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

To Chilo, his disciple.and trying to drown every one at once under its waves. 2079 Tell me, O evil thought, tell me,dæmon of short lived pleasure and vain glory, what is the good of my seeing and hearingall these things, when I am powerless to succour any of those who are thus wronged; whenI am allowed neither to defend the helpless nor correct the fallen; when I am perhaps doomedto destroy myself too. For just as a very little fresh water is blown away by a storm of windand dust, in like manner the good deeds, that we think we do in this life, are overwhelmedby the multitude of evils. Pieces acted for men in this life are driven through joy and merriment,like stakes into their hearts, so that the brightness of their worship is be-dimmed.But the wails and lamentations of men wronged by their fellows are introduced to make ashow of the patience of the poor.5. What good then do I get except the loss of my soul? For this reason I migrate to thehills like a bird. “I am escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers.” 2080 I am living, Oevil thought, in the desert in which the Lord lived. Here is the oak of Mamre; here is theladder going up to heaven, and the stronghold of the angels which Jacob saw; here is thewilderness in which the people purified received the law, and so came into the land ofpromise and saw God. Here is Mount Carmel where Elias sojourned and pleased God.Here is the plain whither Esdras withdrew, and at God’s bidding uttered all the God inspiredbooks. 2081 Here is the wilderness in which the blessed John ate locusts and preached repentanceto men. Here is the Mount of Olives, whither Christ came and prayed, and taught usto pray. Here is Christ the lover of the wilderness, for He says “Where two or three aregathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them.” 2082 “Here is the strait andnarrow way which leadeth unto life.” 2083 Here are the teachers and prophets “wanderingin deserts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth.” 2084 Here are apostles andevangelists and solitaries’ life remote from cities. This I have embraced with all my heart,that I may win what has been promised to Christ’s martyrs and all His other saints, and soI may truly say, “Because of the words of thy lips I have kept hard ways.” 2085 I have heardof Abraham, God’s friend, who obeyed the divine voice and went into the wilderness; ofIsaac who submitted to authority; of Jacob, the patriarch, who left his home; of Joseph, the1462079 The Ben. note on this painful picture suggests that the description applies to Palestine, and comparesthe account of Jerusalem to be found in Gregory of Nyssa’s letter on Pilgrimages in this edition, p. 382. OnBasil’s visit to the Holy Land, cf. Ep. ccxxiii. § 2.2080 Ps. cxxiv. 7.2081 cf. Esdras ii. 14; Irenæus, Adv. Hær. iii, 21, 2; Tertullian, De Cult. Fam. i. 3; Clem. Alex., Strom. i. 22.2082 Matt. xviii. 20; a curious misapplication of the text.2083 Matt. vii. 14.2084 Heb. xi. 38.2085 Ps. xvii. 4, LXX.442