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Become strong in faith and in zeal for God. For just as the leaven is not weak because of its smallness, but prevails because of the heat within it and the power of its quality; so also you will be able to lead back many more to the same zeal as yourselves, if you are willing. But if they should put forward the summer as an excuse—for I hear them saying these things, that "The stifling heat is oppressive now, the burning heat is unbearable, 51.175 we are not able to be crowded and pressed in the multitude, drenched in sweat from every side and burdened by the heat and the close quarters"; I am ashamed for them, believe me; for the excuses are womanish, or rather, the pretexts are not sufficient for pardon even for them, whose bodies are softer and nature weaker. Nevertheless, even if it is shameful to respond to such a defense, it is still necessary. For if they make such excuses and do not blush, much more should we not be ashamed to speak against these things. What then might I say to those who put these things forward? I want to remind them of the three children in the furnace and in the flame, who, seeing the fire running all around them, and poured around their mouth and eyes and their very breath, did not cease singing that sacred and mystical hymn to God with creation, but standing then in the midst of the pyre, more eagerly than those who pass their time in a meadow, they sent up their praise to the common Master of all. And after these three children, of the lions in Babylon, and of Daniel and the den; and not of this one only, but I also ask them to remember again another den and prophet, and the mire suffocating Jeremiah up to his neck. And having come up from the dens, I want to bring these people who put forward the burning heat into the prison, and to show them Paul and Silas there, bound to the stocks, full of welts and wounds, their whole bodies torn by the multitude of blows, hymning God in the middle of the night and celebrating that sacred all-night vigil. For how is it not absurd that those saints, being in a furnace, and fire, and a den, and with beasts, and in mire, and in a prison, and in stocks, and with blows, and in watch-posts, and in unbearable terrors, never complained of any of these things, but with much intensity and with boiling zeal occupied themselves continually in prayers and sacred hymns; while we, having endured neither a small nor a great part of the enumerated sufferings, because of burning heat, and a little warmth and sweat, neglect our own salvation, and forsaking the assemblies, wander outside, being corrupted by gatherings that have nothing wholesome? So great is the dew of the divine oracles, and you put forward the burning heat as an excuse? "The water that I will give him," says Christ, "will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life;" and again, "He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his belly will flow rivers of living water.'" Having springs, tell me, and spiritual rivers, you fear a perceptible burning heat? But in the marketplace, tell me, where there is so much noise and crowding and the heatwave is great, how is it you do not put forward stifling heat and warmth as an excuse? For you could not say this, that there it is possible to enjoy a cooler nature of the air, while here all the stifling heat has been gathered for us; but quite the contrary, here, both from the pavement below and from the rest of the building's construction (for it has risen to an unspeakable height), the air is lighter and cooler; but there, there is much sun everywhere, and much crowding and smoke and dust, and other things far more numerous than these that intensify the unpleasantness. Whence it is clear that these irrational excuses come from laziness 51.176 and a lax soul that has been deprived of the flame of the Spirit.

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δυνατοὶ τῇ πίστει καὶ τῇ κατὰ Θεὸν γίνεσθε σπουδῇ. Ὥσπερ οὖν ἡ ζύμη οὐκ ἀσθενεῖ διὰ τὴν βραχύτητα, ἀλλὰ περιγίνεται διὰ τὴν ἐγκειμένην αὐτῇ θερμότητα καὶ τὴν τῆς ποιότητος δύναμιν· οὕτω δὴ καὶ ὑμεῖς δυνήσεσθε πολλῷ πλείους πρὸς τὴν αὐτὴν ὑμῖν ἐπαναγαγεῖν σπουδὴν, ἂν θέλητε. Εἰ δὲ τὸ θέρος προβάλλοιντο· καὶ γὰρ καὶ ταῦτα ἀκούω λεγόντων, ὅτι Σφοδρὸν τὸ πνῖγος νῦν, τὸ καῦμα ἀφόρη 51.175 τον, οὐκ ἰσχύομεν στενοχωρεῖσθαι καὶ θλίβεσθαι ἐν τῷ πλήθει, ἱδρῶτι πάντοθεν περιῤῥεόμενοι καὶ ἀχθόμενοι τῇ θέρμῃ καὶ τῇ στενοχωρίᾳ· αἰσχύνομαι μὲν ὑπὲρ αὐτῶν, πιστεύσατε· γυναικώδεις γὰρ αἱ σκήψεις, μᾶλλον δὲ οὐδὲ ἐκείναις πρὸς συγγνώμην ἀρκοῦσαι αἱ προφάσεις, αἷς μαλακώτερα τὰ σώματα, καὶ ἀσθενεστέρα ἡ φύσις. Πλὴν εἰ καὶ αἰσχρὸν τὸ ἀποκρίνασθαι πρὸς τὴν τοιαύτην ἀπολογίαν, ἀλλ' ἀναγκαῖον ὅμως. Εἰ γὰρ ἐκεῖνοι τοιαῦτα προφασίζονται, καὶ οὐκ ἐρυθριῶσι, πολλῷ μᾶλλον ἡμᾶς οὐκ αἰσχύνεσθαι χρὴ πρὸς ταῦτα ἀντιλέγοντας. Τί οὖν εἴποιμι τοῖς ταῦτα προβαλλομένοις; Τῶν τριῶν παίδων ἀναμνῆσαι αὐτοὺς βούλομαι τῶν ἐν τῇ καμίνῳ καὶ ἐν τῇ φλογὶ, οἳ πανταχόθεν αὐτοῖς περιτρέχον τὸ πῦρ ὁρῶντες, καὶ τῷ στόματι καὶ τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς, καὶ αὐτῇ περικεχυμένον τῇ ἀναπνοῇ, οὐκ ἐπαύσαντο τὸν ἱερὸν καὶ μυστικὸν ἐκεῖνον ὕμνον ᾄδοντες τῷ Θεῷ μετὰ τῆς κτίσεως, ἀλλὰ τῶν ἐν λειμῶνι διατριβόντων, ἐν μέσῃ τότε ἑστῶτες τῇ πυρᾷ, προθυμότερον τὴν εὐφημίαν τῷ κοινῷ τῶν ὅλων ἀνέπεμπον ∆εσπότῃ· καὶ μετὰ τῶν τριῶν παίδων τούτων, τῶν λεόντων αὐτοῖς τῶν ἐν Βαβυλῶνι, καὶ τοῦ ∆ανιὴλ καὶ τοῦ λάκκου· οὐχὶ δὲ τούτου μόνου, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἑτέρου λάκκου καὶ προφήτου, καὶ βορβόρου μέχρι τραχήλου τὸν Ἱερεμίαν ἀποπνίγοντος ἀναμνησθῆναι πάλιν αὐτοὺς ἀξιῶ. Καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν λάκκων ἀναβὰς, εἰσαγαγεῖν εἰς τὸ δεσμωτήριον βούλομαι τούτους τοὺς τὸ καῦμα προβαλλομένους, καὶ δεῖξαι τὸν Παῦλον ἐκεῖ καὶ τὸν Σίλαν τῷ ξύλῳ προσδεδεμένους, μωλώπων γέμοντας καὶ τραυμάτων, τῷ πλήθει τῶν πληγῶν ἅπαν καταξανθέντας τὸ σῶμα, ἐν μέσῃ τῇ νυκτὶ τὸν Θεὸν ὑμνοῦντας, καὶ τὴν ἱερὰν ἐκείνην παννυχίδα ἐπιτελοῦντας. Πῶς γὰρ οὐκ ἄτοπον τοὺς μὲν ἁγίους ἐκείνους, ἐν καμίνῳ, καὶ πυρὶ, καὶ λάκκῳ, καὶ θηρίοις, καὶ βορβόρῳ, καὶ δεσμωτηρίῳ, καὶ ξύλῳ, καὶ πληγαῖς, καὶ φυλακαῖς, καὶ τοῖς ἀφορήτοις ὄντας δεινοῖς, μηδὲν τούτων αἰτιᾶσθαι πώποτε, ἀλλὰ μετὰ πολλοῦ τοῦ τόνου καὶ προθυμίᾳ ζεούσῃ εὐχαῖς καὶ ὕμνοις ἱεροῖς ἐνδιατρίβειν διηνεκῶς, ἡμᾶς δὲ οὐ μικρὸν, οὐ μέγα τῶν ἀπηριθμημένων ὑπομείναντας παθῶν, διὰ καῦμα, καὶ θέρμην βραχεῖαν καὶ ἱδρῶτα, τῆς οἰκείας αὐτῶν ἀμελεῖν σωτηρίας, καὶ τὰς συνάξεις ἀφέντας ἕξω πλανᾶσθαι, συλλόγοις προσφθειρομένους οὐδὲν ἔχουσιν ὑγιές; Τοσαύτη δρόσος τῶν θείων λογίων, καὶ καῦμα προβάλλῃ; Τὸ ὕδωρ, ὃ ἐγὼ δώσω αὐτῷ, φησὶν ὁ Χριστὸς, γενήσεται ἐν αὐτῷ πηγὴ ὕδατος ἁλλομένου εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον· καὶ πάλιν, Ὁ πιστεύων εἰς ἐμὲ, καθὼς εἶπεν ἡ Γραφὴ, ποταμοὶ ἐκ τῆς κοιλίας αὐτοῦ ῥεύσουσιν ὕδατος ζῶντος. Πηγὰς ἔχων, εἰπέ μοι, καὶ ποταμοὺς πνευματικοὺς, καῦμα δέδοικας αἰσθητόν; ἐπὶ δὲ τῆς ἀγορᾶς, εἰπέ μοι, ἔνθα τοσοῦτος θόρυβος καὶ στενοχωρία καὶ πολὺς ὁ καύσων, πῶς οὐ προβάλλῃ πνῖγος καὶ θέρμην; Οὐ γὰρ δὴ τοῦτο ἔχεις ἂν εἰπεῖν, ὅτι ἐκεῖ μὲν ψυχροτέρας τῆς τοῦ ἀέρος φύσεως ἔστιν ἀπολαύειν, ἐνταῦθα δὲ ἅπαν ἡμῖν συνῆκται τὸ πνῖγος, ἀλλὰ πᾶν τοὐναντίον, ἐνταῦθα μὲν καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς ὑποκειμένης πλακὸς, καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς ἄλλης τοῦ οἴκου κατασκευῆς (καὶ γὰρ εἰς ὕψος ἀνέστηκεν ἄφατον) κουφότερος καὶ ψυχρότερος ὁ ἀήρ· ἐκεῖ δὲ πολὺς μὲν ἥλιος πανταχοῦ, πολλὴ δὲ ἡ στενοχωρία καὶ καπνὸς καὶ κόνις, καὶ ἕτερα πολλῷ πλείονα τούτων ἐπιτείνοντα τὴν ἀηδίαν. Ὅθεν δῆλον, ὅτι ῥᾳθυ 51.176 μίας καὶ ψυχῆς ἀναπεπτωκυίας καὶ τῆς τοῦ Πνεύματος φλογὸς ἀπεστερημένης αὗται αἱ προφάσεις αἱ ἄλογοι.