incitement. For instance: dost thou exhort any to give to the poor for Christ’s sake? Remind them of Paul’s bonds, and bemoan thy misery and theirs, seeing that he indeed gave up even his body to bonds for His sake, but thou wilt not give a portion even of thy food. Art thou lifted up because of thy good deeds? Remember Paul’s bonds, that thou hast suffered nought of that kind, and thou wilt be lifted up no more. Covetest thou any of the things that are thy neighbor’s? Remember Paul’s bonds, and thou wilt see how unreasonable it is, that whilst he was in perils, thou shouldest be in delights. Again, is thine heart set upon self-indulgence? Picture to thy mind Paul’s prison-house; thou art his disciple, his fellow-soldier. How is it reasonable, that thy fellow-soldier should be in bonds, and thou in luxury? Art thou in af- fliction? Dost thou deem thyself forsaken? Hear Paul’s bonds,909 and thou wilt see, that to be in affliction is no proof of being forsaken. Wouldest thou wear silken robes? Remember Paul’s bonds; and these things will appear to thee more worthless than the filth-bespattered rags of her that sitteth apart.910 Wouldest thou array thee with golden trinkets? Picture to thy mind Paul’s bonds, and these things will seem to thee no better than a withered bulrush. 316 Wouldest thou tire thine hair, and be beautiful to see? Think of Paul’s squalidness within that prison-house, and thou wilt burn for that beauty, and deem this the extreme of ugliness, and wilt groan bitterly through longing for those bonds. Wouldest thou daub thee with pastes and pigments, and such like things? Think of his tears: a three-years space, night and day, he ceased not to weep. (Acts xx. 31.) With this adorning deck thy cheek; these tears do make it bright. I say not, that thou weep for others, (I wish indeed it could be even so, but this is too high for thee,) but for thine own sins I advise thee to do this. Hast thou ordered thy slave to be put in bonds, and wast thou angry, and exasperated? Remember Paul’s bonds, and thou wilt straightway stay thine anger; remember that we are of the bound, not the binders, of the bruised in heart, not the bruisers. Hast thou lost self-control, and shouted loud in laughter? Think of his lamentations, and thou wilt groan; such tears will show thee brighter far. Seest thou any persons rioting and dancing? Remember his tears. What fountain has gushed forth so great streams as those eyes did tears? “Remember my tears” (Acts xx. 31.), he saith, as here “bonds.” And with reason he spoke thus to them, when he sent for them from Ephesus to Miletus. For he was then speaking to teachers. He demands of those therefore, that they should sympathize911 also, but of these that they should only encounter dangers. 909 [So in all the mss. known to Field. Notice how jejune is the correction, “words,” which went into the printed editions.—J.A.B.] 910 [This also is wanting in the editions, but found in the mss., and indeed quite in Chrys.’s manner. See Isa. lxiv. 6.—J.A.B.] 911 [This συναλγεῖν was changed in most mss. and the editions into συνάγειν, “gather together.” Hales con- jectured συναλγεῖν. Field finds it in a ms. The other is indeed the more difficult reading, and likely to have been altered into an easy one, but the difficulty in this case becomes practically unintelligible.—J.A.B.] 559 Colossians 4:12,13