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

ought and laid it at the feet of the apostles, and by them it was distributed to each as every
man had need. 2498 For he said that experience was needed in order to distinguish between
cases of genuine need and of mere greedy begging. For whoever gives to the afflicted gives
to the Lord, and from the Lord shall have his reward; but he who gives to every vagabond
casts to a dog, a nuisance indeed from his importunity, but deserving no pity on the ground
of want.
4. He was moreover the first to speak shortly, as befits the importance of the subject,
about some of the daily duties of life. As to this I should wish you to hear from himself, for
it would not be right for me to weaken the force of his lessons. I would pray that we might
visit him together, that so you might both accurately preserve in your memory what he said,
and supply any omissions by your own intelligence. One thing that I do remember, out of
the many which I heard, is this; that instruction how to lead the Christian life depends less
on words, than on daily example. I know that, if you had not been detained by the duty of
succouring your aged father, there is nothing that you would have more greatly esteemed
than a meeting with the bishop, and that you would not have advised me to leave him in
order to wander in deserts. Caves and rocks are always ready for us, but the help we get
from our fellow man is not always at hand. If, then, you will put up with my giving you
advice, you will impress on your father the desirability of his allowing you to leave him for
a little while in order to meet a man who, alike from his experience of others and from his
own wisdom, knows much, and is able to impart it to all who approach him.
2498 It will be observed that St. Basil’s quotation here does not quite bear out his point. There is no “by them”
in Acts iv. 35. “Distribution was made unto every man according as he had need.” In Acts ii. 45 the primitive
communists are said themselves to have “parted to all men as every man had need,” the responsibility of distri-
bution being apparently retained.
To Amphilochius in the name of Heraclidas.
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