NPNF2-08. Basil: Letters and Select Works - Holy Bible Institute

Exegetic.other men’s springs; provide your comforts from your own reservoirs. Have you householdvessels, clothes, beast of burden, all kinds of furniture? Sell these. Rather surrender all thanlose your liberty. Ah, but—he rejoins—I am ashamed to put them up for sale. What thendo you think of another’s bringing them out a little later on, and crying your goods, andgetting rid of them for next to nothing before your very eyes? Do not go to another man’sdoor. Verily ‘another man’s well is narrow.’ 503 Better is it to relieve your necessity graduallyby one contrivance after another than after being all in a moment elated by another man’smeans, afterwards to be stripped at once of everything. If you have anything wherewith topay, why do you not relieve your immediate difficulties out of these resources? If you areinsolvent, you are only trying to cure ill with ill. Decline to be blockaded by an usurer. Donot suffer yourself to be sought out and tracked down like another man’s game. 504 Usuryis the origin of lying; the beginning of ingratitude, unfairness, perjury.…. . . . . . . . . . .“But, you ask, how am I to live? You have hands. You have a craft. Work for wages.Go into service. There are many ways of getting a living, many kinds of resources. You arehelpless? Ask those who have means. It is discreditable to ask? It will be much more discreditableto rob your creditor. I do not speak thus to lay down the law. I only wish to pointout that any course is more advantageous to you than borrowing.. . . . . . . . . . .“Listen, you rich men, to the kind of advice I am giving to the poor because of your inhumanity.Far better endure under their dire straits than undergo the troubles that are bredof usury! But if you were obedient to the Lord, what need of these words? What is the adviceof the Master? Lend to those from whom ye do not hope to receive. 505 And what kind ofloan is this, it is asked, from all which all idea of the expectation of repayment is withdrawn?Consider the force of the expression, and you will be amazed at the loving kindness of thelegislator. When you mean to supply the need of a poor man for the Lord’s sake, thetransaction is at once a gift and a loan. Because there is no expectation of reimbursement,it is a gift. Yet because of the munificence of the Master, Who repays on the recipient’s behalf,it is a loan. ‘He that hath pity on the poor lendeth unto the Lord.’ 506 Do you not wish theMaster of the universe to be responsible for your repayment? If any wealthy man in thetown promises you repayment on behalf of others, do you admit his suretyship? But youdo not accept God, Who more than repays on behalf of the poor. Give the money lyinguseless, without weighting it with increase, and both shall be benefited. To you will accrue503 Prov. xxiii. 27, LXX.504 ὥσπερ ἀλλότριον θήραμα. Ed. Par. Vulg. ὥσπερ ἄλλο τι θήραμα.505 cf. Luke vi. 34, 35.506 Prov. xix. 17.83