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

To the Church of Neocæsarea. Consolatory.an one it is the Lord’s to show you. That Lord, from the time of Gregory the great championof your church down to that of the blessed departed, setting over you one after another, andfrom time to time fitting one to another like gem set close to gem, has bestowed on youglorious ornaments for your church. You have, then, no need to despair of them that areto come. The Lord knoweth who are His. He may bring into our midst those for whomperadventure we are not looking.3. I meant to have come to an end long before this, but the pain at my heart does notallow me. Now I charge you by the Fathers, by the true faith, by our blessed friend, lift upyour souls, each man making what is being done his own immediate business, each reckoningthat he will be the first to reap the consequences of the issue, whichever way it turn out, lestyour fate be that which so very frequently befalls, every one leaving to his neighbour thecommon interests of all; and then, while each one makes little in his own mind of what isgoing on, all of you unwittingly draw your own proper misfortunes on yourselves by yourneglect. Take, I beg you, what I say with all kindliness, whether it be regarded as an expressionof the sympathy of a neighbour, or as fellowship between fellow believers, or, which isreally nearer the truth, of one who obeys the law of love, and shrinks from the risk of silence.I am persuaded that you are my boasting, as I am yours, till the day of the Lord, and that itdepends upon the pastor who will be granted you whether I shall be more closely united toyou by the bond of love, or wholly severed from you. This latter God forbid. By God’s graceit will not so be; and I should be sorry now to say one ungracious word. But this I do wishyou to know, that though I had not that blessed man always at my side, in my efforts for thepeace of the churches, because, as he himself affirmed, of certain prejudices, yet, nevertheless,at no time did I fail in unity of opinion with him, and I have always invoked his aid in mystruggles against the heretics. Of this I call to witness God and all who know me best.415