beseech you to come, what apology can ye have for turning away from us? The unfit hearer is not he that hath eaten and drunk; but he who gives no heed to what is said, who yawns, and is slack in attention, having his body here, but his mind wandering elsewhere, and such a one, though he may be fasting, is an unprofitable hearer. On the other hand, the man who is in earnest, who is watchful and keeps his mind in a state of attention, though he may have eaten and drunk, will be our most suitable hearer of all. For this rule, indeed, very properly prevails with relation to the secular tribunals and councils. Inasmuch as they know not how to be spiritually wise, therefore they eat not to nourishment, but to bursting; and they drink often to excess. For this reason, as they render themselves unfit for the management of their affairs, they shut up the court-houses and council-chambers in the evening and at midday.1403 But here there is nothing of this sort,—God forbid! But he who has eaten will rival him who fasts, as far as regards sobriety of soul; for he eats and drinks, not so as to distend the stomach, or to darken the reason, but in such a way as to recruit the strength of the body when it has become weakened. 3. But enough of this admonition. It is time now to deal with our subject; although our mind holds back and shrinks from giving this instruction, on account of those who are not come. And just as an affectionate mother when she is about to spread out her table, grieves and laments when all her children are not there, thus also do I now suffer; and when I think of the absence of our brethren, I am reluctant to discharge my debt. But ye have it in your power to rid me of this tardiness. For if ye promise me that ye will convey to them an exact report of all I say, we shall readily pay you down the whole;1404 for thus the instructions, charitably afforded on your part, will make up to them for their absence; and ye will hear me the more attentively, knowing that you must necessarily give an account of these things to others. In order then that our subject may be made the clearer, let us take it up and repeat it from the beginning. We were enquiring, then, the other day, “On what account the Scriptures were delivered after so many years. For this Book was delivered neither in the time of Adam, nor of Noah, nor of Abraham, but in that of Moses. And I hear many who 1403 A canon of Isaac Lingonensis (in the eighth century), Tit. viii. cap. 2, Labbe viii. 620, forbids any one to take an oath except fasting. The Athenian courts did not sit after sunset, and the great time for forensic business was the forenoon. Goeller on Thuc. viii. 92. Ælian, V. H. xii. 30, says that the luxurious Tarentines would be drunk even when the forum is fullest, περὶ πλήθουσαν ‡γορ€ν. v. Act. ii. 15; Perizonius on Ælian, cites Dio Chrys. Or. 67, de Glor. 2, who shews it was about that time. 1404 i.e, the promise of explaining that subject which had been proposed in the two foregoing Homilies; namely, the reason why the gift of Holy Scripture was so long delayed. 575 Homily IX