約伯倫理 第 1176 章

(IBID. 15) 'Do you know when God commanded the rains, that they should display the light of His clouds?' (60) Preachers inspired by God water and give light. — If the clouds are the holy preachers, the rains of the clouds are the words of their preachings. But when the clouds fly across through the air, unless the rains come down, it is not known how vast an immensity of waters they carry. Unless the flashing sun breaks forth amid the rains, one cannot understand what brightness also lies hidden within them; because assuredly, if the holy preachers keep silent, and by no means, in their speaking, display how great is the brightness of the heavenly hope which they bear in their hearts, they seem either like the rest of men, or far more contemptible than these.

But when they have begun to open up through preaching what is the reward of the heavenly homeland which they inwardly hold; when, pressed by persecution, they grow bright with that virtue by which they have advanced to the citadel of strength; when, despised in appearance, they intimate by their speaking whence they are protected — then those very rains that flow down from the clouds show us the light of those same clouds. For through the words of the preachers we come to know that we should venerate with great humility the brightness of the life which they long for. This light Paul assuredly showed to his disciples when he said: 'That you may know what is the hope of His calling, and what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe' (Eph. 1:18).

This light the Corinthians had come to know through the words of writings as through drops of rain, when they said: 'His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible' (2 Cor. 10:10). But for the most part the holy preachers desire to show themselves that they may profit others, yet they cannot; for the most part they long to lie hidden that they may be at rest, yet they are not permitted. No one therefore knows when the rains will display the light of the clouds, because no one comprehends when God will grant the power of preaching, so that the glory of those who preach may shine forth. He says therefore: 'Do you know when God commanded the rains, that they should display the light of His clouds?' As if he were openly to say:

Do you, if you already behold the preachers who are to come into the world, grasp when the Lord will impel them to preach by the filling of the Holy Spirit, and by what modes the brightness of their life becomes known to the world? Whence it is still fittingly added: