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I am a man of the world, I have a wife and children; these things are for priests, these things are for monks. Tell me, if you find gold lying around, do you not say to yourself, ‘Why did so-and-so and so-and-so not pick it up?’ By no means; but you are eager to snatch it up before others. So also reckon with regard to our fallen brothers, and consider that in their care you have found a treasure. For he who brings forth the precious from the worthless, He says, shall be as my mouth. And what could be equal to this? For what neither fasting, nor sleeping on the ground, nor anything else can accomplish, this the salvation of a brother does. For I do not promise these things; God himself said this: ‘That if you bring forth even one,’ He says, ‘your mouth shall be as my mouth.’ Let us not then, passing by, say, ‘Who has sinned?’ but let us be zealous to correct them; and let us not only consider this, whether many are being swept away, but let us consider that, how we may lead them away. For to secure our brothers from falling before they sin procures for us no small salvation; but also to show great care for them after they have sinned, this too furnishes no small praise. For physicians too tell healthy people what can preserve their health for them and ward off all disease; but when they have neglected the commands and fallen into sickness, they do not overlook them, but then especially they show great foresight, so that they may deliver them from their diseases. You therefore, when it is necessary to correct a brother, even if it is necessary to give your life, do not refuse. Our Master died for us; but you will not even offer a word? And what pardon will you have, 63.611 what defense will you find? How will you stand at the judgment seat of Christ with boldness, tell me, overlooking the destruction of so many souls? If only it were possible for me to know them, I would not have needed you, but would have made the correction most swiftly. Tell me, if you saw someone being led away, condemned by a just vote, and then you had the power to snatch him from the hands of the executioner; would you not have done everything to deliver him from being led away? But seeing your brother being dragged not by an executioner but by the devil to the pit of destruction, you do not even endure to offer counsel, so as to rescue him from this harsh beast? And what pardon would you obtain? But is he stronger and more powerful than you? Make him known to me, I will choose to lay down my head rather than allow him to set foot on the holy thresholds. For how is it not absurd, to lead children with toil at the beginning to things which have laborious preludes but a good end, while we ourselves are disposed in the opposite way concerning spiritual matters? For if someone from outside were to come upon us, and learn well the commands of Christ and the confusion of our way of life, I do not know who else he would suppose to be greater enemies of Christ than us. For as if zealous to go contrary to his commands, so have we walked this road. For when the things which He commands to do are easy and most simple for those who are willing, but the things He forbids are difficult and toilsome, yet we, having abandoned what is commanded, do what is forbidden, will they not say that we sin in these things contentiously against Him, as enemies? But just as it is the custom for the good to advise their neighbors in these things by which they themselves have become good, so also it is the custom for the wicked to introduce these things to their neighbors by which they themselves have become base (for this itself is one form of their wickedness); and they consider the destruction of others a consolation for their own punishment. Which of you, tell me, having been at home, took a Christian book in his hands, and went over its contents, and searched the Scripture? No one could say this; but we will find draughts and dice among our neighbors, but books nowhere, except among a few; and even these are in the same state as those who do not have them, having bound them up and put them away in chests continually; and all their zeal is about the fineness of the parchments, and the of the letters

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κοσμικός εἰμι, γυναῖκα ἔχω καὶ παιδία· ταῦτα τῶν ἱερέων ἐστὶ, ταῦτα τῶν μοναχῶν. Εἰπὲ δή μοι, ἐὰν εὕρῃς χρυσίον κείμενον, μὴ λέγεις πρὸς ἑαυτὸν, Τίνος ἕνεκεν ὁ δεῖνα καὶ δεῖνα αὐτὸ οὐκ ἀνείλοντο; οὐδαμῶς· ἀλλὰ σπουδάζεις πρὸ τῶν ἄλλων διαρπάσαι. Οὕτω καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν πεπτωκότων ἀδελφῶν λογίζου, καὶ νόμιζε θησαυρὸν εὑρηκέναι τὴν ἐπιμέλειαν τὴν ἐκείνων. Ὁ γὰρ ἐξάγων τίμιον ἐξ ἀναξίου, φησὶν, ὡς στόμα μου ἔσται. Καὶ τί τούτου γένοιτ' ἂν ἴσον; ὃ γὰρ οὔτε νηστεία, οὔτε χαμευνία, οὐκ ἄλλο τι δύναται ἐργάσασθαι, τοῦτο ἡ τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ σωτηρία ποιεῖ. Μὴ γὰρ ἐγὼ ταῦτα ἐπαγγέλλομαι· αὐτὸς ὁ Θεὸς τοῦτο εἶπεν· Ὅτι κἂν ἕνα τινὰ ἐξαγάγῃς, φησὶν, ὡς στόμα μου ἔσται τὸ στόμα σου. Μὴ τοίνυν παριόντες λέγωμεν, Τίνες ἥμαρτον; ἀλλὰ σπουδάσωμεν, ὅπως αὐτοὺς διορθώσωμεν· καὶ μὴ τοῦτο σκοπῶμεν μόνον, εἰ πολλοὶ οἱ παρασυρόμενοι, ἀλλ' ἐκεῖνο σκοπήσωμεν, ὅπως αὐτοὺς ἀπαγάγωμεν. Τὸ μὲν γὰρ πρὸ τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἀσφαλίζεσθαι τοὺς ἀδελφοὺς μὴ πεσεῖν, οὐκ ὀλίγην ἡμῖν προξενεῖ σωτηρίαν· τὸ δὲ καὶ μετὰ τὴν ἁμαρτίαν πολλὴν τὴν περὶ αὐτοὺς ἐπιδείκνυσθαι ἐπιμέλειαν, οὐ μικρὸν καὶ τοῦτο παρέχει τὸν ἔπαινον. Καὶ γὰρ καὶ ἰατροὶ λέγουσι μὲν καὶ ὑγιαίνουσι τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ἃ δύναται τὴν ὑγίειαν διατηρῆσαι αὐτοῖς, καὶ πᾶσαν ἀποκρούσασθαι νόσον· ἀμελήσαντας δὲ τῶν ἐπιταγμάτων καὶ ἀῤῥωστίᾳ περιπεσόντας οὐ παρορῶσιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ πολλὴν τότε μάλιστα ἐπιδείκνυνται πρόνοιαν, ὅπως αὐτοὺς ἀπαλλάξωσι τῶν νοσημάτων. Καὶ σὺ τοίνυν, ὅταν ἀδελφὸν δέῃ διορθῶσαι, κἂν τὴν ψυχὴν ἐπιδοῦναι δέῃ, μὴ παραιτήσῃ. Ὁ ∆εσπότης ἡμῶν δι' ἡμᾶς ἀπέθανε· σὺ δὲ οὐδὲ λόγον προΐεσαι; καὶ ποίαν ἕξεις 63.611 συγγνώμην, ποίας ἀπολογίας τεύξῃ; πῶς ἐπὶ τοῦ βήματος στήσῃ τοῦ Χριστοῦ μετὰ παῤῥησίας, εἰπέ μοι, τοσούτων ψυχῶν ἀπώλειαν παρορῶν; Εἴθε μοι δυνατὸν ἦν τούτους εἰδέναι, καὶ οὐκ ἂν ἐδεήθην ὑμῶν, ἀλλὰ τὴν ταχίστην ἐποιησάμην διόρθωσιν. Εἰπὲ δή μοι, εἴ τινα εἶδες ἀπαγόμενον δικαίᾳ ψήφῳ καταδικασθέντα, εἶτα κύριος ᾖς ἐξαρπάσαι τῶν τοῦ δημίου χειρῶν· οὐκ ἂν ἅπαντα ἔπραξας, ὥστε αὐτὸν ἀπαλλάξαι τῆς ἀπαγωγῆς; Τὸν δὲ ἀδελφὸν ὁρῶν οὐχ ὑπὸ δημίου, ἀλλ' ὑπὸ τοῦ διαβόλου πρὸς τὸ βάραθρον τῆς ἀπωλείας ἑλκόμενον, οὐδὲ συμβουλὴν προέσθαι ὑπομένεις, ὥστε αὐτὸν ἐξελέσθαι τοῦ χαλεποῦ τούτου θηρίου; καὶ ποίας ἂν τύχοις συγγνώμης; Ἀλλ' ἰσχυρότερός σου καὶ δυνατώτερός ἐστιν; Ἐμοὶ δῆλον αὐτὸν κατάστησον, αἱρήσομαι τὴν κεφαλὴν ἀποθέσθαι μᾶλλον, ἢ τῶν ἱερῶν αὐτὸν ἀφεῖναι ἐπιβῆναι προθύρων. Πῶς γὰρ οὐκ ἄτοπον, τοὺς μὲν παῖδας μετὰ ταλαιπωρίας ἄγειν τὴν ἀρχὴν ἐπὶ πράγματα προοίμια μὲν ἔχοντα ἐπίμοχθα, τὸ δὲ τέλος χρηστὸν, ἡμᾶς δὲ αὐτοὺς ἀπ' ἐναντίας περὶ τῶν πνευματικῶν διακεῖσθαι πραγμάτων; Καὶ γὰρ εἴ τις ἔξωθέν ποθεν ἡμῖν ἐπιστὰς, καὶ τοῦ Χριστοῦ τὰ προστάγματα, καὶ τῆς πολιτείας τῆς ἡμετέρας καταμάθοι τὴν σύγχυσιν καλῶς, οὐκ οἶδα τίνας ἑτέρους μᾶλλον ἡμῶν ἐχθροὺς ὑπολήψεται εἶναι τοῦ Χριστοῦ. Καθάπερ γὰρ ἐσπουδακότες τὴν ἐναντίαν αὐτοῦ ἐλθεῖν τοῖς ἐπιτάγμασιν, οὕτω ταύτην ὡδεύσαμεν τὴν ὁδόν. Ὅταν γὰρ ἃ μὲν ἐπιτάττῃ ποιεῖν, εὔκολα καὶ ῥᾷστα τοῖς βουλομένοις, ἃ δὲ ἀπαγορεύῃ, χαλεπὰ καὶ ἐπίπονα· ἡμεῖς δὲ τὰ προστεταγμένα ἀφέντες, τὰ κεκωλυμένα πράττωμεν· ἆρα οὐχὶ φιλονεικοῦντας αὐτῷ ταῦτα ἁμαρτάνειν φήσουσιν ἡμᾶς ὡς ἐχθρούς; Ἀλλ' ὥσπερ τοῖς ἀγαθοῖς ἔθος ταῦτα τοῖς πλησίον παραινεῖν, δι' ὧν αὐτοὶ γεγόνασιν ἀγαθοί· οὕτω καὶ τοῖς πονηροῖς ἔθος ταῦτα εἰσηγεῖσθαι τοῖς πλησίον, δι' ὧν αὐτοὶ γεγόνασι φαῦλοι (ἓν γὰρ αὐτὸ καὶ τοῦτο τῆς πονηρίας αὐτῶν εἶδός ἐστι)· καὶ παραμυθίαν ἡγοῦνται τῆς οἰκείας κολάσεως τὴν ἑτέρων ἀπώλειαν. Τίς ὑμῶν, εἰπέ μοι, ἐν οἰκίᾳ γενόμενος πυκτίον ἔλαβε Χριστιανικὸν μετὰ χεῖρας, καὶ τὰ ἐγκείμενα ἐπῆλθε, καὶ ἠρεύνησε τὴν Γραφήν; Οὐδεὶς ἂν ἔχοι ταῦτα εἰπεῖν· ἀλλὰ πεττοὺς μὲν καὶ κύβους παρὰ τοῖς πλησίον εὑρήσομεν, βιβλία δὲ οὐδαμοῦ, ἀλλὰ παρ' ὀλίγοις· καὶ οὗτοι δὲ τοῖς οὐκ ἔχουσιν ὁμοίως διάκεινται, δήσαντες αὐτὰ καὶ ἀποθέμενοι ἐν κιβωτίοις διαπαντός· καὶ ἡ πᾶσα αὐτοῖς σπουδὴ, περὶ τὴν τῶν ὑμένων λεπτότητα, καὶ τὸ τῶν γραμμάτων