Letter CCXLI.1293    Placed in 376.

To Eusebius, bishop of Samosata.

It is not to increase your distress that I am so lavish of painful topics in my letters to your excellency.  My object is to get some comfort for myself in the lamentations which are a kind of natural means of dispersing deep-seated pain whenever they are produced, and further to rouse you, my great-hearted friend, to more earnest prayer on behalf of the Churches.  We know that Moses prayed continually for the people; yet, when his battle with Amalek had begun, he did not let down his hands from morning to evening, and the uplifting of the hands of the saint only ended with the end of the fight.

ΕΥΣΕΒΙῼ ΕΠΙΣΚΟΠῼ ΣΑΜΟΣΑΤΩΝ

[1] Οὐχ ὥστε πλείους ποιῆσαι τὰς ἀθυμίας, τῶν δυσχερῶν πολλάκις ἐν τοῖς πρὸς τὴν τιμιότητά σου γράμμασιν οὐ φειδόμεθα, ἀλλ' ὥστε ἑαυτοῖς τέ τινα παραμυθίαν δοῦναι διὰ τῶν στεναγμῶν, οἳ πεφύκασί πως τὸ ἐν τῷ βάθει ἀλγεινὸν διαφορεῖν, ὅταν γίνωνται, καὶ τὴν σὴν μεγαλόνοιαν πρὸς ἐκτενεστέραν τὴν ὑπὲρ τῶν Ἐκκλησιῶν εὐχὴν παρορμῆσαι. Ἐπεὶ καὶ Μωσῆς ηὔχετο μὲν ἀεὶ ὑπὲρ τοῦ λαοῦ δηλονότι, ὅτε μέντοι πρὸς τὸν Ἀμαλὴκ ἀγὼν αὐτῷ συνειστήκει, οὐ καθῆκε τὰς χεῖρας ἐξ ἕω μέχρις ἑσπέρας, ἀλλ' ἡ ἔκτασις τῶν χειρῶν τοῦ ἁγίου τῷ τέλει τῆς μάχης συναπηρτίζετο.