21. Moreover, if discourse must be bestowed upon any, and this so take up the speaker that he have not time to work with his hands, are all in the monastery able to hold discourse unto brethren which come unto them from another kind of life, whether it be to expound the divine lessons, or concerning any questions which may be put, to reason in an wholesome manner? Then since not all have the ability, why upon this pretext do all want to have nothing else to do? Although even if all were able, they ought to do it by turns; not only that the rest might not be taken up from necessary works, but also because it sufficeth that to many hearers there be one speaker. To come now to the Apostle; how could he find time to work with his hands, unless for the bestowing of the word of God he had certain set times? And indeed God hath not willed this either to be hidden from us. For both of what craft he was a workman, and at what times he was taken up with dispensing the Gospel, holy Scripture has not left untold. Namely, when the day of his departure caused him to be in haste, being at Troas, even on the first day of the week when the brethren were assembled to break bread, such was his earnestness, and so necessary the disputation, that his discourse was prolonged even until midnight,68    Acts xx. 7 as though it had slipped from their minds that on that day it was not a fast:69    S. Augustin therefore assumes that the Christians of the Apostolic age did not break their fast before receiving the Eucharist. See St. Chrys. on Stat. Hom. ix. § 2. Tr. p. 159, and note g. but when he was making longer stay in any place and disputing daily, who can doubt that he had certain hours set apart for this office? For at Athens, because he had there found most studious inquirers of things, it is thus written of him: “He disputed therefore with the Jews in the synagogue, and with the Gentile inhabitants70    Τοῖς ᾽Ιουδαίοις καὶ τοῖς σεβομένοις καὶ ἐν τῇ ἀγορᾷ κατὰ πᾶσαν ἡμέραν πρὸς τοὺς παρατυγχάνοντας. For καὶ τοῖς σεβομένοις Aug. has et Gentibus incolis: for which some mss. have Gentibus in viculis. in the market every day to those who were there.”71    Acts xvii. 17, 18, 21 Not, namely, in the synagogue every day, for there it was his custom to discourse on the sabbath; but “in the market,” saith he, “every day;” by reason, doubtless, of the studiousness of the Athenians. For so it follows: “Certain however of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers conferred with him.” And a little after, it says: “Now the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.” Let us suppose him all those days that he was at Athens not to have worked: on this account, indeed, was his need supplied from Macedonia, as he says in the second to the Corinthians:72    2 Cor. xi. 9 though in fact he could work both at other hours and of nights, because he was so strong in both mind and body. But when he had gone from Athens, let us see what says the Scripture: “He disputed,” saith it, “in the synagogue every sabbath;”73    Acts xviii. 4 this at Corinth. In Troas, however, where through necessity of his departure being close at hand, his discourse was protracted until midnight, it was the first day of the week, which is called the Lord’s Day: whence we understand that he was not with Jews but with Christians; when also the narrator himself saith they were gathered together to break bread. And indeed this same is the best management, that all things be distributed to their times and be done in order, lest becoming ravelled in perplexing entanglements, they throw our human mind into confusion.

CAPUT XVIII.

21. Erogandi verbi Dei obtentu nolentes laborare castigantur. Paulus ad erogandum verbum certa tempora constituit, et alia ad laborandum. Optima gubernatio, ut omnia ex ordine gerantur. Si autem alicui sermo erogandus est, et ita occupat ut manibus operari non vacet; numquid hoc omnes in monasterio possunt, venientibus ad se ex alio genere vitae fratribus, vel divinas lectiones exponere, vel de aliquibus quaestionibus salubriter disputare? Quando ergo non omnes possunt, cur sub hoc obtentu omnes vacare volunt? Quanquam etsi omnes possent, vicissitudine facere deberent ; non solum ne caeteri a necessariis operibus occuparentur, sed etiam quia sufficit ut audientibus pluribus unus loquatur? Deinde ipsi Apostolo quomodo vacaret operari manibus suis, nisi ad erogandum verbum Dei certa tempora constitueret? Neque enim et hoc Deus latere nos voluit. Nam et cujus artis opifex fuerit, et quibus temporibus vacaret dispensando Evangelio, sancta Scriptura non tacuit. Nam cum eum dies profectionis urgeret in Troade constitutum, etiam in una sabbati congregatis fratribus ad frangendum panem, tanta fuit intentio et tam necessaria disputatio, ut sermo produceretur usque ad medium noctis (Act. XX, 7), tanquam excidisset eis quod eo die non esset jejunium: quando autem in aliquo loco immoratus quotidie disputabat, quis dubitaverit horas eum habuisse ad hoc officium 0566 deputatas? Namque apud Athenas cum esset, quia studiosissimos rerum inquisitores invenerat, ita de illo scriptum est: Disputabat igitur cum Judaeis in synagoga, et Gentibus incolis in foro per omnem diem ad eos qui aderant. Non enim in synagoga per omnem diem, ubi mos erat sabbato sermocinari: sed in foro, inquit, per omnem diem; propter studia utique Atheniensium. Sic enim sequitur: Quidam vero Epicureorum et Stoicorum philosophorum conferebant cum illo. Et paulo post dicit: Athenienses autem et advenae hospites ad nihil aliud vacabant, quam dicere aliquid novi, aut audire (Act. XVII, 17, 18, 21). Putemus Apostolum illis omnibus diebus quibus fuit Athenis, non fuisse operatum; propter hoc enim et ex Macedonia supplebatur ejus indigentia, sicut dicit in secunda ad Corinthios (II Cor. XI, 9): quanquam et aliis horis et noctibus poterat, quia ita valebat et animo et corpore. Sed cum Athenis exisset, videamus quid dicit Scriptura: Disputabat, inquit, in synagoga per omne sabbatum: hoc apud Corinthum. In Troade vero, ubi necessitate imminentis profectionis usque ad medium noctis sermo protractus est, una sabbati erat, qui dies dominicus dicitur: unde intelligimus eum non fuisse cum Judaeis, sed cum Christianis; quando etiam dicit ipse narrator ad frangendum panem fuisse collectos. Et ipsa est optima gubernatio, ut omnia suis temporibus distributa ex ordine gerantur, ne animum humanum turbulentis implicationibus involuta perturbent.