iii. 4.) And if hell had not been threatened, we should all have fallen into hell. If the fire had not been de nounced, no one would have escaped the fire. God declares that He will do that which He desires not to do, that He may do that which He desires to do. He willeth not the death of a sinner, and therefore He threatens the sinner with death, that He may not have to inflict death. And not only has He spoken the word, but He has exhibited the thing itself, that we may escape it. And lest it should be supposed to be a mere threat, He has manifested the reality of it by what He has already done on earth. Dost thou not see in the flood a symbol of hell, in that rain of all-destroying water an image of the all-devouring fire ? l " For as it was in the days of Noah," He says, " they were marrying and giving in marriage " (Matt. xxiv. 38), so is it even now. It was then pre dicted 2 long before it took place, and it is now predicted four hundred years or more before hand : 3 but no one heeds it. It is looked upon as a mere fable, as a matter of derision ; no one fears it, no one weeps or beats his breast at the thought of it. The stream of fire is boiling up, the flame is kindled, andwe are laughing, taking our pleasure, and sinning without fear. No one even bears in mind That Day. No one consid ers that present things are passing away, and that they are but temporal, though events are every day crying out and uttering a fearful voice. The untimely deaths, the changes that take place in our lives, our own infirmities and dis eases, fail to instruct us. And not only in our own bodies are these changes visible, but in the elements themselves. Every day in our differ ent ages we experience a kind of death, and in every case instability is the characteristic of things we see. Neither winter, nor summer, nor spring, nor autumn, is permanent ; all are run- 1 The construction is too involved for such a passage ; a slight change would refer the whole latter clause to the Judgment, or to the destruction of the cities of the plain. 2 i.e. the deluge. 3 See Horn. xx. on St. Matt, fin., where he says the end of the world might now come at any time. ning, flying, and flowing past. Why should I speak of fading flowers, of dignities, of kings that are to-day, and to-morrow cease to be, of rich men, of magnificent houses, of night and day, of the sun and the moon? for the moon wanes, and the sun is sometimes eclipsed, and often darkened with clouds? Of things visible, in short, is there anything that endures for ever? Nothing ! No, nor anything in us but the soul, and that we neglect. Of things subject to change we take abundant care, as if they were permanent : but that which is to endure for ever we neglect, as if it were soon to pass away. Some one is enabled to perform mighty actions, but they shall last till to-morrow, and then he perishes, as we see in the instances of those who have had yet greater power, and are now to be seen no more. Life is a dream, and a scene ; and as on the stage when the scene is shifted the various pageants disappear, and as dreams flit away when the sunbeams rise, so here when the end comes, whether the universal or that of each one, all is dissolved and vanishes away. The tree that you have planted remains, and the house that you have built, it too stands on. But the planter and the builder go away, and perish. Yet these things happen without our regarding it, and we live on in luxury and pleasure, and are ever furnishing ourselves with such things, as if we were immortal. Hear what Solomon says, who knew the pres ent world by actual experience. "I builded me houses, I planted me vineyards, I made me gardens, and orchards and pools of water. I gathered me also silver and gold. I gat myself men-singers, and women-sing ers, and flocks, and herds." (Eccles. ii. 4, 5.) There was no one who lived in greater luxury, or higher glory. There was no one so wise or so powerful, no one who saw all things so succeeding to his heart s desire. What then? He had no enjoyment from all these things. What after all does he say of it himself? " Van ity of vanities, all is vanity." (Eccles. xii. 8.) Vanity not simply but superlatively. Let us be lieve him, and lay hold on that in which there is no vanity, in which there is truth ; and what is based upon a solid rock, where there is no old age, nor decline, but all things bloom and flour ish, without decay, or waxing old, or approaching dissolution. Let us, I beseech you, love God with genuine affection, not from fear of hell, but from desire of the kingdom. For what is com parable to seeing Christ ? Surely nothing ! What to the enjoyment of those good things? Surely nothing ! Well may there be nothing ; for " eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him." (i Cor. ii. 9.) Let us be anxious to