67. I will only say this of him. Whenever I
handle his Hexaemeron, and take its words on my lips, I am brought into
the presence of the Creator, and understand the words of creation, and
admire the Creator more than before, using my teacher as my only means
of sight. Whenever I
take up his polemical works, I see the fire of Sodom, Gen. xix. 24. by which the wicked and rebellious tongues
are reduced to ashes, or the tower of Chalane,
Chalane. LXX. for
Babel.
impiously built, Gen. xi. 4. and righteously
destroyed. Whenever I read his writings on the Spirit, I find the
God Whom I possess, and grow bold in my utterance of the truth, from
the support of his theology and contemplation. His other
treatises, in which he gives explanations for those who are
shortsighted, by a threefold inscription on the solid tablets of his
heart, lead me on from a mere literal or symbolical interpretation to a
still wider view, as I proceed from one depth to another, calling upon
deep Ps. xlii. 8. after deep, and finding light after light,
until I attain the highest pinnacle. When I study his panegyrics
on our athletes, I despise the body, and enjoy the society of those
whom he is praising, and rouse myself to the struggle. His moral
and practical discourses purify soul and body, making me a temple fit
for God, and an instrument struck by the Spirit, to celebrate by its
strains the glory and power of God. In fact, he reduces me to
harmony and order, and changes me by a Divine
transformation.