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

To Eustathius the Physician.Letter CLI. 2499To Eustathius the Physician. 2500If my letters are of any good, lose no time in writing to me and in rousing me to write.We are unquestionably made more cheerful when we read the letters of wise men who lovethe Lord. It is for you to say, who read it, whether you find anything worth attention inwhat I write. Were it not for the multitude of my engagements, I should not debar myselffrom the pleasure of writing frequently. Pray do you, whose cares are fewer, soothe me byyour letters. Wells, it is said, are the better for being used. The exhortations which youderive from your profession are apparently beside the point, for it is not I who am applyingthe knife; it is men whose day is done, who are falling upon themselves. 2501 The phrase ofthe Stoics runs, “since things do not happen as we like, we like what happens;” but I cannotmake my mind fall in with what is happening. That some men should do what they do notlike because they cannot help it, I have no objection. You doctors do not cauterise a sickman, or make him suffer pain in some other way, because you like it; but you often adoptthis treatment in obedience to the necessity of the case. Mariners do not willingly throwtheir cargo overboard; but in order to escape shipwreck they put up with the loss, preferringa life of penury to death. Be sure that I look with sorrow and with many groans upon theseparation of those who are holding themselves aloof. But yet I endure it. To lovers of thetruth nothing can be put before God and hope in Him. 25022499 Placed in 373.2500 cf. Letter clxxxix. On those who had renounced communion with Eustathius the bishop.2501 i.e. Eustathius, the bishop, is rushing upon the knife.2502 The view of the Ben. Ed. is that the bales thrown overboard represent the loss of unity incurred by theSebastenes by leaving the communion of Eustathius for his own. cf. Letter ccxxxvii.604