Letter CCXXI.1135    Placed in 375.

To the Beræans.

You were previously known to me, my dear friends, by your far-famed piety, and by the crown won by your confession in Christ.  Peradventure one of you may ask in reply who can have carried these tidings of us so far?  The Lord Himself; for He puts His worshippers like a lamp on a lamp-stand, and makes them shine throughout the whole world.  Are not winners in the games wont to be made famous by the prize of victory, and craftsmen by the skilful design of their work?  Shall the memory of these and others like them abide for ever unforgotten, and shall not Christ’s worshippers concerning whom the Lord says Himself, Them that honour me I will honour, be made famous and glorious by Him before all?  Shall He not display the brightness of their radiant splendour as He does the beams of the sun?  But I have been moved to greater longing for you by the letter which you have been good enough to send me, a letter in which, above and beyond your former efforts on behalf of the truth, you have been yet more lavish of your abounding and vigorous zeal for the true faith.  In all this I rejoice with you, and I pray with you that the God of the universe, Whose is the struggle and the arena, and Who gives the crown, may fill you with enthusiasm, may make your souls strong, and make your work such as to meet with His divine approval.

ΠΡΟΣ ΤΟΥΣ ΕΝ ΒΕΡΟΙᾼ

[1] Ἔγνωμεν ὑμᾶς προλαβόντες, ποθεινότατοι, ἐκ τῆς ἐκβεβοημένης ὑμῶν εὐλαβείας καὶ τοῦ στεφάνου τῆς κατὰ Χριστὸν ὁμολογίας. Καὶ ἴσως ἄν τις ὑμῶν φαίη: «καὶ τίς ὁ εἰς τὴν μακρὰν ταύτην διαπορθμεύσας;» Κύριος αὐτός, ὃς τοὺς εὐσεβοῦντας εἰς αὐτὸν τρόπῳ λύχνου τιθεὶς ἐπὶ τὴν λυχνίαν φαίνειν ποιεῖ καθ' ὅλης τῆς οἰκουμένης. Ἢ οὐχὶ τοὺς ἀριστέας τῶν ἀγωνιστῶν ἀνακηρύττειν εἴωθε τὸ τῆς νίκης βραβεῖον, καὶ τοὺς μηχανικοὺς ἡ τοῦ ἔργου ἐπίνοια; Εἰ δὲ ἐπὶ τούτοις καὶ τοῖς τοιούτοις ἄληστος ἡ μνήμη διαμένει, τοὺς κατὰ Χριστὸν εὐσεβοῦντας περὶ ὧν αὐτός φησιν ὁ Κύριος: «Τοὺς δοξάζοντάς με δοξάσω», πῶς οὐχὶ γνωρίμους καὶ διαφανεῖς τοῖς πᾶσι καταστήσει, ταῖς ἀκτῖσι τοῦ ἡλίου συνεφαπλῶν τῆς ἐξαστραπτούσης αὐτῶν λαμπηδόνος τὸ φαιδρόν; Μείζονα δὲ αὖθις ἡμῖν τὸν περὶ ὑμᾶς πόθον ἐνεθήκατε γραμμάτων ἡμᾶς ἀξιώσαντες, καὶ γραμμάτων τοιούτων, ἐν οἷς πρὸς τοῖς προλαβοῦσιν ὑπὲρ τῆς εὐσεβείας παλαίσμασι πλουσίαν καὶ ἀκμαιοτέραν τὴν ὑπὲρ τῆς ἀληθοῦς πίστεως καρτεροψυχίαν ἐπεδαψιλεύεσθε. Ἐφ' οἷς συνηδόμεθα ὑμῖν καὶ συνευχόμεθα ὅπως ὁ τῶν ὅλων Θεός, οὗ ὁ ἀγὼν καὶ οὗ τὸ σκάμμα καὶ δι' οὗ οἱ στέφανοι, προθυμίαν ἐμποιήσῃ, ῥῶσιν ψυχῆς παράσχῃ, καὶ εἰς τελείαν διευδοκίμησιν τὴν παρ' αὐτῷ τὸ ἔργον ὑμῶν ἀγάγῃ.