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who also exorcises evil spirits through the Spirit in him. Do you wish to learn from me to whom you will flee, when you yourself do not know? Who is the one who strengthens the weakened hands, and encourages the paralyzed knees, and leads through fire, and saves through water? You have no need of battle array, he says, not of weapons, not of archers, not of horsemen, not of counselors, not of friends, not of help from outside. You have in yourself the alliance, which I also have and everyone who wishes. One must only be willing, only make a start. The comfort is near, in your mouth, and in your heart; I remembered God, he says, and I was gladdened. What is more ready than memory? You too remember, and be gladdened. O the readily available remedy! O the speed of the cure! O the greatness of the gift! God, when remembered, not only lulls faintheartedness and grief to sleep, but also produces gladness.

Γʹ. Do you wish to hear other words of loving-kindness? If, he says, you turn and groan to the Lord, then you shall be saved. Do you see salvation yoked to a groan? And while you are still speaking, He will say, 'Behold, I am here'; and He will utter to your soul, 'I am your salvation.' There is nothing between the asking and the receiving; not gold, not silver, not transparent and precious stones, not things by which people are bent toward gentleness. When Zephaniah says, speaking as from God who is angry and vexed: I will utterly desolate their ways, so that 35.969 none pass by. Their cities have vanished because they do not exist, nor are inhabited; when he threatens the most dreadful things, when he casts down with despondency, when he creates gloom through the threat, immediately he also brings on the light of a better hope, and recovers me with these words: Nevertheless I said: Fear me, and receive instruction, and you shall by no means be destroyed from her sight; and going on a little, with yet brighter and more loving words: In that day the Lord will say: Take courage, Sion, let not your hands be slack. The Lord your God is in you, mighty to save you; and he will bring joy upon you, and he will renew you in his love, and he will gather the brokenhearted, and will save the oppressed, and will receive the outcast. These things both the saints and my thoughts desire, and my discourse demands. But receive words of wisdom, as the divine Solomon says, that falling into a depth of evils you may not despise, nor be swallowed up more by your own ignorance than by the difficulty that possesses you.

∆ʹ. There is a certain cycle, brethren, of human affairs, and God instructs us through opposites; just as He wisely constituted and bound all things together, so He wisely conducts and governs the whole by His incomprehensible and unsearchable judgments, and among all things, our own affairs also. For, so to speak, the universe moves around the immovable, and is shaken, certainly not in its principle (for He Himself stands in all things and is immovable, though he elude our weakness), but by the things that meet and befall us each day. And this is a doctrine of God, both ancient and steadfast, that darkness is His hiding-place, poured out before our eyes; and that most of His administration is not seen, except as in dim riddles and phantoms; whether to check our pride, that we may know we are nothing compared to the true and first wisdom, but may turn to Him alone, and always seek to be illuminated by the rays from there; or whether through the inequality of things seen and changing, He leads us to things that are steadfast and abiding. Nevertheless nothing is immovable, as I said, nor uniform, nor self-sufficient, nor the same to the end, neither good cheer, nor despair, not wealth, not poverty, not power, 35.972 not weakness, not lowliness, not dominion, not the present, not the future, not our own, not another's, not small, not great, not whatever one might say. And this

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ὁ καὶ πνευμάτων πονηρῶν κατεπᾴδων διὰ τοῦ ἐν αὐτῷ Πνεύματος. Πρὸς τίνα καταφεύξῃ παρ' ἐμοῦ βούλει μαθεῖν, αὐτὸς δὲ οὐκ ἐπίστασαι; Τίς ὁ τὰς παρειμένας ἐνισχύων χεῖ ρας, καὶ γόνατα παραλελυμένα παρακαλῶν, καὶ διὰ πυρὸς ἄγων, καὶ σώζων δι' ὕδατος; Οὐδὲν δεῖ σοι παρατάξεως, φησὶν, οὐχ ὅπλων, οὐ τοξοτῶν, οὐχ ἱππέων, οὐ συμβούλων, οὐ φίλων, οὐκ ἐπικουρίας τῆς ἔξωθεν. Ἔχεις ἐν σεαυτῷ τὴν συμμαχίαν, ἣν κἀγὼ καὶ πᾶς ὁ βουλόμενος. Θελῆσαι δεῖ μόνον, ὁρμῆσαι μόνον. Ἐγγὺς ἡ παράκλησις, ἐν τῷ στόματί σου, καὶ ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ σου· Ἐμνήσθην τοῦ Θεοῦ, φησὶ, καὶ εὐφράνθην. Τί μνήμης ἑτοιμότερον; Μνήσθητι καὶ σὺ, καὶ εὐφράνθητι. Ὢ τοῦ εὐπορίστου τῆς ἰατρείας! ὢ τοῦ τάχους τῆς θεραπείας! ὢ τοῦ μεγέθους τῆς δωρεᾶς! Οὐ κοιμίζει μόνον ὀλιγοψυχίαν καὶ λύπην μνημονευθεὶς ὁ Θεὸς, ἀλλὰ καὶ εὐφροσύνην ἐρ γάζεται.

Γʹ. Βούλει καὶ ἄλλων ἀκοῦσαι φιλανθρωπίας ῥημά των; Ἐὰν ἐπιστραφεὶς, φησὶ, πρὸς Κύριον στενάξῃς, τότε σωθήσῃ. Ὁρᾶτε τῷ στεναγμῷ τὴν σωτηρίαν συνεζευγμένην; Καὶ ἔτι λαλοῦντός σου, ἐρεῖ· Ἰδοὺ πάρειμι· καὶ φθέγξεται τῇ ψυχῇ σου· Σωτηρία σου εἰμὶ ἐγώ. Οὐδὲν μέσον τῆς αἰτήσεως καὶ τῆς ἐπιτεύξεως· οὐ χρυσὸς, οὐκ ἄργυρος, οὐ λί θοι τῶν διαφανῶν καὶ τιμίων, οὐχ ὅσοις ἄνθρωποι κάμπτονται πρὸς τὸ ἥμερον. Ὅταν εἴπῃ Σοφο νίας, ὡς παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ λέγων ὠργισμένου καὶ χαλε παίνοντος· Ἐξερημώσω τὰς ὁδοὺς αὐτῶν τὸ πα 35.969 ράπαν, τοῦ μὴ διοδεύειν. Ἐξέλιπον αἱ πό λεις αὐτῶν διὰ τὸ μὴ ὑπάρχειν, μηδὲ κατοικεῖ σθαι· ὅταν ἀπειλήσῃ τὰ φρικωδέστατα, ὅταν κατα βάλῃ τῇ ἀθυμίᾳ, ὅταν ζόφον ἐργάσηται διὰ τῆς ἀπειλῆς, εὐθὺς ἐπάγει καὶ τὸ τῆς χρηστοτέρας ἐλπίδος φῶς, καὶ ἀνακτᾶταί με τούτοις τοῖς ῥή μασι· Πλὴν εἶπα· Φοβεῖσθέ με, καὶ δέξασθε παι δείαν, καὶ οὐ μὴ ἐξολοθρευθῆτε ἐξ ὀφθαλμῶν αὐ τῆς· καὶ ἔτι φαιδροτέροις μικρὸν προϊὼν καὶ φιλαν θρωποτέροις· Ἐν τῷ καιρῷ ἐκείνῳ ἐρεῖ Κύριος· Θάρσει, Σιὼν, μὴ παρείσθωσαν αἱ χεῖρές σου. Κύριος ὁ Θεός σου ἐν σοὶ, δυνατὸς σῶσαί σε· καὶ ἐπάξει ἐπὶ σὲ εὐφροσύνην, καὶ καινιεῖ σε ἐν τῇ ἀγαπήσει αὐτοῦ, καὶ συνάξει τοὺς συν τετριμμένους, καὶ σώσει τοὺς ἐκπεπιεσμένους, καὶ τοὺς ἀπωσμένους εἰσδέξεται. Ταῦτα καὶ οἱ ἅγιοι καὶ οἱ λογισμοὶ βούλονται, καὶ ὁ ἐμὸς ἀπαιτεῖ λόγος. Ἀλλὰ δέξασθε λόγους φρονήσεως, ὥς φη σιν ὁ θεῖος Σολομὼν, ἵνα μὴ ἐμπεσόντες εἰς κακῶν βάθος καταφρονήσητε, μηδὲ ὑπὸ τῆς ἰδίας ἀμα θίας μᾶλλον ἢ τῆς κατεχούσης δυσχερείας κατα ποθῆτε.

∆ʹ. Κύκλος τίς ἐστιν, ἀδελφοὶ, τῶν ἀνθρωπί νων πραγμάτων, καὶ παιδεύει διὰ τῶν ἐναντίων ἡμᾶς ὁ Θεός· ὥσπερ συνεστήσατο τὰ πάντα σοφῶς καὶ συνέδησεν, οὕτω σοφῶς τὸ πᾶν διεξάγων καὶ κυ βερνῶν τοῖς ἀνεφίκτοις αὐτοῦ καὶ ἀνεξιχνιάστοις κρίμασιν, ἐν δὲ τοῖς πᾶσι καὶ τὰ ἡμέτερα. Κινεῖται γὰρ, ἵν' οὕτως εἴπω, τὸ πᾶν περὶ τὸν ἀκίνητον, καὶ σαλεύεται, λόγῳ μὲν οὐδαμῶς (ὁ γὰρ αὐτὸς ἐν πᾶσιν ἑστὼς καὶ ἀκίνητος, κἂν διαφεύγῃ τὴν ἡμε τέραν ἀσθένειαν, τοῖς δὲ καθ' ἑκάστην ἡμέραν ἀπαντῶσί τε καὶ συμπίπτουσιν. Καὶ τοῦτό ἐστι δό γμα Θεοῦ παλαιόν τε καὶ πάγιον, σκότος εἶναι ἀποκρυφὴν αὐτοῦ πρὸ τῶν ἡμετέρων ὀφθαλμῶν κεχυμένον· καὶ τὰ πολλὰ μὴ καθορᾶσθαι τῆς αὐτοῦ διοικήσεως, πλὴν ὅσον ἐν ἀμυδροῖς αἰνίγμασι καὶ φαντάσμασιν· εἴτε τὸν τῦφον ἡμῶν συστέλλοντος, ἵν' εἰδῶμεν τὸ μηδὲν ὄντες πρὸς τὴν ἀληθινὴν σοφίαν καὶ πρώτην, ἀλλὰ πρὸς αὐτὸν νεύωμεν μόνον, καὶ ζη τῶμεν ἀεὶ ταῖς ἐκεῖθεν αὐγαῖς ἐναστράπτεσθαι· εἴτε διὰ τῆς ἀνωμαλίας τῶν ὁρωμένων καὶ περιτρεπομέ νων μετάγοντος ἡμᾶς ἐπὶ τὰ ἑστῶτα καὶ μένοντα. Πλὴν οὐδὲν ἀκίνητον, ὅπερ ἔφην, οὐδὲ ὁμαλὸν, οὐδὲ αὔταρκες, οὐδὲ εἰς τέλος ὅμοιον, οὔτε τὸ εὐθυμεῖν, οὔτε τὸ ἀθυμεῖν, οὐ πλοῦτος, οὐ πενία, οὐ δύναμις, 35.972 οὐκ ἀσθένεια, οὐ ταπεινότης, οὐ δυναστεία, οὐ τὸ παρὸν, οὐ τὸ μέλλον, οὐ τὸ ἡμέτερον, οὐ τὸ ἀλλό τριον, οὐ μικρὸν, οὐ μεῖζον, οὐχ ὅ τι ἂν εἴποι τις. Καὶ τοῦτο