HOMILY VI.] HOMILIES ON THESSALONIANS. 349 that ye sorrow not, even as the rest, which have no hope." These two things, poverty and despondency, distressed them most, which also pertain to all men. See therefore how he remedies them. But their poverty arose from their goods being taken from them. But if he commands those, whose goods had been taken from them for Christ s sake, to support themselves by working, much more then others. For that they were taken away is manifest from his saying, Ye be came partakers 1 with the churches of God. How partakers with them ? " And ye took joy fully the spoiling of your possessions." (Heb. x. 34-) Here he proceeds now to start his discourse concerning the Resurrection. And why ? Had he not discoursed with them upon that point? 2 Yes, but here he glances at some further mys tery. What then is this? "That we that are alive," he says, " that are left unto the coming of the Lord, shall in nowise precede them that are fallen asleep." The discourse then of the Resurrection was sufficient to comfort him that was grieving. But that which is now said is sufficient also to make the Resurrection emi nently worthy of credit. But first let us speak of what precedes, " But we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them that are asleep ; that ye sorrow not, even as the rest, which have no hope." See how here also he treats them mildly. He does not say, " Are ye so without understanding?" as he said to the Corinthians, " foolish " ? that, knowing there is a resurrection, ye so sorrow, as those who do not believe ; but he speaks very mildly, showing respect to their other virtues. And he has not said " concerning the dead," but " them that are asleep," 3 even at the beginning suggesting con solation to them. "That ye sorrow not," he says, " even as the rest, which have no hope." Therefore to afflict yourselves for the departed is to act like those who have no hope. And they justly. For a soul that knows nothing of the Resurrection, but thinks that this death is death, naturally afflicts itself, and bewails and mourns intolerably as for lost ones. But thou, who expectest a resurrection, on what account dost thou lament? To lament then is the part of those who have no hope. 1 [Chrys. is aiming to quote (ii. 14), "Ye became imitators of the churches ofGod which are in Judaea "; and he then explains the situation in Judaea by quoting from the Epistle to the Hebrews. The chronology of the Epistles is seldom very real to his mind. The in accurate and abridged quotation is natural, but of course the amended text_filled it out, as seen in the earlier editions. J. A. B.] 2 [Chrys. thinks of i Cor. xv. as preceding Thess. in time, and he had himself previously discoursed thereon. J. A. B.] 3 [Chrys. has, as so often, the reading which became the Textus Receptus, viz. here the perfect participle, " them that are asleep." The Rev. Ver. properly adopts the other reading, the present parti ciple, " them that fall asleep," in the successive instances. In ver. 14 and 15 (Horn, vii.) both Chrys. and N. T. have the aorist parti ciple, " them that fell asleep," loosely translated, " them that are fallen asleep." J. A. B.] Hear this, ye women, as many of you as are fond of wailing, as many as at times of mourning take the sorrow impatiently, that ye act the part of heathens. But if to grieve for the departed is the part of heathens, then tell me whose part it is to beat one s self, and tear the cheeks? On what account do you lament, if you believe that he will rise again, that he has not perished, that the matter is but a slumber and a sleep? You say, On account of his society, his protection, his care of our affairs, and all his other services. When therefore you lose a child at an untimely age, who is not yet able to do anything, on what account do you lament? Why do you seek to recall him ? He was displaying, you say, good hopes, and I was expecting that he would be my supporter. On this account I miss my husband, on this account my son, on this account I wail and lament, not disbelieving the Resurrection, but being left destitute of support, and having lost my protector, my companion, who shared with me in all things my comforter. On this account I mourn. I know that he will rise again, but I cannot bear the intermediate separation. A multitude of troubles rushes in upon me. I am exposed to all who are willing to injure me. Those of my servants who formerly feared me now despise me, and trample upon me. If any one has been benefited, he has forgotten the benefit he received from him ; if any one was ill-treated by the departed, to return the grudge against him, he lets loose his anger upon me. These things do not suffer me to bear my widow hood. It is for these things that I afflict myself, for these things I bewail. How then shall we comfort such? What shall we say? How shall we banish their sorrow?4 In the first place I shall endeavor to convict them, that their wailing proceeds not from these things they say, but from an unreasonable passion. For if you mourn for these things, you ought always to mourn the departed. But if when a year has passed away, you forget him as if he had never been, you do not bewail the departed nor his protection. But you cannot endure the separation, nor the breaking off of your society? And what can they say, who even enter into second marriages? Sure enough ! It is the former husbands that they long for. But let us not direct our discourse to them, but to those who preserve a kind affection towards the departed. Wherefore dost thou lament thy child ? Wherefore thine husband ? The former, because I had not enjoyed him, you say ; the latter, because I expected that I should have enjoyed him longer. And this very thing, what 4 [See this subject copiously and admirably treated in one of Chrys. s seven sermons on the Rich Man and Lazarus, entitled " Excessive Grief at the Death of Friends," and translated in Fish s "Masterpieces of Pulpit Eloquence" (New York), Vol. 1., pp. 83 ff.-J. A. B.]