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He made them for one another by the power of what was offered; then, as the power gradually increased, having become accustomed to softer things, he gently brings the infant to more solid food; in this way the Lord, feeding and nursing human faintheartedness through miracles, like some imperfect infant, first, in a hopeless illness, prefaces the power of the resurrection, which was great in its accomplishment, but not such as to be disbelieved when spoken of. For having rebuked the fever that violently inflamed Simon's mother-in-law, he brought about such a removal of the malady that she who was already expected to die was strengthened to serve those present. Then He adds a little something to His power, and again works the resurrection of him who was believed to be about to die, the son of the royal official who lay in confessed danger (for so the story says, that he was about to die, as his father cried out, "Come down before my child dies"), accomplishing the miracle with greater power, by not even approaching the place, but from afar sending life by the strength of his command. Again in succession He ascends to higher miracles. For hastening to the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue, He willingly allowed delay on the journey, making public the unnoticed healing of the woman with the issue of blood, so that in this time death might take hold of the sick girl. Then, just as the soul had been separated from the body, and while those who were bewailing the affliction were making a tumult with mournful cries, He rouses the little girl back to life with His commanding word as if from sleep, by a certain path and sequence raising human weakness to what is greater. Then upon these things he surpasses with the miracle, and through a higher power he prepares the way for men to the faith of the resurrection. The Scripture records a certain city in Judea, Nain. There was in this city a boy, an only son to a certain widow, no longer such a boy as to be among youths, but already passing from boyhood to manhood. The account calls him a young man; the story relates many things in few words; the narrative is an outright lamentation. The mother of the dead one, it says, was a widow. Do you see the weight of the disaster, how in a few words the account has made the suffering tragic? For what is being said, but that she had no hope of childbearing to remedy the disaster of the one who was gone; for the woman was a widow. She could not look to another in place of the one who had departed, for the child was an only-begotten. And how great was the evil in this, is easy for anyone not estranged from nature to comprehend.

She knew only him in her birth-pangs, she nursed only him at her breasts; he alone made her table cheerful; he alone was the cause of cheerfulness in the house; playing, studying, exercising, being cheerful, in processions, in wrestling-schools, in gatherings of youth; everything that is sweet and precious to a mother's eyes, he alone was. Already at the age of marriage, the shoot of the family, the branch of succession, the staff of her old age. But the addition of his age was another lament. For in calling him a young man, he spoke of the flower of his withered prime, just beginning to show the downy hair of youth, not yet filled out with a deep beard, still gleaming with the beauty of his cheeks. What, then, was the mother likely to suffer over him? As it were, to be burned in her bowels with fire, so as to prolong her bitter lamentation over him, clinging to the corpse lying before her, so as not to hasten the burial for the dead one, but to be filled with grief, extending her wailings over him for the longest time; and the account did not omit this: "For when Jesus saw her," it says, "He had compassion. and He came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And He says to the dead man, 'Young man, I say to you, arise.' And He gave him to his mother alive." Now therefore, when he had not been dead for a short time, and was all but laid in the tomb, the miracle on the Lord's part becomes greater, but the command equal. Still the working of miracles proceeds to what is higher, so that

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άλληλον τῇ δυνάμει τοῦ προσφερομένου ἐποίησεν· εἶτα κατὰ προσθήκην τῆς δυνάμεως ἐπιδιδούσης, προσεθισθὲν τοῖς ἁπαλωτέροις ἠρέμα τὸ νήπιον προσάγει τῇ στερεωτέρᾳ τροφῇ· οὕτω τὴν ἀνθρωπί νην μικροψυχίαν ὁ Κύριος, οἷόν τι νήπιον ἀτελὲς διὰ τῶν θαυμάτων τρέφων καὶ τιθηνούμενος, πρῶτον μὲν ἐν ἀπεγνωσμένῃ νόσῳ τὴν τῆς ἀναστάσεως προοι μιάζεται δύναμιν, ὃ μέγα μὲν ἦν τῷ κατορθώματι, οὐ μὴν τοιοῦτον, οἷον ἀπιστεῖσθαι λεγόμενον. Ἐπιτι μήσας γὰρ τῷ πυρετῷ σφοδρῶς τὴν πενθερὰν τοῦ Σίμωνος καταφλέγοντι, τοσαύτην ἐποίησε τοῦ κακοῦ τὴν μετάστασιν, ὡς πρὸς τὸ διακονεῖν τοῖς παροῦσιν ἐνισχύσαι τὴν ἤδη προσδοκωμένην τεθνήξεσθαι. Εἴτα μικρόν τι τῇ δυνάμει προστίθησι, καὶ τοῦ βασιλικοῦ τὸν υἱὸν ἐν ὁμολογουμένῳ κινδύνῳ κείμενον (οὕτω γάρ φησιν ἡ ἱστορία, ὅτι ἔμελλε τελευτᾷν, τοῦ πα τρὸς βοῶντος· «Κατάβηθι πρὶν ἀποθανεῖν τὸ παι δίον·») ἐνεργεῖ πάλιν τοῦ τεθνήξεσθαι πεπιστευμέ νου τὴν ἀνάστασιν, ἐν μείζονι τῇ δυνάμει τὸ θαῦμα κατεργασάμενος, τῷ μηδὲ πλησιάσαι τῷ τόπῳ, ἀλλὰ πόῤῥωθεν τῇ τοῦ προστάγματος ἰσχύϊ τὴν ζωὴν ἀπο στεῖλαι. Πάλιν δι' ἀκολουθίας τοῖς ὑψηλοτέροις ἐπαναβαίνει θαύμασι. Πρὸς γὰρ τὴν παῖδα τοῦ ἀρ χισυναγώγου ὁρμήσας, ἑκὼν ἔδωκε τῇ ὁδοιπορίᾳ σχο λὴν, τὴν ἴασιν τῆς αἱμοῤῥοΐας δημοσιεύων λαθοῦσαν, ὡς ἂν ἐν τῷ χρόνῳ τούτῳ κατακρατήσειε τῆς νοσού σης ὁ θάνατος. Ἄρτι τοίνυν τῆς ψυχῆς χωρισθείσης τοῦ σώματος, καὶ θορυβουμένων ἐν τῇ γοερᾷ κραυγῇ τῶν ἐπικωκυόντων τῷ πάθει, καθάπερ ἐξ ὕπνου τῷ προστακτικῷ λόγῳ διανίστησι πάλιν πρὸς τὴν ζωὴν τὸ κοράσιον, ὀδῷ τινι καὶ ἀκολουθίᾳ πρὸς τὸ μεῖζον ἀναλαμβάνων τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην ἀσθένειαν. Εἶτ' ἐπὶ τούτοις ὑπερβαίνει τῷ θαύματι, καὶ δι' ὑψηλοτέρας δυνάμεως ὁδοποιεῖ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις τὴν περὶ τῆς ἀναστάσεως πίστιν. Νάϊν τινὰ πόλιν κατὰ τὴν Ἰου δαίαν ἱστορεῖ ἡ Γραφή. Παῖς ἦν ἐν ταύτῃ μονογενὴς χήρᾳ τινὶ, οὐκέτι τοιοῦτος παῖς, οἷος ἐν μειρακίοις εἶναι, ἀλλ' ἤδη ἐκ παίδων εἰς ἄνδρας τελῶν. Νεανίαν αὐτὸν ὀνομάζει ὁ λόγος· πολλὰ δι' ὀλίγων διηγεῖται ἡ ἱστορία· θρῆνος ἄντικρύς ἐστι τὸ διήγημα. Χήρα, φησὶν, ἦν τοῦ τεθνηκότος ἡ μήτηρ. Ὁρᾷς τὸ βάρος τῆς συμφορᾶς, πῶς ἐν ὀλίγῳ τὸ πάθος ὁ λόγος ἐξετραγ 220 ῴδησε; Τί γάρ ἐστι τὸ λεγόμενον, ὅτι οὐκ ἦν αὐτῇ παιδοποιίας ἐλπὶς, τὴν ἐπὶ τῷ ἐκλείποντι συμφορὰν θεραπεύουσα· χήρα γὰρ ἡ γυνή. Οὐκ εἶχε πρὸς ἕτε ρον ἀντὶ τοῦ κατοιχομένου βλέπειν· μονογενὴς γὰρ ὁ τόκος. Ὅσον δὲ τὸ ἐπὶ τούτῳ κακὸν, παντὶ ῥᾴδιον συνιδεῖν τῷ μὴ ἀπεξενωμένῳ τῆς φύσεως.

Μόνον ἐν ὠδῖσιν ἐκεῖνον ἐγνώρισε, μόνον ταῖς θηλαῖς ἐτιθηνή σατο· μόνος αὐτῇ φαιδρὰν ἐποίει τὴν τράπεζαν· μόνος ἦν τῆς κατὰ τὸν οἶκον φαιδρότητος ἡ ὑπόθεσις· παίζων, σπουδάζων, ἀσκούμενος, φαιδρυνόμενος, ἐν προόδοις, ἐν παλαίστραις, ἐν συλλόγοις νεότητος· πᾶν ὅ τι μητρὸς ὀφθαλμοῖν γλυκύ τε καὶ τίμιον, μόνος ἐκεῖνος ἦν. Ἤδη τοῦ γάμου τὴν ὥραν ἄγων, ὁ τοῦ γένους ὅρπηξ, ὁ τῆς διαδοχῆς κλάδος, ἡ βακτη ρία τοῦ γήρους. Ἀλλὰ καὶ ἡ τῆς ἡλικίας προσθήκη, ἄλλος θρῆνος ἦν. Ὁ γὰρ νεανίαν εἰπὼν, τὸ ἄνθος εἶπε τῆς μαρανθείσης ὥρας, ἄρτι τοῖς ἰούλοις ὑπο χλοάζοντα, οὔπω τοῦ πώγωνος διὰ βάθους ὑποπιμ πλάμενον, ἔτι τῷ κάλλει τῶν παρειῶν ὑποστίλβοντα. Τί τοίνυν πάσχειν εἰκὸς ἦν ἐπ' αὐτῷ τὴν μητέρα; οἱονεὶ πυρὶ τοῖς σπλάγχνοις ἐγκαταφλέγεσθαι, ὡς πικρῶς ἐπ' αὐτῷ παρατείνειν τὸν θρῆνον, περιπλε κομένην προκειμένῳ τῷ πτώματι, ὡς μὴ ἂν ἐπι σπεῦσαι τῷ νεκρῷ τὴν κηδείαν, ἀλλ' ἐμφορεῖσθαι τοῦ πάθους, ἐπιπλεῖστον αὐτῷ τοὺς ὀδυρμοὺς παρα τείνουσαν· οὐδὲ τοῦτο παρῆκεν ὁ λόγος·» Ἰδὼν γὰρ αὐτὴν ὁ Ἰησοῦς,» φησὶν, «ἐσπλαγχνίσθη. καὶ προσ ελθὼν ἥψατο τῆς σοροῦ, οἱ δὲ βαστάσαντες ἔστησαν. Καὶ λέγει τῷ νεκρῷ· Νεανία, σοὶ λέγω, ἐγέρθητι· καὶ παρέδωκεν αὐτὸν τῇ μητρὶ αὐτοῦ ζῶντα.» Ἤδη τοίνυν οὐκ ἐν ὀλίγῳ διαστήματι τοῦ νεκροῦ γεγενη μένου, καὶ ὅσον οὐδέπω ἐναποτεθέντος τῷ τάφῳ, γίνεται παρ' αὐτοῦ Κυρίου τὸ μὲν θαῦμα μεῖζον, τὸ δὲ πρόσταγμα ἶσον. Ἔτι πρὸς τὸ ὑψηλότερον ἡ θαυματοποιία προέρχεται, ὡς ἂν