福音史詩 第 1 章

PREFACE. Nothing immortal is held within the frame of the world — not the globe, not the kingdoms of men, not golden Rome, not the sea, not the earth, not the fiery stars of heaven. For the Father of things has fixed an irrevocable time, when the final flame, blazing, shall sweep away the whole world. Yet sublime deeds and the honour of valour keep countless men in remembrance through long ages, men whose fame and praises the poets heap high. These the lofty songs flowing from the fountain of Smyrna celebrate; those, the sweetness of Maro of Mincius. Nor does the lesser glory of the bards themselves run its course, glory which abides like the eternal, while the ages fly, and the wheeling of the pole rolls the starry heaven around the lands and seas by appointed governance.

But if songs that weave falsehoods around the deeds of men of old have earned so long a fame, for us sure faith in eternal praise throughout the ages shall grant immortal honour and repay our merit. For my song shall be the life-giving deeds of Christ, a divine gift to the peoples, free from the guilt of falsehood. Nor is there fear that the world's burnings should sweep this work away with them; for this perhaps shall withdraw me from the fire then, when, flashing amid a flame-vomiting cloud, the Judge shall descend — the glory of the high-throned Father, Christ. Come then! May the sanctifying Spirit, author of song, be present with me, and may sweet Jordan water with its pure stream the mind of the one who sings, that we may speak things worthy of Christ. BOOK ONE.

There was a king, Herod, cruel in the nation of Judaea, under whom there lived a keeper of righteousness and a priest of the temple, Zacharias, whose care it was by turns to guard the temple — he stood at his appointed task in due course among the chosen seers. To his marriage-chamber clung a most worthy wife. For both of them there was an equal care of fair and balanced conduct; the precepts of the law held them both, joined together. Yet they had no offspring, though their years were now already declining, so that the gift might be the more welcome to those now despairing of it. But when by chance Zacharias was bearing incense to the inner shrine and altars, a messenger was seen to descend from open heaven and to deliver to him alone the words commanded (for the rest of the people, prostrate at the doors, were then praying): 'What terror has the dread sight shaken in your heart, when the grace of joyful speech soothes you?

For me the one only Father of all has sent down from heaven's high seat to come now into speech with you, and He commands me to promise that soon a son shall be born to you from the wife dear to you, for whom great glory in things awaits, who shall by his birth seek out abundant joys for the peoples; sober for ever, whom the Spirit, while yet shut within his mother's very inward parts, shall fill with bright divine power. The greater part of this people he shall, by teaching, turn back to the true way, and continually, the first, he shall know the Lord and God, and shall renew the people. Remember to call this one by the name John.' To him the priest replied with troubled mind: 'My rival age stands in the way of such promises, nor can offspring befall worn-out old folk, which God, turning it aside, denied us in our prime.' Thus the seer, trembling; to whom the messenger added such words:

'If any mortal had promised you offspring, perhaps a hesitation of mind, clinging to slow words, ought rightly to have persisted in despair. But now I, whom the Lord of heaven and Maker of earth willed to stand before His own face as His minister, received by the ungrateful ears and sight of a man, have carried out the commands of the most high God, which you scorn. Wherefore the gift remains irrevocable through these promises; but the voice that carries the swift message of your mind shall be shut up for you, until all the gifts of God be made sure to you.' This he said, and mingled himself with the soft breezes. Meanwhile the people kept up a long marvelling — why the priest should so long delay in the temple. Coming forth, he made known in his fear, by gestures, that he had seen the supernal Power, and the loss of his wretched voice.

Then the seer returns home, his service completed in due order, and the promises ease his lost speech; nor were the gifts of offspring long delayed. But the anxious wife concealed the joys of her womb, until five moons should fill the hollow orb. Then thereafter the same minister brought down greater commands, sent to the ears of the Virgin Mary. She, betrothed at the appointed time to her kinsman, growing chastely to womanhood, hidden in maidenly chambers, was permitted to keep the day according to her parents' bidding. To her the messenger begins his tranquil discourse: 'Hail, you who shall help the lands with a saving offspring; cease to trouble your mind with awe at the sight. For your womb shall conceive, by heavenly command, a Son whom God both rejoices and commands to reign through all the ages and to be believed His own offspring.

When you have brought Him forth into the light, let His name be Jesus.' To whom then the virgin thus begins with fearful lips: 'They say no conceptions come to pass without a husband; whence then shall I hope offspring to come to me?' The messenger speaks these words in reply with swift speech: 'The lofty power of God shall fly about you, overshadowing, and the pure Spirit shall come, most chosen virgin — and shall soon command for you, by chaste utterance, that a magnificent boy be born for the peoples, whom it is necessary to believe holy and to call the Son of the most high God. Thus your kinswoman, believed barren by all, the wife of Zacharias, by mortal seed has lately drawn forth a marvel with limbs worn out by age. The sixth month is at hand: thus all things obey the commands.' The virgin thereupon:

'Behold now the handmaid of the Lord who commands; as your words sound, you see me ready to serve.' The messenger, departing, hid himself in the empty breezes. She thereafter with swift steps enters the city of Judaea and the house of Zacharias, and greets Elizabeth heavy with her hidden offspring, when at once the anxious limbs of the enclosed child leap up in the lap of the womb with a greater motion. And at the same time the mother, shaken, sprang up with trembling, was filled with the holy breath of the divine voice, and crying out loudly: 'O happy woman, hail, bearing a happy offspring in the curve of your womb. Whence has the just God willed to honour my house with so great a dignity, that the mother of the high Godhead should visit it? Behold, in my womb the offspring, rejoicing, leaps for joy, when it perceived the first greeting of Mary.

Happy is she who believes that the end shall soon come to the words which God, deigning to honour, speaks to His servants greatly!' She, drawing forth her spirit through joys mingled with modesty, turns over the trembling words of her suppressed voice: 'My spirit renders magnificent praises and thanks to the Lord of the boundless world. Scarcely can that spirit contain such joys, because, deeming me worthy, He raises me on high from lowliness, lofty and blessed, and the just God has willed me to be held so by all nations and ages. Behold, He has cast down the throne from the savage and broken the proud, He has enriched the lowly poor with overflowing riches.' Then she remained there three months in due course, and now retraces her way to her own house, sure of what is to come. And now the time was at hand when the rolling day should compel Elizabeth, into the shores of light, to pour forth the bidden birth.

At the report of the birth a crowd of kinsfolk gathered and came running; then in great numbers they celebrate the wondrous joys and bid the child bear the name of its father. The mother refused this, but repeats again that he should be called John. It then pleased them to consult the commands of the mute parent, and by writing they ask him to declare the name. But — O wondrous faith! — when he tries to write on the tablets, by sounding words he loosens his entangled tongue. Soon too the inspiration penetrates his accustomed mind, and, filled, he sings words foreknowing the future: 'Let all together celebrate praises and frequent their thanks to the Parent of the stars and the earth, of the sea and of men, because He has willed to visit and to redeem His own people. Lo, He blesses the ancient nation, and, the horn of salvation being raised, He grants a light from the line of David.

This is what the ancient seers sang in due course, this is that salvation by which He snatches us from our black enemies, that we may serve the Just One justly. But you, little boy, holy and worthy prophet, shall be called, and soon you shall go before the Lord in the way, and shall lead His people through the open light: through you all who follow your precepts shall spurn error and break asunder the shadows of death.' Thence in secret valleys the boy's life was ever hidden, until, as the years demanded, he should grow to maturity in full age for the office of a seer. Meanwhile the marvels trouble the mind of Mary's betrothed, because he saw the plain weight of the womb, and he turned over within himself by what means he might conceal the oppressed disgrace of his near one and refuse the marriage-bed.

As he turned over such thoughts, his limbs grew numb with sleep, and amid awful dreams he heard the voice of God above: 'Receive in marriage one bound by no fault, the betrothed whose inward parts the Holy Spirit has filled with holy offspring. This is the one whom the seer sang would come, and the offspring from a virgin, whose name is GOD WITH US.' Forthwith he, following these precepts, keeps the marriage-covenant. But then by chance a counting of heads by a new census of Caesar Augustus, by his commands, was being recorded throughout many lands; Quirinus then ruled Syria by lawful right, to whom throughout all the towns the peoples set forth their own bounds, their strength and name and lineage. There is a city of Judaea, Bethlehem, which gave birth to David the tuneful, which by right sought the census of its kindred.

Here Joseph presented Mary, of David's line, betrothed to himself, registering her and declaring her with child. For the lodging of them both, under the walls of the city of Bethlehem, there were tiny dwellings of a poor field. There the virgin, her womb fulfilled in the new time, is delivered, and they wrap the boy in old swaddling-cloth, and a hard manger is given for his cradle. Round about, the watching over the flocks in the anxious night held shepherds wakeful through the glad pastures. Lo, at God's bidding a messenger was seen to descend from heaven, but a sudden terror laid low the shepherds' bodies, trembling with fear, upon the green earth. And to the astonished men such a voice sent from heaven ran abroad: 'Put away the terror of your mind, take up my words, shepherds, for whom I bear these mighty joys.

For a boy has been born of the bright line of David, who shall soon spread light and gladness to the peoples. This sign I will tell: that you may even now behold the boy filling the manger with his slender voice.' As he speaks such things, thousands of the heavenly host are joined to him, and all praise and beseech God, and the voice of the united company fills the air: 'Due glory attends the most high Father; on the earth fitting peace shall follow righteous men.' And with these words at once they revisit heaven's secret places. The shepherds come in haste and behold the boy lying in the lap of the manger; thence afterward, thronging, they scatter far and wide the wandering seeds of swift report. Marvelling they praise, rejoicing they stood amazed, that all things turned out true according to the nightly admonitions.

The boy had seen the eighth light; lo, it is needful to return to the custom of the law and to fit a name to him. And there was imposed on him, what the voice of Mary sent to God had once commanded by heavenly admonitions, the name Jesus. Moses had written the rules of the ancient law, among which he gave command to observe, of the firstborn from the old blood of the seers, to offer the offspring to be hallowed, and likewise to bring unfledged doves to the shrines.

When these things were borne to the temple, kept by Mary, lo, an aged man, Simeon, worthy to comprehend in his understanding the heavenly voices, to whom the foreknowing Power had once revealed that, the prison of his sick body being laid aside, he should see death free, and rest, when first he should have beheld borne to the temple the solemn doves — the praise of heaven and the salvation of earth, whom all the oracles of the seers pledge to be the Christ. And he, weary, with body bent, now more burdened, enters the temple, as the author Spirit had admonished; lo, at the same time he perceived that little Jesus had come to the temple in the lap of His mother; with trembling arms he received the boy and, glad, utters these words: 'Now, now the Lord frees me His servant from the black bonds of the body, and deigns to set an end to my words with peace for His own.

Behold, your splendid Light surrounds our eyes and shines with rays, which, all the nations of men being illumined, the heaped-up glory of the people of Israel adds.' Why were the breasts of Mary the mother so amazed? 'This boy is given for the fall of the people; this one shall grant peoples to be born again; a sign foretold shall come for contrary things; passing through deserved by death, it shall pierce the soul of the mother also with a flashing sword of iron, that the dark scrolls of the hidden heart may lie open.' These things God speaks in Simeon; soon, lo, He fills with holy breath the womanly mind of a prophetess. Anna there was, weighty in age, whom in the flower of her youth the untimely death of her husband left a widow. But chaste in the temple ever, instead of a husband, her life and the worship of God ran their course;

and she, commanded by the divine power, knew Christ, and spoke with like words. Thence, when the mother had fulfilled the solemn law for the boy's name, and Joseph wondering at all things, they joyfully return to their homeland and carry the boy back. There is a nation, further toward the rising sun, skilled to mark the risings and settings of the stars; the chief men of this nation held the name of Magi. Then thence, chosen, they come through long ways to Jerusalem, and approach the king and pray to be taught in what region the land of Judaea held the boy born to dominion: that they had been admonished by the rising of a shining star to come on their way, by which they might adore with suppliant right hand the venerable Godhead risen upon the earth.

Herod, terrified, commands to be summoned by his authority the chief seers of Jerusalem and those who recite the predictions of the ancient prophets, and to search out all things of the law: where it may be plain what are the birth-walls for Christ, whom all the oracles of the seers pledge shall come. Then it is made manifest that it remains for Him to be brought forth within the walls of Bethlehem, for whom it is necessary, by holy power, to lead the sacred people of Israel. Hence Herod bids the Persians press on their step, and to point out to him the boy, found, to be worshipped. Lo, in the midst of their journey they behold a star running before them, furrowing the breezes with flames, which stood still at the highest peak and pointed out the dwelling of the boy when it was searched out.

Great joys the Magi rejoice and hail the star, and after they had seen the boy at his mother's breast, casting themselves down they strewed the earth with prone body, and bowing down they at once made supplication; then they offered threefold gifts — frankincense, gold, myrrh — gifts to the King and the Man and the God. Soon dread dreams trouble the whole night through and bid them avoid the savage tyrant. Then by the diverse byways of Herod's court the Magi flee apart and returned to their homeland secretly. The boy Himself too Joseph, driven by heavenly admonitions, carries off into Egypt together with His mother. But fierce Herod believes that He whom the careful zeal of the Magi, skilled in the stars, had sought, would succeed to himself. Troubled by their forewarned departure, he ordered a horrible slaughter through the crossroads of Bethlehem.

He tears away with the sword all the infants and the tender little ones at the breast, under no charge of guilt. This slaughter too had once remained foretold, which good Jeremiah, commanded by the divine power, bewails: that mothers, over the wretched funeral of their offspring, should beat heaven heavily with horrendous laments. But when the frenzy was lulled and the savage cruelty of the tyrant was sated with the horrible blood of the infants, he thinks he has destroyed all whom one year and another had crushed, wretched ones of death-bringing age. Bound again in his limbs by a wondrous sleep, Joseph is urged by admonitions to carry Mary and the boy back from Egypt to the homeland, where happy Nazareth once gave to be added the foretold name to the boy. And the voice, once the forerunner-prophecy of another seer, inspired by God, had said:

'There shall come, there shall come my offspring from lofty Egypt — to the lands a light and a salvation.' The infant grew with the swift steps of the years, running ahead of his age; wisdom forestalled his time, and venerable grace shone in his face and words. And now he had reached twelve years of age, when, keeping the rite of the Passover according to custom, his parents were wont, at every yearly return, by custom to lead the boy to the temple amid joyful festivals. So they were present at the Passover; and when all the days of the festivals were fulfilled and they were preparing to return to their homeland, the boy among the people deserted the footsteps of his attendant mother and gladly sought the secret places of the temple. Through the streets of the city and through hidden dwellings, and through the paved roads of the journey, among acquaintances and among kinsfolk, the mother sought him;

but when the third light came, she hastens back to the temple and finds him inserted among the choirs of the seers, handling the obscure things of the laws in the company of the aged. Scarcely was admiration worthy enough at the words of the boy among the old men; but the pious mother: 'Son,' she said, 'with tears poured forth I have sought you, lost, anxious and groaning with your father. What cause divides you by your step from your parents and detains you in the seat of the temple?' But he: 'Why do you seek me so much, why?' he said. 'Do you not yet perceive, mother, that by right it is necessary for the Son to dwell in the seats and houses of His Father?' These things he said, and joins his step and revisits the homeland; nor did the mother fully grasp the weight of so great a word, yet in due order they keep all the secret things in her heart.

But the boy, with sweet obedience, ever binding both of them, drew them to his own love. Meanwhile, running through all the debts of the ancient writing, the series of the ages drew on the promises. The offspring of Zacharias was calling all, in the deserted valleys, with a cry to lay aside their stains, that they might receive the wondrous washings of the clear river, by which the virtue of the soul, cleansed of its filth, might shine; even as Isaiah the seer sang, commanded by the divine power: 'A voice resounds far and wide in the desert valleys; build broad roads, let every path of the ways be straight, which may worthily bear the footsteps of the Lord. The hills shall sink, every valley shall be filled;

the good line of the straight road shall correct the windings, and the Father and Lord of salvation grants to all to handle the serene light with bodily eyes.' So the peoples were present, and rushing from here and there on every side they filled the banks and eagerly sought the washings. His coverings had been woven of camels' bristles, and a belt of hide girded the prophet's middle, and woodland honey furnishes his slender sustenance. And when he beholds so many peoples, sprung from diverse seats, rushing to the river, he thus begins with his mouth: 'O offspring of the viperous race, who shows you how to escape the punishments due to you and the pressing wraths? But make, O wretched ones, fruit fitting for repentance, if you repent, nor let confidence in your race lift up your minds.

For easily, even from stones, a people shall succeed to your name, since your degenerate offspring goes astray. Already, already the axe, raised before the eyes of all, presses upon the nearest roots of the oaks. The barren forests shall be felled and shall feed the fire. Now I have set out to wash away past stains in the pure river; but there shall come another, mightier, the thongs of whose feet I am not worthy to touch. He shall wash the mind of man with holy breath, and with masses of flames shall purge guilty hearts. And in His hands is held the rural winnowing-fan, and His own threshing-floor of grain shall be cleansed, and the secret abundance of the hidden corn shall fill the barns, and the eternal fire shall lay waste the light chaff.' This he said, and with hurried steps through the wood he beholds Him seeking the venerable washings of Jordan itself.

But the seer, rebuking, forbids and speaks thus: 'Do you deign to be dipped in the waves by my hands, when Your washings could better cleanse me?' So said John, to whom Jesus gives such reply: 'Now permit it, for this is fitting; thus through all holy things the order of righteousness, to be pursued by us, shall be fulfilled.' Recording these words, He entered the glassy waves of the river. To Him as He rises the manifest presence of God shines clear. The golden-coloured upper air of the sevenfold heaven is cleft, and, bearing a bodily appearance, the Spirit descends from on high, fashioning from a cloud an aerial dove, and with holy breath He bathed the body of Jesus. Then a voice sent from God ran through the long void, and addresses Christ, washed in the waves and anointed with the breath:

'You, my Son, this day I testify, are begotten of me amid joys; this glory of My offspring pleases me.' Then He seeks the shadowy mountains and the lairs of wild beasts, and the attendant ministers of the Father strove eagerly to render obedience to Him; soon the envy of the demon snatches His mind into blackness with terror — nor was the cunning deceit of tempting Christ absent meanwhile from the sick one. Forty suns had passed in due order, in which no nourishments of food or drink were given, but the fasting, woven together with a firm heart, held the secret things of His mind unto the kingdom of the lands. Then at last the body warned Him to seek out a meal. Meanwhile, attempting the deceit of a dreadful crime:

'If God for certain begot You,' he said, 'You shall be able, by a strong word, to bid all these stones take on the use and form of wheaten bread.' To these things Christ replies: 'Such things now in no way terrify me; for I remember it is written that the easy substance of bread shall not alone hold the life of the believer, but that holy power fills pious breasts with the word of God.' Again the tempter, fitting deceits with cunning arts, hastens to weave them. For he perceived He would soon set foot within the walls of the city; the livid force made Christ stand upon the marble pinnacle of the temple. Then thus he approaches with the beguiling poison of his voice: 'If God truly is your Father, from the pinnacle of the temple you shall hurl your body through the empty air in a leap.

The scripture shall be a witness to you, which openly pledges such a command of the most high Father to His ministers, that they should be eager to defend your body from a fall by mischance; and with their attendant hands they shall run to lift your limbs, lest the striking of a stone hurt the soles of your feet.' To these sayings Christ rendered contrary words: 'It behoves me rather to remember the heavenly writing, lest a trusting audacity tempt the Lord's powers.' Again on the lofty ridges of a precipitous mountain the soon-furious deceit perceived Christ to stand, showing Him the gleaming kingdoms throughout the world: 'You behold,' he said, 'what is the glory of such great things? All these I can even now yield to your kingdom, if, worshipping me as I bestow such things, you adore.' Then Jesus thus repulsed him as he pressed with words:

'Flee, O mad fury of pestilent poison, that the unmovable command may ever cling to us: that the righteous, devoted, should adore the Lord of heaven and, serving the One, should venerate His name unto the age.' Shaken off by such words, the demon flees through trackless ways. He, when He learned that John was plunged into the shadows of prison, pressed down the grief in His sorrowful heart, and determined to set His abode in the borders of Zebulun, that the saying of Isaiah might concur in long order:

'The land of Zebulun and the name of the region Naphtali, and the way beyond the sea, far off, through the fields of Galilee, and beyond the Jordan — the nations and the peoples shut in darkness shall see a great and sudden light, and upon them, dwelling in the shadow of death, a kindly will of faith arises, shining again with light.' Therefore Christ announces, rebuking, that the gifts of God the reigning One press near, the generous heralds of salvation. And passing by, He sees along the shores of the sea brothers — most solid Simon, worthy of the surname Peter, and Andrew together — arranging the sinuous coils of their nets as snares for the fishes in the waves of the sea.

'Now,' He said, 'you catch fish in the deep tides of the sea; but if it please you to follow me, mighty gains of men shall come forth for you in a most beautiful catch.' They at once, with strengthened breast, sure, casting away their nets, alike follow His precepts. After these brothers, James and John, weaving snares for the marine flocks with their meshed fabric — when He saw them, and gave from the shore a like call — they leave their father Zebedee in the stern and forthwith follow the most beautiful commands of salvation. Thereafter through the land of Galilee Christ sowed holy things, instilling into the peoples the heralds of the kingdom, and granted swift healing to the weak and sick; and soon frequent fame held Syria far off, sounding with a thousand words the present gifts of Christ.

At length, vying with one another, they showed to Christ those eaten away by the wasting of disease and bound by diverse evils, those whose long wasting had with grief consumed the ravaged strength of their limbs; but by an easy gift He swiftly rendered all of them sound for wondrous joys. And now the diseases of the soul itself and savage furies, and the madness of mind that accompanied the course of the moon, departed, commanded by the heavy weight of His word. Mixed throngs follow Him as He works great miracles, thronging Him — the people of Jerusalem and of Syria, and Judaea crowded with peoples, and the Galilean folk, whom too the Jordan with its standing flood divides. Beholding these peoples, He sat down on a lofty crag, and thus, His disciples girding His bosom, He begins:

'Happy the humble, whom a poor spirit encompasses, for the lofty kingdom of heaven receives them; like to these are the meek, whom gentleness crowns, to whose right belongs the most beautiful earth. In this way great consolations shall follow those who mourn. Those who now seek the food and drink of righteousness — a full abundance of the table awaits them to be satisfied. Happy is he who has grieved in his heart over the lot of the wretched, for him the Lord's generous mercy shall await. Happy are those who behold heaven with a pure heart; to these the visible God shall lie open through all the ages. The peacemakers God adopts into the number of His offspring. Exceedingly happy are those whom gnashing persecution presses on for the sake of righteousness; to these soon the royal court of heaven shall be opened. Rejoice, you whom, holding the just things of your works, headlong injury shall urge on with savage goads;

for very great is the reward kept for you in heaven, for such was the persecution of the prophets. Learn that you are to be the savour of salt in this earth. If this savour, its virtue now lost, grows stale, what substance shall sharpen the spent tastes of the salt? Nor is there any use of vain salt remaining thereafter, save that, cast far off, all feet should trample it. You are the bright light of the world (do not hide it). For who could conceal a city set upon lofty crags? Thus let your light reach to all, and let the beauty of things be set forth under serene light. Let the glory of your Father be praised by all, whose royal court of high heaven is His throne. I have not now come to dissolve the ancient laws, nor to overturn the commands which the old prophets laid down;

For all things shall remain to be fulfilled for you through me. I speak the truth: until the destruction of heaven and earth and sea shall come, not even the smallest letter of the Law, nor the slender stroke of a tiny mark, shall be wanting, but rather all things shall come to pass in the appointed order of the age. For if anyone shall dare to loose the least part of the commandment, and by his daring shall likewise teach men to do so, he shall hold the name of the least in the heavenly seat. But whoever, keeping the governance of his own work, shall hand down inviolate the precepts of those before him, he shall be great, and shall bear a great name beyond the stars. You have heard the command under the governance of the ancient Law: if anyone shall stain his hands with human blood, that guilty one shall pay the penalty by the avenging sword.

But I shall enjoin this: let no one dare to rise up into wrath, nor be moved by the seething hatred of his brother. For this man too pays the penalty before a just judge. And no lesser flame shall pursue the revilings of those who provoke a brother under the name of 'fool' or 'wretch.' But if you wish to offer, while honouring the altars, your gift, and if then the inner sanctuary of your silent mind touches you, because a quarrel has been taken up with your brother at home, leave there all the gifts brought near the holy entrances, and hastening first to peace, run out to seek it. At last, now reconciled to brotherly love, offer your welcome gifts to God with a tranquil breast. Moreover, you have ever a virtue opposed to the body; let this be cured by the swift love of chastity, while the road of headlong life walks with you through the crossways.

For the practice of a defiled body will accuse you, and will set you bound before the lofty judge. The ministers will drag the condemned to cruel chains, nor shall you be loosed from the darkness of the black prison before the last farthing of the smallest coin is paid back. Not unknown to you, I think, stands the caution of the Law forbidding the body to adultery; but now my commands restrain the hidden strivings of the inner mind: no less must the penalty be paid for the wish than for the deed. If by chance the error of your right eye has ensnared you, hastening, tear out the author of that wretched fall and cast it far away. For it is better to lose a small member than to give the whole body to the flames and likewise to plunge the soul into perpetual punishments.

And if the right hand leads the mind through devious ways, it is better to cut off the cause of error with the blade than to give over the whole body to eternal flames. The ancients enjoin that if anyone breaks the bonds of marriage, he should write a bill of divorce, the fatal words of the law. Only an adulteress shall rightly depart from a husband's dwelling, but let the others remain; for the deserted woman, with her husband as the cause, will lose the rights of chaste modesty. The ancient laws forbid perjuries upon the tongue, but let the boldness of swearing yield to our commands. Nor is it right for a man to swear by lofty heaven, because it is the seat of the Lord, nor by the earth, which bears the footsteps of God, nor by the venerable name of the city of Jerusalem, which belongs to the great King — never shall it be sworn by.

Nor shall it be permitted for anyone to swear upon his own head, for you see that you have not the power over the least hair, nor to change its colour to white or black. Let 'It is, it is' suffice; what is not, say: 'It is not.' Whatever exceeds these things, the foul force of poison, creeping in, will suggest it all deceitfully to a sick mind. You hold the long-published precepts of the Law: let a like vengeance ever follow the one who wounds. But tranquil patience will better conquer evil; and if anyone strikes one side of your face with his palm, remember soon to offer the other side of your face. Or if anyone, pressing with the force of a judge, takes away your tunic, yield it willingly and let him likewise carry your cloak away with him.

If by chance someone bids you, having suffered it, to go a mile of road and to bear the toil of a heavy burden, soon you shall go and accompany him another double stretch of the journey. If a needy man asks, or if he feigns to be needy, give freely, pitying him from the heart; or if anyone begs for a loan, grant it, and do not withdraw a gentle countenance. Nor let it please you to succour only your friends, or to count your enemies worthy of blind hatreds. Rather I shall enjoin that you be always of soothing compliance toward all, and soften God with kindly prayers for the life of those very ones who rejoice to cut you off, and who, fierce in their adverse spirits, pursue you with hatreds.

For our Father gave the common light of the sun and the common rains to the just and to the wicked alike. But if we honour only joined friends, what place can there be here for a just reward? Even the race given over to gain serves friendship only. But you, be like the perfect Parent. Wherever a fair occasion of righteousness shall open, shun the eyes of men; for no reward will await a deed of such a kind done afterward. Only the barren praise of the crowd applauds. But what the right hand does, let it do so that it befits the left hand not to know; then He alone, the searcher of the hidden heart, will repay rewards worthy of just merits.

There are those whom the boasting of an over-swollen mind exalts, and who delight to have crowds standing by at their own prayers, and they tire out the day, drawing it out with many-streaming words; to these vows succeeds the empty fruit of show. But let the inner chambers of the house be closed for chaste prayers, and you shall worship God with few words. The Father Himself knows what is the trembling of your heart. We speak nothing while God is absent; no hidden recesses of the breast keep anything shut away; God, present, discerns all things. Therefore let it please you to conclude your vow with these words: 'Father, dwelling on the starry summit of heaven, we pray that the reverence of your name, O exalted Father, be sanctified in us; and let your kingdom come to the world, and may the kindly light unbar it.'

So in heaven as on earth let your bright will be done, and let the vital substance of holy bread come forth for us today; let your bounty soon dissolve, in indulgence, the countless debts of our wicked error; and let us grant our debtors no otherwise. Let the cruel temptation of the foul demon be far off, and let your right hand lift us out of evils into the light. For thus the Father will remit the sins of his peoples, if you in turn are willing to forgive one another's sins, and not to set a hard heart against their errors. Also pleasing to God are the people's fastings; but many labour to disfigure their own faces, so that their fastings may catch the empty fame of men.

But you, your hair made bright with welcome oil, wash your rejoicing face from pure springs, so that the Father alone, seeing the deep service of a devoted breast, may praise it and repay the merit. It is vain to keep watch over talents buried in the earth. There rust and devouring moths hold sway, and thieves plunder all that has been carried out from its hiding-places. Store up treasures for yourselves on the summit of heaven; no rust nor moths nor the dreadful faction of thieves shall plunder them. Where your wealth is stored, there too your hearts are held under a like dominion. The eye is the body's light, by which you perceive the common lights; but if the gaze shall shine pure and single in your eyes, the limbs of the whole body will gleam brightly. But if it be wicked and shall see meanly, dark shadows will press over all the members.

But if the light is turned into black shadows, how great will be the horror to those very shadows that have no light? No one can serve two masters equally; he will yield either to the hatred or to the love of the one, nor will a servant endure both masters alike. Never will anyone be able to serve riches and God together; but hold you these commands: let care for clothing not trouble you on account of your own body, nor seek out easy sustenance with anxious care. Do we not reckon the soul of more worth than the body's food? Or does anyone doubt to set the body before clothing? Let us behold the birds of the air: do they turn the back of the soil with pressed ploughshare, or cast the seeds of grain, or cut down the stalks of crops with curved sickle? Yet for these too shall come a fullness of drink and food.

Is not the care of men more in God's heart? Nor was it worthy to hang care for clothing in our breasts, not if men could place cubit-long increases upon their own limbs. Behold, how through the rich fields the lilies gleam! Yet no labours ever bowed over these, nor did such grace of clothing cover even that Solomon, when the hall of his wealthy realm overflowed. But if God himself clothes the green gladness of meadows and shrubs, things liable to our flames, why is your trust in the Father not greater? Therefore food, drink, clothing, and all empty things — leave that earthly care to the faithless nations. Rather seek you worthily the heavenly kingdoms and the righteousness of God — the rest will run to you of its own accord — and let not tomorrow's abundance of things be a care to you;

each day is enough for itself in the deceit of the day. Let cruel condemnation flee your judgment; for the Lord will follow the proofs of your own justice, which you shall establish on earth at the time you are taken: the measure which you set, you must yourself bear. You perceive the speck clinging in your brother's eye, yet you do not feel a beam fixed in your own, and you labour first to cleanse another's eye; but deceiver, pluck the log out of your own eye, then you shall take care to remove the smallest ear of grain from another's. Do not give what is holy to dogs, nor be willing basely to cast pearls before unclean swine. For those pearls will lie in the mire, trodden underfoot, and the turned swine will rend you with a vast wound.

To him who asks it shall be given, he who seeks shall hold what he finds, and to him who knocks the entrance shall be opened wide with unbarred doors. You men will surely not all give a stone to your sons asking for bread, nor a snake to those seeking a fish; you, I say, hard ones, in whose hearts a deep hardness is implanted, will yet always give good things to your sons. How much more does the indulgent Father of men rejoice to grant fitting and gentle good things to those who ask aright! Whatever benefits of men you desire to come to you, these same things bestow on all with your favour. This is the sum of the Law, this the prophets declared as right. Go, you just, through the narrow gate above the heavens. How broad and spacious is the way that, on the left-hand path, winds its steep course in the darkness of death, and countless throngs press through it down the slopes!

The path of life is hemmed in by vast rocks, and lofty virtue scarcely leads a few through the rugged places. But if the all-too-deceptive and alluring level of evils, slippery, has persuaded any with its deforming slide, it snatches them and drags them headlong, as the rush of a river, or as a brisk-footed steed unbridled with reins broken, or as a wind-tossed ship lacking a helmsman over the seas. Watch out for those who, under a false name, lay snares for you and are called prophets. The look of sheep clothes these, but they hide the cruel breasts of wolves with treachery, and rending they drag off the unwary ranks of those who yield, whom a savage error deceives. Such monsters are known by their own fruits; one must see to what end a deceitful teaching tends.

For you have never noted that figs have come forth from thorns, nor grapes from briars over the ridges of the field. And as a tree is clothed with the proper bud of its fruit, so the deceit of those men is laid bare when its fruit reveals it. I shall not be moved by the words of flatterers and by honour, nor, because over-fawning adulation calls me Lord, shall they receive the spontaneous rewards of the heavenly seat. But those shall rejoice deservedly in the gift of the kingdom who willingly do the commands of our Father. Soon the supreme day will come, which by severe justice will grant the rewards of righteousness and to wickedness Gehenna. Then the weeping of many shall cry to me such things: 'Did not mighty powers once, under your name, subdue all things for us by holy commands?'

Often too our voice has been counted among the prophets, and the demon has served us under your name. Then I shall swear to them that such a life of men, sordid with wicked deeds, was never known to me. Whoever shall consecrate his ears and his deeds to my admonitions, him I shall liken to a man placing the foundations on solid rocks, over which level-balanced walls shall rise. That house shall remain unharmed by rains and winds, and shall conquer the threats of torrents with strengthened firmness, since the foundations cling immovable to the rock. But whoever shall hold my commands by hearing only, and shall go far off through slippery ways with deeds of a different sort, him I shall make like one who props the foundations of his house on shifting sand; for him, at the first blast of the winds —

and when the rain began to press in with poured-out streams, the whole mass, its weight overturned, falls down, and ruin follows with the heavy collapse of the roofs.' As he was saying such things, a fixed astonishment of the people was immeasurably amazed, since the power granted to Christ had far transcended the teaching of the ancients. At last, as he was leaving the heights of the lofty mountain, a rejoicing crowd of following peoples thronged him. But behold, a young man, pierced in his entrails with dreadful corruption, whom leprosy had defiled, his whole body beset, fell down worshipping and beseeches Christ: 'That I may at last be free from the weight of so great a sickness, your willing it will suffice.' Then the right hand of Christ, by its touch alone, cleansed the foul limbs. And to him, now made whole, he commanded: 'Conceal your joys, and, obedient to the Law, offer your gifts to the temple.'

Then, as he withdrew, a centurion at once offers himself as a suppliant, and, cast down, prays with such pleas: 'The ailing spirit of a youthful boy is tormented, whose every function of the limbs a sudden languor dissolves, and a surviving torment now holds his life. But have mercy, I pray, at your command, for our sins forbid that the Parent of life and light should enter our roof. Now it is enough that by a word you bid health return. Often our authority has thus compelled men subject to us to obey duties commanded by a word.' He had spoken. And Christ, moved by the man's prayers and faith, turning, gives such words to the following people: 'Never do I remember to have found such faith of my ancestral nation;

but learn from true words that the lofty kingdom of heaven will call many men, born in diverse parts of the world, to recline at the table of life with our fathers — while the offspring of those fathers, plunged into blind darkness, dreadfully gnashing with their teeth and frequenting weeping, driven on, shall undergo perpetual torments of punishment. But to you now, young man, faithful in the virtue of your mind, as you believe, there shall come the fruit together with the light of salvation.' He had spoken, and swifter than the word, with the voice of him speaking, the gifts of the swift word run across to the boy; and the soldier, entering his house with hastening return, rejoices that he has anticipated the gifts of the healing God. Thence holy Jesus was entering the dwelling of Peter, whose mother-in-law lay panting with heat and fever.

And as the Saviour Jesus touched her right hand, the woman, made well, was furnishing service at the table. And now the day, departing with sloping light, had sunk into the sea, and the dark-blue night was drawing across the void its dusky cloak painted with starry flames: when the peoples, in the now blind night, were bringing many men collapsing with sickness of mind and bound in soul by the raging art of the demon, striving against it. But the word of Christ, removing so great a sickness, bestowed on all the gifts of the Father, granting them. But behold, a greater tumult arose with the increased light, of the grateful people with their throngs; anxious, he commanded the disciples to bring the lofty vessel down into the sail-winged sea. Then a scribe, with prayers poured out, sought to depart together in the Holy One's ship. To him Christ says: 'Where do you, scribe, follow me?

To the foxes the rock hewn out in the glade offers hiding-places, and the wood gives rest to the birds of the air; but to the Son of Man it is permitted to enter under no roof: such are the strivings of your race.' Then one of the disciples thus asked with his lips: 'The last offices are owed to a deceased father, but let your will, Holy One, grant us the interval, that it may be permitted to bury the body of my wretched father.' Christ to this: 'You shall better accompany our journey, and let the dead bury their dead in the earth.' They mount the ship, and the sails swell, puffed up with their wind, and the keel flies with the hissing of the wave. After the vessel held the deep, the sea begins to rise into wrath and, with winds let loose from this side and that, to swell, and to raise raging mountains to the sky;

and now with its mass it strikes the stern, now with its whirling the prow, and the planking of the sides catches the waves dashed over it, and the earth is laid open as the deep is scattered apart. Meanwhile Jesus was taking sleep in the stern. The disciples and sailors alike, in fear, beg him to awaken and show him the perils of the sea. He then: 'How no trust is in you! Fear rushes upon your faithless souls!' Then he commands the storms, and spreads a calm peace over the waters. They mingle among themselves the marvels with timid conversations — what so great a power has even been permitted to him, or what is the command at which the seas, stirred up by the winds, and the storms, raised by their threats, thus submit their necks. Now the ship had stood beneath the shore of the Gerasenes;

but behold, as he disembarked, a young man — marvellous to tell — runs to meet him, whose wretched mind a black spirit was filling, rending it with the unclean force of madness. To him a welcome home was to dwell in foul sepulchres; nor could anyone restrain his swift fury, for he even broke strong bonds of iron and tore heavy chains like threads of wool. And now it was sport to him, light, to leap up with shackles loosed, and to gash his savage breast on the rocks. And when he saw Christ passing along the shores, he rushed with a cry and ran up from afar, adoring: 'Most certain Offspring of the ever-reigning Lord, we pray, do not cast us far from the shores of our accustomed region, tormented with torments. For our name is Legion, and the single force of harming associates many breaths under one name.'

'You see how the unclean swine work over these pastures? Let it at least be permitted to these to satisfy our repelled madness; we ask it by the lofty name of the Father enthroned on high.' Christ commands them to release the man's mind, and allows them to end their furies in the herds of swine. And now the man's stunned breast, the demon shaken off, venerates the unhoped-for gifts of his salvation. And now the swine, headlong over the edge of the cliffs, cast into the sea, hasten to destroy their lives. But indeed the swineherds, dreading from their lookout marvels so great, flee away and rush to the dwellings of the city, and kindle the rumour and drive the peoples to the shores. But after the crowd of beholding peoples was compelled to believe that the mad youth had come to his senses, they were begging, terrified, that he would leave that region.

Thence Jesus, the light of the lands, returns home. Behold, as he was returning, the numb limbs of a young man, whose function a grievous disease had dissolved, men placed before the feet of Christ as he lay on a bed. Pitying him in his soul, Jesus addresses him with words: 'Let firm constancy attend your mind, young man, for the error of your past life shall be forgiven you.' The scribes were carping at this saying through the hidden recesses of a malignant mind, because he had uttered words to be borne by the power of God. But Christ, discerning such breasts, said: 'This word the scribes' sayings censure. How much lighter it would have been to have spoken, by the power equally of word and of deed, they shall prove from what follows, and they shall perceive that to me it has been granted to forgive sins.'

'Wherefore, young man, your bodily use being strengthened, rise vigorous and carry your bed back under your roof.' He rose and now fits the bed to his strong shoulders, and, vigorous, went off through the midst of the marvelling people. Then fear and praises of the Lord throughout the breasts of the people frequent together the joyful marvels, celebrated as one. Then, advancing thence to the tax-office, he saw Matthew in the midst of the company; therefore at once he bids him cling to his disciples. He, refusing nothing, obeys the command of Christ and rejoices, having followed. Thence, setting out on the journey, with like discourse he urges Philip on and admitted him as companion to his friends.

When he had come to know the powers and the way of Christ, as soon as he met the just Nathanael, he said: 'Lo, it has been granted that there rise in our ages the one whom the voices of the ancients and the holy prophets foretold. Joseph, coming of David's origin, begot him, whose blessed homeland is Nazareth and whose name is Jesus.' He replies: 'I marvel if Nazareth has begotten anything that could ever be worthy of such great virtues.' Then Philip says: 'You shall see; cease to doubt.' When Jesus looked upon him approaching from afar: 'A man comes here,' he said, 'whose breast, ignorant of falsehood, keeps a pure virtue without malignant deceit.' He thereupon: 'Where, or at what time, have you known me?' To him the Lord brings forth these words from his divine breast:

'When the shade of the spreading fig-tree covered you, even before the words of Philip called you, the Spirit, the Author, saw and chose you as companion.' Astonished at such words, the voice of Nathanael follows: 'Venerable Offspring of God, glorious King of the nation, you are the manifest salvation to the peoples and the Master of life.' Christ to this: 'An easy proof persuaded you to believe, that I saw you reclining under the tree's shade; but greater marvels of things remain hereafter. You shall alike behold the whole heaven split open and the swift ministers of God penetrate the upper air, and thence bear a bright crown to the Son of Man.' Meanwhile in the bridal chambers they were preparing festive nuptials in the region of Cana, where the mother of glorious Jesus, together with her Son, was celebrating the banquet.

But meanwhile wine was failing the guests. Then the mother beseeches Christ with such words: 'You see that the liquor of gladness has now failed? Let there be present, Son, the gifts given from you to the good tables.' To her replied Christ, the glory of the lands: 'You make haste, mother; the time does not yet compel me to grant such gifts for the sustenance of men.' Then, gladdened, the mother thence calls the ministers of the tables and bade them obey the commands of her Son. Six fair vessels were there, hollowed from stones, which would open their flanks for three measures each. These she bids the ministers fill from the bosom of the spring. The young men obey the commands and crown the waves, the lips of the stones being filled; then foam over the brims, with airs mingled with the waters, rolls to the top. Hence he bids that they hand a draught to be tasted by the chief minister.

When he perceived the gifts of the venerable savour, not knowing that the waters lately drawn from pure springs in poverty had passed into the pleasing liquor of wine, he rebukes the unwitting bridegroom, that, reserving the fairer wines, he had first given the poorer at the tables. By these signs he worthily strengthened with stable firmness the perpetual mind of the believing disciples. Thence, when the solemnities of Passover were at hand for the Jews, he directed his journey to Jerusalem and was entering the temple. Here he found a people setting up many wares for sale: part sold sheep, part the great bodies of bullocks, part, gaping for coins, busied themselves counting at their craft. Here Christ binds together the lashes of a scourge with cords, and drives such peoples from the holy shrine, and, overturning the tables, pours out heaps of bronze, and rebuking over them:

'Take these things far away, you profane ones, so that this house of my Father may be cultivated, not sordid gains.' Then the Jewish people, demanding a sign, were murmuring, by which, trusting, they might raise their spirits to such deeds. Then Christ mingles such things to come in obscure words: 'Destroy with your polluted hands this venerable temple, and I shall restore it when the third lights of the sun begin to pour the ruddy light upon the lands.' They, debating among themselves with blind murmur: 'This temple,' they say, 'scarcely built through six and forty years with the labour of the ancient realm, can you renew in the space of three days?' This word, after the due times, worthy men once came to know: that Christ had called the shrine of God his own body. But seeing the signs, then many took faith and followed the Holy One.

In the dark night, one of the chief nobles of the Jewish name, raised to lofty honour, came, and to Christ with subdued voice speaks: 'There is no doubt that the abundant will of God, Holy One, has granted light to rise upon human affairs through you; nor will anyone perform marvels with such signs, unless the power of God, accompanying, bids it shine forth.' Christ to this: 'If you seek the summits of the just journey, no one will be able to climb to the lofty kingdom unless, born again, he penetrates the beginnings of birth restored, and receives a new life by divine gift.' But he, stupefied in heart at such great speeches: 'This,' he said, 'is not for our mind to comprehend. Who will be able to call back the beginnings of a life already begun?

Or shall an old man again be received into his mother's womb, that he may come anew into the light and unroll his life again?' He thereupon: 'If anyone, reborn from the liquid spring and by the holy breath, shall begin to stand firm with raw, new members, he, free, shall climb into the heavenly hall. An earthly body is born from an earthly body; not otherwise does the Spirit generate a breath like itself. This Spirit is God, whom all things of the world obey. He, where he wills, flies wherever he wills and casts his voice through the airs, but you know not what are the beginnings of the voice, and toward what part its running breaths make their way. Whoever therefore seeks again the first beginnings of a just life, it is certain that he flourishes anew, like to the holy breath.' And the Jew to this: 'I can perceive none of these things.' Then Christ such things:

'Great master of Jerusalem, do you then, O pitiable one, plunge headlong into dusky shadows the mind that has been snatched from the light of life, and cannot you comprehend such things with your blunted sense? Behold, there is no faith; I have spoken only of earthly things! What, if my speech should begin to climb to heavenly powers and to comprehend the higher forms of things? Who of you will be able to open his hard mind to me? Receive therefore what is the judgment concerning new things. No one will be able to climb to the starry heaven, except he alone who, sent, came from the hall of heaven, the same Son of Man, who abides in the seat of heaven.

As the serpent of old, in desert regions, was lifted up to highest honour by the hands of Moses, so must the Son of Man be lifted on high, so that whoever has set faith, in the deep recesses of his mind, upon his name, may, beneath the whirlwind of the age, trample death underfoot, and, rising beyond the stars, sublime, receive the inviolable gift of life. For God so loved the world that his only Offspring descended into the lands, joining believers to the Lord in eternal life. Nor did God send this Son to examine the lands with severe justice, or to weigh them out with grim judgment, but that gentle gifts of life might come to the peoples. For where sure faith has embraced salvation, there will be no doubtful agitation of judgment.

But where the gifts of healing have been shut out afar, now their own condemnation racks their mind; for to these the only Offspring of the Lord was unknown. The wretched proud fled the coming of the light and rather, embracing them, held the blind shadows. So whoever shall stain his mind with evil deeds, fearful, takes refuge in the shadows, lest in the clear light the sordid contagions of a polluted mind lie open. But whoever has held the footsteps of a holy life hastens to the midst and rejoices to shine in the light, so that the glory of virtue may shine forth in bright deeds.' Thence the Saviour Jesus seeks Galilee again. But passing through, by chance he came to Samaritan Sychar. There was an estate, mighty by the name of Jacob, and a well sunk into hidden depths with a cold spring.

Here the Saviour, panting in the swift heat, had sat down, and the disciples, buying food, dispersed here and there in the walls of the city, left the Master alone. Going out from the walls, a Samaritan woman came to draw waters from the hollow recesses of the well. To her Christ says: 'Give me a drink of the liquid, woman.' Answering, the woman said: 'A strange thing you bid me, that I, a Samaritan woman, should furnish drink to you, a Jew, despising the commands of the ancient Samaritans.' Then the Saviour says: 'If you knew the gifts of the Lord, and who it is that, thirsting, asks of you well-draughts, you would rather ask, and he would hand you living water.' She thereupon: 'The well curves into a deep bosom; there is no urn, nor have you cords of rope; whence then will you be able to hand me living water?

Are you greater in power than our father? For Jacob with his offspring drank from this well, and often led his own flocks here to the watering-places.' To her replied Jesus, the ruler of the world: 'No one shall be fully satisfied from that water, for he will thirst again; but the gifts of our liquor will shut out the burning of drinking into eternal ages. To whomever the sweet draughts of our spring shall come forth, thence shall flow more bountifully the vital grace of the wave. But if desire for our water seizes you, let your husband, summoned, come soon with you from the city.' The woman denies that she is bound by wedlock. Then thus continues Jesus, the perceiver of the mind: 'Woman, you speak truthful words about a husband.

For you are now bound by the wedlock of five men, and now you take up the bonds of another's marriage-chamber.' Then the woman: 'It is certain that you are a holy prophet. But our parents once left us a precept to worship on the height of this venerable mountain, while you say it must be prayed in the regions of Jerusalem.' To her speaking such things, Jesus soon returns such things: 'Behold, the time will be at hand when, with the summit of your mountain and with all Jerusalem, reverence shall be far removed. But now sure salvation will rise from the regions of the Jews, and now the course of the urgent time already presses on, when worshippers of the true and holy Father, error removed, armed with just laws, shall pray to him. Spirit shall be in these, and full faith, and the lofty Father seeks out such breasts of worshippers in the lands.' She thereupon:

'We know that the Christ, the messenger to the world, will by his own coming unfold the ages of life.' And then Jesus, the bountiful pitier of the sinning woman, confessed that he, the light come to the earth, was the Christ. And now the returning disciples were astonished that their master should treat with a woman in secret words. But the woman, in her haste, left her urn at the spring and led the people out from the whole walled town. For she recounted in order everything she had herself done before, all that the prophet had spoken to her in his discourse. Then in haste the crowds streamed forth and sought the Christ. Meanwhile the disciples kept urging him to take food. He answered that he had enough fair nourishment in reserve. But then among the wondering disciples a whispering ran in hidden words, one to another:

'Perhaps someone here gave the master a meal before us, so that, deservedly filled, he now refuses our food.' But he, perceiving the workings of their inward mind: 'This is my food, and this breast shall be satisfied, if I accomplish throughout the world the commands of my great Father. You surely suppose that four months remain from now until the beginnings of the joyful harvest of the fruit-bearing summer. Lift up then your eyes; behold the whitening fields, and all the countryside already demanding its ripe harvest. Now whoever reaps shall rejoice in the reward of his fair labour, and shall thereafter abound, overflowing with the fruit of life; and the sower, glad, shall receive the joys of the reapers. I have now sent you to cut down the heavy harvest, which was not set in the furrows by your toil. Another's bounty of good grain shall enrich you.'

While with such words he was filling the hearts of his companions, behold, the people of the Samaritans came entreating him, and begged him to spend two suns there. And now deep faith had established many of the multitude; nor did they now entrust themselves only to a woman's words, but the manifest power, present before them, taught that Jesus the Saviour of the age had now come. And now he had returned into the region of Galilee, where once he had changed the waters of the spring into wine. Here a royal youth, whose son a fever was scorching with panting heat on the very borders of life, when he learned that the Christ had surely come back by his return, hastened to him, and pouring out prayers for the lot of his offspring, kept begging, demanding the gifts of swift healing, lest his son be dragged too soon to a bitter death. Christ said to this:

'Unless power persuades you of everything by signs, there will be no faith at all; but go, and with your son's life preserved, embrace your dear child in your house.' At these words, beautiful faith, soon to receive the fruit of healing, strengthened his soul within his rejoicing breast. And now, as he had set out upon the road, the announcing report came to meet the servants who hurried toward him, that to the boy a sudden recovery had returned at the very threshold of death, upon the shores of light. When he learned that the time fitly coincided with the words of the healing Christ, he gave himself and his household over, embracing the venerable gift of faith. It happened that a feast had united many at a single banquet—those who, having undertaken the public taxes for hired profit, seize plunder under another's name. These Jesus received together with his disciples.

Behold, the Pharisees, with hidden mockery, found fault that a teacher of the law should enter such banquets. But he, looking into what their closed hearts held within: 'There is no need,' he said, 'of physicians where strong limbs are quickened by unimpaired health, with the honour of vigour. But to the sick and wretched a remedy is rightly to be applied. Learn now at least what the words of the prophet command: I seek not sacrifices more than gentle hearts. For I have not come to direct the righteous who walk in straight ways, but to call back the wicked from the threshold of sinners.' But behold, one from the number who marvelled at Christ's gifts, a disciple of John, asked why they themselves kept the frequent fastings of the law, while no people under Christ bore any fasts. Christ in answer to this thus spoke with calm countenance:

'Those who accompany the bridegroom's vows with joyful dances do not, while he is present, bear sad fastings. But the day will come when the bridegroom shall be snatched from the midst of his companions by the storm of the age: then with sad tears and with horror of food they will pledge their souls in grief. How foolish it is to stitch old patches onto raw new garments, so that the ugly tear gapes the worse? Or to entrust hot new wine to worn-out skins, which, once they burst, lose the whole living draught? But it is right to store the foaming new wine in fresh skins:

thus do strong vessels preserve the living wine.' As he was discussing such things, behold, a chief of the priests, struck in heart with grief, fell down worshipping, and weeping implored him on behalf of his dead daughter—a pitiable funeral—and begged that sure healing might come, demanding the gifts of Christ even for the dead. Without delay, the Saviour Jesus rose and went on his way. As he advanced, a woman followed, keeping to his footsteps, whom for twice six gliding years a grievous weakness, a wasting flux of blood, had consumed without end, her strength spent and her whole body wearied. Trusting, she turned over in the silent depths of her breast a secret thought, and now with sure faith she held within herself that at once the wasting would flee from her wearied body, if she could touch the hem of Christ's garment.

When amid the crowd she touched with trembling hand the threads hanging from the top of his cloak, at once he, perceiving both the causes of her disease and her believing heart, granted swift healing with these words: 'Receive the gift which the constancy of your faith has merited.' And soon, the blood being checked, her veins grew strong. Afterward, when he had come to where the dead virgin lay, a huge uproar of the mourning people and the blaring of trumpets were celebrating the last offices of the final procession: 'Let these sad things,' he said, 'depart from your dwellings. For the girl lies sunk in peaceful slumber, whom the ignorant crowd of mourners reckons dead.' As he said such things, the crowd left him with mockery, because he said that the girl, snatched away by death, was sleeping.

But Christ, victor over death and discoverer of life, deigning to grasp with his right hand the cold right hand of the girl, soon bade her rise to the wondrous joys of her father. As he was returning thence, a cry at once met him likewise from two blind men whose steps were faltering. To them Christ said: 'What do your hearts believe? Will the light that has been taken from you be restored by my power?' They confessed that with steadfast heart they believed. Then Christ spoke: 'You who believe, behold the light, and tell my name to no one after this.' He said it; but quickly, amid such great joy of the seeing men, an unsated ardour spread his fame through all things. Thereafter a youth was brought to him, from whom the substance of his sounding voice had been carried off by the assault of a demon.