CHAPTER XVIII

CHRYSOSTOM’S IDEALS

The Example of St. Paul

Deac. You have eased my mind, honoured father, by your painstaking and complete explanation; your narrative is quite consistent with the rumours which had reached our ears, but gives them a new flavour of grace. Yet I must say, that the maintenance of the bishop would have been no burden to the Church, if the holy John had taken his share from the Church; as the writer says, “For the labourer is worthy of his food,” and again, “Who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? Who planteth a vineyard, and pártakes not of its fruit?” Do we not find these words, and many others to the same effect, in scripture?

Bish. Appropriately and intelligently spoken, Theodorus; but add to the texts you have quoted the words that follow. True, the sacred law gives to those employed upon sacred things the right to eat of the sacrifice, but note what Paul, ever covetous of the good, adds: “I did not use the power” in things of the body, “that I may be a partaker of the gospel” in things of the spirit. He would not be “a stumbling-block to the weak”; as he says, “If any one see thee, who hast knowledge, sitting at meat” in weakness, “will not his conscience, as he is weak, be edified” into imitating thy weak doings? If the matter ended with us, and there were none coming after us to receive in their turn maintenance from the laity, it would be possible for an offender to say, Let us live as we will, and enjoy the good things of life. But as those who come after us treat us as teachers, and set our rule and our behaviour before their eyes, we are bound to live not only for ourselves, but for Him Who died and rose for us; to constrain the weakness of the laity, and to lead their ranks to a higher standard of temperance and simplicity, admonishing ourselves. As the writer says, “What man is he that feareth the Lord? He will lay down for him a law in the way that he hath chosen.”

The Sense of Responsibility

For the Master lays down the law for the self-willed and miserable people who sin in thoughtlessness, welcoming the spirit of bondage; as the psalmist David says, “The Lord shall lay down a law for sinners in the way,” but will punish transgressors. But the righteous man, breaking the bounds of the law of bondage, for his love of the Master, presses on to his rights of sonship by adoption, and becomes his own law-giver. Such was Job, both in deed and word—“I made a covenant with my eyes; I will not look upon a maid.” Now what was this covenant? That they who rebel against temperance should have their eyes cut out. In the same way David says, “I have sworn, and am steadfastly purposed, to keep thy righteous judgments;” where his will was hesitating and wavering, he bound it with an oath.

John followed the example of these fathers, as no bastard, but a true son, and in his longing to make the way easy for the common herd of men, enervated through divers lusts, to a sounder standard of life, he made himself his own law-giver; steeling himself by an unalterable decision, he withdrew himself from drinking parties and gatherings of triflers, jokers, and gossips, arming the eye of his soul with the panoply of the spirit, lest folly should find an entrance through revelry and improper talk, and make havoc of temperance. As the writer says, “Evil communications corrupt good manners.”

Chrysostom’s Action in Accordance with Scripture

This is why plots were laid against him; for even when his light shone brightly, he was offensive to them, as a lamp is offensive to watering eyes. Such was his fellow-sufferer, Jeremiah, who lamented with tears the faithlessness of the rulers and the priests, crying, “Who will give to my head water, and fountains of tears to my eyes? And I will weep for my people day and night;” and again, “Who will give me a lodging-place, the furthest in the desert? And I will leave my people, and go from them, for all commit adultery.” He calls the assembly of the false prophets and priests a gathering of them that disannul the law. So in another passage he appeals to God, not because God did not know, but because we have to follow his example: “Lord, if I have sat in the assembly of them that make merry; but I lived in godly fear away from thy face; I sat alone, because I was filled with bitterness.” Similarly David sings, “I have not sat with the assembly of vanity, and with the transgressors I will not enter;” and he adds, to make his meaning clear, “I have hated the congregation of the evil-doers, and with the ungodly I will not sit; I will wash my hands”—my active powers—“in innocency, and will go round thine altar, O Lord.”

But these men cared less than he for the altar, and turned their back upon it, not only in purpose, but in their manner of life; not content with defiling it with unwashed and blood-stained hands, with giving and accepting bribes, and making false statements in writing, they trampled upon it with muddy feet. It is of them that Ezekiel speaks in figure: “And he brought me to the door of the court, and I saw, and behold a hole in the wall. And he said unto me, Dig through, son of man. And I dug through, and behold, a door. And he said unto me, Go in, and see the wicked lawlessness, which they do here. And I went in, and behold, every likeness of creeping thing, and beast, and vain idols, abominations. And he said unto me, Thou hast seen, son of man, what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, in the chamber” (he means, in their minds). “For they said, The Lord seeth us not, the Lord hath forsaken the earth. And he said unto me, Thou shalt see yet greater lawlessness, which these do. And he brought me to another place, and showed me; and behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.” And again, “He brought me into the inner house of the Lord; and behold there, twenty and four men, and their faces turned away, and their backs to the altar. And he said unto me, Are these small things, that the house of Israel doeth?”

We could not help calling to mind the passage of the prophet, at the thought of these particularlv reckless people, who think that they are somewhat and deceive themselves; who disturb the peace of the Church, because they have given their backs to the Lord’s table, “Whose judgment ceaseth not, and their destruction slumbereth not;” “who mind earthly things.” Of them Judas the brother of James says, “These are they who are hidden rocks in your love feasts, feasting with you without fear, shepherds that feed themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds, wild waves of the sea foaming out their own shame, wandering stars, for whom the blackness of darkness hath been reserved for ever.” In calling them “clouds without water,” he suggested the evil hail with which they mar the vine; “wandering stars” more distantly suggests the plot against the ship. Both ship and vine are the Church. What consequences are bound to follow from such things? Hear again the same prophet Ezekiel, telling us: “And he showed me, and behold men came from the way of the upper gate, which looketh toward the north, every man with his slaughter weapon in his hand. And one man in the midst of them, clothed down to the feet, and a girdle of sapphire upon his loins. And they went in, and stood beside the brazen altar, and the glory of the God of Israel which was upon them went up from the cherubim to the threshold of the house. And he called the man who was clothed down to the feet, who had the girdle upon his loins. And the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, even Jerusalem, and set the sign upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the lawlessness that is done in the midst of them. And to them he said”—clearly, to the six who had the slaughter weapons—“in mine hearing, Go into the city after him”—clearly, after the man who put the signs upon their foreheads—“and smite; let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity; slay utterly the old man, the young man, and maiden, and little children and women. But come not near any man upon whom is the sign, and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the elders which were in the house of the Lord.”

A Piece of Exegesis

If any one should imagine that this prophecy is concerned only with occurrences in Judæa, I should consider him to be in ignorance of the fact of the Lord’s sojourn upon earth; for Ezekiel was not a priest prior to the Captivity. Under the dispensation of God, he was carried into captivity while quite a child, with the rest of the tribe of Levi, and only in his thirtieth year, while fulfilling his office as a priest among the exiles, was he found worthy of the vision of things to be; as he tells us himself, “And it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month; and I was in the midst of the captivity by the river Chebar.” And again, shortly afterwards: “The word of the Lord came to Ezekiel, the son of Buzi, the priest, in the land of the Chaldæans by the river Chebar.”

If our objector, finding himself in difficulties, should now say to us: It is the Saviour who went first and set the sign of the cross upon the foreheads of the men, and then, when they would not believe the Saviour, the Roman empire followed, in the days of Vespasian, who forty years later destroyed the synagogue which had worked iniquity; we accept [as a Christian] a man who holds these views, but we urge him, as a son of the New Covenant, to follow the guidance of Paul our instructor in these mysteries, who says of all the books of this kind, “These things happened to them in figure, and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.”

Now I do not say this because I make it my prayer that the sword may come upon the enemies of God. God forbid. The prophet does not indicate a sword of steel, but some other punitive force, of which the same Ezekiel says, “The land upon which I bring a sword” (“I bring” for “I will allow”), “and the people of the land take a man, and set him for their watchman, and the watchman seeth the sword coming, and bloweth with the trumpet, and warneth the people, and he that heareth hear, and keepeth not guard; and the sword come and take any one, his blood will I require of him, because he heard not the sound of of the trumpet.” And again: “But if the watchman seeth the sword coming, and blow not the trumpet, and give not warning to the people, and the sword come and take any one, his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand, because he saw the sword, yet did not blow.”

Now the blessed John slept not the sleep of unbelief nor was he heedless with the heedlessness of pleasure-seeking, but with this peril ever before his eyes, he cried more clearly than a trumpet; no uncertain sound he uttered, but gave men certain knowledge of the sword of the devil, and urged all men to flee from it. And all who had a clear conscience like a sign upon the forehead of their souls, by the grace of God were saved with you the faithful of Rome, while all whose conscience is defiled set people and priests on fire with quarrels among themselves, so as to hide their own in the general wickedness.

The Use of the Opportunity

Deac. Admirably said. But it is admitted that it is impossible for a man to be found blameless and perfect in this earthly life; for the Scripture says repeatedly, “Who shall boast that he hath his heart pure? Or who shall be confident that he is clean from sin?” Be that as may be, the blessed John at any rate did not know how to use the opportunity, for one ought not to interfere with those in power.

Bish. My good Theodorus, I believe you are a rascal. At first you showed us the sympathy that we expected of you, and a certain amount of compunction; but little by little you are proving to have a liking for scurrilities. Why, even his recognized enemies never found such severe fault with his behaviour.

Deac. Why are you angry, father, you who have the reputation for being a lover of truth, because I said that the blessed John did not grasp the opportunity? The scripture says, “Stand not in the place of rulers,” and again, “Buying up the opportunity.” A specially necessary rule in dealing with men who will not accept advice or improvement.

Bish. Blessed are ye, who so interpret the scriptures. The verse in Ecclesiastes, “Stand not in the place of rulers,” is addressed to those who are unworthy of, and unequal to, the priesthood, to prevent them from seizing upon it. By “rulers,” he means the teachers of righteousness; first the apostles, who were rulers, clothed with the spirit of power, and next, those who follow their example. And the phrase “to buy up the opportunity” is used, not to make us hypocrites, but to bid us, when the opportunity of sin arises, to buy the opportunity by means of virtue, and not to sell it to sin. He who little by little thus buys up the opportunity, finds that he has bought up his whole existence; he has passed by the pleasures of life, to find those that are above life. This is what the martyrs have done; they gave away their life in the flesh, and inherited immortality. So they bought up the opportunity in the true sense.

Scriptural Illustrations

If my view is unsound, it will appear that Moses, Elias, Michaiah, Daniel, John the Baptist, Esaias, Peter and Paul, not to mention others, were ignorant of their own opportunities. Moses, because he reproved a man, secured his safety by flight, and fed the flocks of a Gentile upon the mountains; Elias, overcome by drowsiness in his grief, fell asleep, but as he could find no shade of wall or rock, it was under a juniper bush, which gave him scanty shelter. Esaias was sawn asunder; Daniel for his piety was let down into a den of lions; Michaiah was kept a prisoner in gaol (by which we must understand some underground chamber), condemned to be fed with the bread of affliction and a bare allowance of water, that after prolonged languishing there his life might be cut short through his bad treatment; all because of his outspoken language to one of the kings. What will you say to me of John, unequalled among them that are born of women? Did he not know how to use the opportunity, because he had his head cut off for his undisguised reproof of the king’s adultery; he who showed the same care for Herod as a physician, when he cuts away, or cauterizes, the incurable ailment of a patient?

No Shrinking from Reproof

On the same principle, John reproved his patients, from pity or from affection. If the Baptist did not know the opportunity, how is it that he recognized the Artificer and Maker of the ages, when he said, “Behold the Lamb of God, who beareth the sin of the world”? And how is it that Paul and Peter did not know the opportunity; those pillars of the Church, who even after their deaths shut and open the opportunities of repentance to those who desire it, and knock at the door? I suppose they were specially ignorant, as one was crucified with feet in air, as a sign of his heavenward journey, the other beheaded, because of his bold speaking in Christ; that he might not fall away from the Head Who is Head indeed. Do not then listen to those who criticize and revile the bold speaking of the saints. This is the practice of the Gentiles, and of those who think themselves clever, to whom life, and scurrilous jests at the courage of the saints are dear.

Reproof must not be Personal

No, the sword must not be blunt, and the bold word must not be left unspoken. Kindness and bold speaking are as inseparable as scent and perfume. I will admit that if reproofs were offered personally, before a man’s own household, or friends, or relatives, in whose presence he would not like even to blush, the bold speaker would be open, possibly, to the charge of ignorance of the right opportunity or place; but if the Church is like a butcher’s shop, in which praise is given to those who do well, and blame to those who are careless, why should we be vexed at reproofs given without names being mentioned, and for our good? That means feeding our faults, instead of obeying him who said, “All that is sold in the shambles eat, asking no questions.” Otherwise, we shall again find the saints to have been the occasion of stumbling to some cities and countries through their reproofs, and to have ruined others by their praises.

The Universal in the Particular

Job is the first instance in point; he censures the land of Phœnicia, for inviting his enemy, Satan; as he says, “The peoples of the Phœnicians part him among themselves.” Next, Moses and the prophets censure Egypt, and call it an iron furnace, and darkness, while they praise Palestine, and call it a land of promise; yet Egypt proves to be a land of promise to the good, and Palestine, not only an iron furnace, but outer darkness, through unbelief, to the sluggard. It is not the places that are blamed or praised, but the practices of their inhabitants. However, I need not elaborate my argument at length; it will serve for a beginning, briefly to suggest instances. When Paul calls the Cretans liars, and the Galatians foolish, and the Corinthians puffed up, and so on, was he thinking only of the faults of these particular peoples, and reproving them alone, or of those of men in general? Or again, when he calls the Romans faithful, and the Ephesians, to whom he writes in a loftier strain, enlightened, and the Thessalonians, lovers of the brethren, was his commendation intended only for those peoples? Certainly not; guided by the Spirit, he bestowed praise and blame, that the man who is worthy of praise may know it, and be strengthened in his zeal, while he who is otherwise may be distressed as he reads, and purge himself from the cause of blame. So the Galatians are not the only foolish people, the Cretans the only liars, the Corinthians the only proud; for all these are universal failings, because the human nature which sins and works righteousness is one, and in one and the same matter tends to sinfulness or to righteousness, according to the man’s conscious choice.

This was the principle of John’s boldness of speech in the Church; it would be more true to say, that to the hungry he gave their portion of the meat of virtue, and banished sin with open reproofs, in obedience to him who said, “Him who sins, reprove before all, that the rest also may fear.” But if some people are so grievously afflicted with pride or folly, that they wish the pleasures in which they indulge to be commended, the servants of God have no such custom. You see, those who are indignant at reproof given to covetousness, and fornication, and other foul pleasures, virtually declare simply that these offences, however poisonous, ought to be accepted (as Christian).