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

Exegetic.the security of its safe keeping. The recipients will have the advantage of its use. And if itis increase which you seek, be satisfied with that which is given by the Lord. He will paythe interest for the poor. Await the loving-kindness of Him Who is in truth most kind.“What you are taking involves the last extremity of inhumanity. You are making yourprofit out of misfortune; you are levying a tax upon tears. You are strangling the naked.You are dealing blows on the starving. There is no pity anywhere, no sense of your kinshipto the hungry, and you call the profit you get from these sources kindly and humane! Wounto them that ‘put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter,’ 507 and call inhumanity humanity!This surpasses even the riddle which Samson proposed to his boon companions:—‘Out ofthe eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness.’ 508 Out of the inhumancame forth humanity! Men do not gather grapes of thorns, nor figs of thistles, 509 norhumanity of usury. A corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. 510 There are such people astwelve-per-cent-men and ten-per-cent-men: I shudder to mention their names. They areexactors by the month, like the demons who produce epilepsy, attacking the poor as thechanges of the moon come round. 511“Here there is an evil grant to either, to giver and to recipient. To the latter, it bringsruin on his property; to the former, on his soul. The husbandman, when he has the ear instore, does not search also for the seed beneath the root; you both possess the fruit andcannot keep your hands from the principal. You plant where there is no ground. You reapwhere there has been no sowing. For whom you are gathering you cannot tell. The manfrom whom usury wrings tears is manifest enough; but it is doubtful who is destined to enjoythe results of the superfluity. You have laid up in store for yourself the trouble that resultsfrom your iniquity, but it is uncertain whether you will not leave the use of your wealth toothers. Therefore, ‘from him that would borrow of thee, turn not thou away;’ 512 and donot give your money upon usury. Learn from both Old and New Testament what is profitablefor you, and so depart hence with good hope to your Lord; in Him you will receive the interestof your good deeds,—in Jesus Christ our Lord to Whom be glory and might for ever andever, Amen.”xlix507 Is. v. 20.508 Judges xiv. 14.509 Matt. vii. 16.510 cf. Matt. vii. 18.511 On the connexion between σεληνιασμός and ἐπιληψία, cf. Origen iii. 575–577, and Cæsarius, Quæst. 50.On the special attribution of epilepsy to dæmoniacal influence illustrated by the name ἱερὰ νοσος, see Hippocrates,De Morbo Sacro.512 Matt. v. 42.84