Nicene and Post-Nicene Church Fathers Series 2 - The Still Small ...

arises among fellow-countrymen. The remedy for this vice is to recognise the pettiness of
the common objects of human ambition, and to aspire to eternal joys. If riches are a mere
means to unrighteousness, 642 wo be to the rich man! If they are a ministering to virtue,
there is no room for envy, since the common advantages proceeding from them are open
to all,—unless any one out of superfluity of wickedness envies himself his own good things!
In Homily XIII., on Holy Baptism, St. Basil combats an error which had naturally arisen
out of the practice of postponing baptism. The delay was made an occasion of license and
indulgence. St. Augustine 643 cites the homily as St. Chrysostom’s, but the quotation has
not weakened the general acceptance of the composition as Basil’s, and as one of those referred
to by Amphilochius. 644 Ceillier mentions its citation by the emperor Justinian. 645
It was apparently delivered at Easter. Baptism is good at all times. 646 “Art thou a young
man? Secure thy youth by the bridle of baptism. Has thy prime passed by? Do not be deprived
of thy viaticum. Do not lose thy safeguard. Do not think of the eleventh hour as of
the first. It is fitting that even at the beginning of life we should have the end in view.”
“Imitate 647 the eunuch. 648 He found one to teach him. He did not despise instruction.
The rich man made the poor man mount into his chariot. The illustrious and the great
welcomed the undistinguished and the small. When he had been taught the gospel of the
kingdom, he received the faith in his heart, and did not put off the seal of the Spirit.”
Homily XIV., against Drunkards, has the special interest of being originated by a painful
incident which it narrates. The circumstances may well be compared with those of the
scandal caused by the deacon Glycerius. 649 Easter day, remarks St. Basil, is a day when decent
women ought to have been sitting in their homes, piously reflecting on future judgment.
Instead of this, certain wanton women, forgetful of the fear of God, flung their coverings
from their heads, despising God, and in contempt of His angels, lost to all shame before the
gaze of men, shaking their hair, trailing their tunics, sporting with their feet, with immodest
glances and unrestrained laughter, went off into a wild dance. They invited all the riotous
youth to follow them, and kept up their dances in the Basilica of the Martyrs’ before the
walls of Cæsarea, turning hallowed places into the workshop of their unseemliness. They
sang indecent songs, and befouled the ground with their unhallowed tread. They got a
642 § 5.
643 In Julian. vi.
644 Orat. ii.
645 Conc. v. p. 668.
646 § 5.
647 § 6.
648 Acts viii. 27.
649 cf. Letterclxix. and observations in Prolegomena, p. xxix.
Homiletical.
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