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

To Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria.To Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria.Letter LXXXII. 2281When I turn my gaze upon the world, and perceive the difficulties by which every effortafter good is obstructed, like those of a man walking in fetters, I am brought to despair ofmyself. But then I direct my gaze in the direction of your reverence; I remember that ourLord has appointed you to be physician of the diseases in the Churches; and I recover myspirits, and rise from the depression of despair to the hope of better things. As your wisdomwell knows, the whole Church is undone. And you see everything in all directions in yourmind’s eye like a man looking from some tall watch tower, 2282 as when at sea many shipssailing together are all dashed one against the other by the violence of the waves, and shipwreckarises in some cases from the sea being furiously agitated from without, in othersfrom the disorder of the sailors hindering and crowding one another. It is enough to presentthis picture, and to say no more. 2283 Your wisdom requires nothing farther, and the presentstate of affairs does not allow me freedom of speech. What capable pilot can be found insuch a storm? Who is worthy to rouse the Lord to rebuke the wind and the sea? Who buthe who from his boyhood 2284 fought a good fight on behalf of true religion? Since nowtruly all that is sound among us is moving in the direction of fellowship and unity with thosewho are of the same opinion, we have come confidently to implore you to send us a singleletter, advising us what is to be done. In this way they wish that they may have a beginningof communication which may promote unity. They may, peradventure, be suspected byyou, when you remember the past, and therefore, most God-beloved Father, do as follows;send me the letters to the bishops, either by the hand of some one in whom you place trustin Alexandria, or by the hand of our brother Dorotheus the deacon: when I have receivedthese letters I will not deliver them till I have got the bishops’ answers; if not, let me “bearthe blame for ever.” 2285 Truly this ought not to have struck more awe into him who firstuttered it to his father, than into me who now say it to my spiritual father. If however you1732281 Placed at the end of 371 or the beginning of 372.2282 The fitness of this figure in a letter to the bishop of Alexandria will not escape notice. At the easternextremity of the island of Pharos still stood the marble lighthouse erected more than 600 years before by PtolemyII., and not destroyed till after the thirteenth century.2283 On Basil’s use of this nautical metaphor, cf. De Spirtu Sancto, chap. xxx. It is of course a literary commonplace,but Basil’s associations all lay inland.2284 The story of “the boy bishop” will be remembered, whose serious game of baptism attracted the noticeof Alexander and led to the education of Athanasius in the Episcopal palace. Soc., Ecc. Hist. i. 15. Rufinus i.14. cf. Keble, Lyra Innocentium, “Enacting holy rites.”2285 Gen. xliii. 9.510