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

To Zoilus.
Letter CXCIV. 2681
What are you about, most excellent sir, in anticipating me in humility? Educated as
you are, and able to write such a letter as you have sent, you nevertheless ask for forgiveness
at my hands, as though you were engaged in some undertaking rash and beyond your position.
But a truce to mockery. Continue to write to me on every occasion. Am I not wholly
illiterate? It is delightful to read the letters of an eloquent writer. Have I learned from
Scripture how good a thing is love? I count intercourse with a loving friend invaluable.
And I do hope that you may tell me of all the good gifts which I pray for you; the best of
health, and the prosperity of all your house. Now as to my own affairs, my condition is not
more endurable than usual. It is enough to tell you this and you will understand the bad
state of my health. It has indeed reached such extreme suffering as to be as difficult to describe
as to experience, if indeed your own experience has fallen short of mine. But it is the
work of the good God to give me power to bear in patience whatever trials are inflicted on
me for my own good at the hands of our merciful Lord.
2681 Placed in 375.
To Zoilus.
672