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to wipe away; but if it draws you to the contemplation of the thing, you do not jump away; and the art whose name you flee, this you pursue almost entirely. But where you ought to have both the thing and the name, and to be and to be called a Christian, you do not even know what the thing is. What could be worse than this folly? These things I wished to say to you continually; but I fear that I may be hated in vain and without profit. For I see raging not only the young, but also the old; for whom I am most ashamed, when I see a man venerable for his grey hair, disgracing his grey hair, and dragging a child along. For what is worse than this laughter? what is more shameful than this deed? the son is taught by his father to behave indecently. 5. Do the words sting? This is what I also want, for you to bear the pain from the words, so that you may be freed from the indecency of the deeds. 59.321 For there are some, being much colder than these, who are not even ashamed at what is said, but also string together a long speech in defense of the matter. And if you ask who Amos is, or Obadiah, or what is the number of the prophets, or of the apostles, they cannot even open their mouths. But on behalf of horses and charioteers, they compose a defense more clever than sophists and orators; and after all this they say, And what is the harm? and what is the loss? For this reason I groan, that you do not even know the matter is a loss, nor do you have a sense of the evils. God gave you a term of life to serve him; but you, wasting it in vain and idly and in nothing useful, still examine what is the loss? And if you spend a little money simply, you call the matter a loss; but spending your whole days in satanic processions, do you think you are doing nothing amiss? When you ought to spend your whole life in litanies and prayers, you instead consume your life in vain and to your own harm in shouts and disturbances and shameful words, and strife and untimely pleasure, and deeds that come from sorcery; and after all this you ask, what is the loss? not knowing that one must be sparing of everything more than time. If you spend gold, you will be able to get it back again; but if you lose time, you will with difficulty recover it. For a short time has been allotted to us in the present life. If then we do not use it for what is needful, what shall we say when we depart there? For tell me: if you commanded one of your sons to learn a trade, and then he remained at home all the time, or spent his time somewhere else, would the teacher not have dismissed him? would he not have said to you: You have made a contract with me, and you have set a time. If therefore the boy is not going to spend this time with us, but elsewhere, how shall we present a disciple to you? These things it is necessary for us also to say. And God will also say to us: I have given you time, he says, for 59.322 learning this art of piety; for what reason did you waste this time idly and in vain? and why did you not continually go to the teacher, nor pay attention to what was said? For that piety is an art, hear what the prophet says: Come, children, listen to me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord; and again: Blessed is the man whom you instruct, O Lord, and teach him out of your law. When therefore you waste this in vain, what defense will you have? And for what reason, he says, has he stored up little time for us? O the insensibility and the ingratitude! for that for which you ought most to give thanks, that he has cut short your labors, and stopped your sweats, and made your rest long and immortal, for these things you complain and are displeased? But I do not know how we have drawn out the discourse here and made it long. Therefore it is necessary to shorten it again. For this too is part of our misery, that here, if the discourse becomes long, we all become weary; but there, beginning from midday, they depart under torches and lamps. But that we may not always be complaining, we exhort you from now on and we beseech you; grant this favor both to us and to yourselves, and being rid of all other things, let us nail ourselves to these. For we also will gain joy from you and

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ἀποτρίψασθαι· ἂν δὲ ἐπὶ τὴν θεωρίαν σε ἑλκύσῃ τοῦ πράγματος, οὐκ ἀποπηδᾷς· καὶ ἧς τὸ ὄνομα φεύγεις τέχνης, ταύτην μεταδιώκεις σχεδὸν ἅπασαν. Ἔνθα δὲ καὶ τὸ πρᾶγμα καὶ τὸ ὄνομα ἔχειν ὀφείλεις, καὶ εἶναι καὶ καλεῖσθαι Χριστιανὸς, οὐδὲ τί ποτέ ἐστι τὸ πρᾶγμα οἶδας. Τί ταύτης τῆς ἀνοίας γένοιτ' ἂν χεῖρον; Ταῦτα ἐβουλόμην συνεχῶς λέγειν πρὸς ὑμᾶς· δέδοικα δὲ, μὴ μάτην ἀπεχθάνωμαι καὶ κέρδους χωρίς. Ὁρῶ γὰρ μεμηνότας οὐ νέους μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ γέροντας· ἐφ' ὧν μάλιστα αἰσχύνομαι, ὅταν ἴδω ἄνδρα ἀπὸ τῆς πολιᾶς αἰδέσιμον, καταισχύνοντα τὴν πολιὰν, καὶ παιδίον ἐπισυρόμενον. Τί γὰρ τοῦ γέλωτος τούτου χεῖρον; τί τοῦ ἔργου τούτου αἰσχρότερον; ὁ παῖς παρὰ τοῦ πατρὸς διδάσκεται ἀσχημονεῖν. εʹ. ∆άκνει τὰ ῥήματα; Τοῦτο κἀγὼ βούλομαι, ἀνασχέσθαι ὑμᾶς τῆς διὰ τῶν ῥημάτων ἀλγηδόνος, ἵνα τῆς διὰ τῶν πραγμάτων ἀσχημοσύνης ἀπαλλαγῆτε. 59.321 Καὶ γὰρ εἰσί τινες, οἱ πολλῷ ψυχρότεροι τούτων ὄντες, οἳ οὐδὲ αἰσχύνονται ἐπὶ τοῖς λεγομένοις, ἀλλὰ καὶ μακρὸν εἴρουσιν ὑπὲρ τοῦ πράγματος λόγον. Κἂν μὲν ἐρωτήσῃς, τίς ἐστιν ὁ Ἀμὼς, ἢ ὁ Ἀβδιοῦ, ἢποῖος τῶν προφητῶν ὁ ἀριθμὸς, ἢ τῶν ἀποστόλων, οὐδὲ χάναι δύνανται. Ὑπὲρ δὲ ἵππων καὶ ἡνιόχων, σοφιστῶν καὶ ῥητόρων δεινότερον ἀπολογίαν συντιθέασι· καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα ἅπαντα λέγουσι, Καὶ τί τὸ βλάβος; καὶ τίς ἡ ζημία; ∆ιὰ γὰρ τοῦτο στένω, ὅτι οὐδὲ ζημίαν ἴστε τὸ πρᾶγμα, οὐδὲ αἴσθησιν λαμβάνετε τῶν κακῶν. Ἔδωκέ σοι βίου προθεσμίαν ὁ Θεὸς εἰς τὸ θεραπεύειν αὐτόν· σὺ δὲ μάτην ἀναλίσκων αὐτὸν καὶ εἰκῆ καὶ ἐν οὐδενὶ χρησίμῳ, ἐξετάζεις ἔτι, τίς ἡ ζημία; Κἂν μὲν ἀργύριον ὀλίγον δαπανήσῃς ἁπλῶς, ζημίαν τὸ πρᾶγμα καλεῖς· τὰς δὲ ἡμέρας σου δαπανῶν ὁλοκλήρους εἰς σατανικὰς πομπὰς, οὐδὲν ἡγῇ ποιεῖν ἄτοπον; ∆έον εἰς λιτὰς καὶ εὐχὰς δαπανᾷν σου τὴν ζωὴν ἅπασαν, σὺ δὲ εἰς κραυγὰς καὶ θορύβους καὶ αἰσχρὰ ῥήματα, καὶ μάχην καὶ τέρψιν ἄκαιρον, καὶ ἔργα ἀπὸ μαγγανείας γινόμενα τὸν βίον σου καταναλίσκεις εἰκῆ καὶ ἐπὶ κακῷ τῷ σῷ· καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα πάντα ἐρωτᾷς, τίς ἡ ζημία; οὐκ εἰδὼς ὅτι παντὸς μᾶλλον ἀφειδεῖν χρὴ, ἢ χρόνου. Χρυσίον ἂν ἀναλώσῃς, δυνήσῃ πάλιν ἀνακτήσασθαι· χρόνον δὲ ἂν ἀπολέσῃς, δυσκόλως αὐτὸν ἀναλήψῃ. Ὀλίγος γὰρ ἡμῖν τεταμίευται κατὰ τὸν παρόντα βίον. Ἂν οὖν εἰς δέον αὐτῷ μὴ χρησώμεθα, τί ἐροῦμεν ἀπελθόντες ἐκεῖ; Εἰπὲ γάρ μοι· εἴ τινά σου τῶν υἱῶν ἐκέλευσας τέχνην μαθεῖν, εἶτα ἐκεῖνος οἴκοι διὰ παντὸς ἔμενεν, ἢ καὶ ἀλλαχοῦ που διέτριβεν, οὐκ ἂν αὐτὸν παρῃτήσατο ὁ διδάσκαλος; οὐκ ἂν εἶπε πρὸς σέ· Συγγραφὴν πρός με πεποίηκας, καὶ χρόνον ὥρισας. Εἰ μὴ μέλλει τοίνυν τὸν χρόνον τοῦτον παρ' ἡμῖν, ἀλλ' ἑτέρωθι ἀναλίσκειν ὁ παῖς, πῶς σοι παραστησόμεθα μαθητήν; Ταῦτα καὶ ἡμᾶς εἰπεῖν ἀνάγκη. Ἐρεῖ δὲ καὶ ὁ Θεὸς ἡμῖν· Χρόνον ὑμῖν δέδωκα, φησὶ, πρὸς τὸ 59.322 μαθεῖν τὴν τέχνην ταύτην τὴν τῆς εὐλαβείας· τίνος ἕνεκεν εἰκῆ καὶ μάτην τὸν χρόνον ἀνηλώσατε τοῦτον; τί δὲ πρὸς τὸν διδάσκαλον συνεχῶς οὐκ ἐβαδίζετε, οὐδὲ προσείχετε τοῖς λεγομένοις; Ὅτι γὰρ τέχνη ἐστὶν ἡ εὐλάβεια, ἄκουσον τί φησιν ὁ προφήτης· ∆εῦτε, τέκνα, ἀκούσατέ μου, φόβον Κυρίου διδάξω ὑμᾶς· καὶ πάλιν· Μακάριος ἄνθρωπος, ὃν ἂν παιδεύσῃς, Κύριε, καὶ ἐκ τοῦ νόμου σου διδάξῃς αὐτόν. Ὅταν οὖν τοῦτον ἀναλώσῃς εἰκῆ, ποίαν ἕξεις ἀπολογίαν; Καὶ τίνος ἕνεκεν, φησὶν, ὀλίγον ἡμῖν ἐταμιεύσατο χρόνον; Ὢ τῆς ἀναισθησίας καὶ τῆς ἀγνωμοσύνης! ὑπὲρ οὗ μάλιστα εὐχαριστεῖν ἔδει, ὅτι σοι τοὺς πόνους ἐπέτεμε, καὶ τοὺς ἱδρῶτας ἐνέκοψε, καὶ τὴν ἀνάπαυσιν μακρὰν ἐποίησε καὶ ἀθάνατον, ὑπὲρ τούτων ἐγκαλεῖς καὶ δυσχεραίνεις; Ἀλλὰ γὰρ οὐκ οἶδα πῶς ἐνταῦθα τὸν λόγον ἐξηγάγομεν καὶ μακρὸν εἰργασάμεθα. ∆ιόπερ ἀναγκαῖον αὐτὸν συστεῖλαι πάλιν. Καὶ γὰρ καὶ τοῦτο τῆς ἡμετέρας ταλαιπωρίας, ὅτι ἐνταῦθα μὲν, ἂν μακρὸς γένηται ὁ λόγος, πάντες ἀκηδιῶμεν· ἐκεῖ δὲ ἐκ μέσης ἡμέρας ἀρχόμενοι, ὑπὸ λαμπάσι καὶ λύχνοις ἀναχωροῦσιν. Ἀλλ' ἵνα μὴ ἀεὶ ἐγκαλῶμεν, παρακαλοῦμεν ὑμᾶς λοιπὸν καὶ δεόμεθα· δότε ταύτην τὴν χάριν καὶ ἡμῖν καὶ ἑαυτοῖς, καὶ πάντων ἀπαλλαγέντες τῶν ἄλλων, τούτοις ἑαυτοὺς προσηλώσωμεν. Κερδανοῦμεν γὰρ καὶ ἡμεῖς ἐξ ὑμῶν τὴν χαρὰν καὶ