Chapter I.
The holy look of virginity is precious indeed in the judgment of all
who make purity the test of beauty; but it belongs to those alone whose
struggles to gain this object of a noble love are favoured and helped
by the grace of God. Its praise is heard at once in the very name which
goes with it; “Uncorrupted1346
| 1346 τὸ
ἄφθορον;
this is connected just below with the Divine ἀφθαρσία. In commenting on the meaning of this latter word at the close of
the Epistle to the Ephesians, Bishop Ellicott prefers to take it
with ἀγαπώντων, “in a manner and an element that knows neither
change, diminution, nor decay” (“in uncorruptness”
R.V.): although in the six other passages where it occurs in S. Paul
“it refers directly or indirectly to a higher sphere than the
present.” i.e. of immortality above, and might so, if the
construction allowed, be taken with χάρις. This
illustrates Gregory’s use of ἀφθαρσία in its human relation. |
” is the
word commonly said of it, and this shows the
kind of
purity that is in
it; thus we can measure by its equivalent term the height of this
gift,
seeing that amongst the many results of virtuous endeavour this alone
has been honoured with the title of the thing that is uncorrupted. And
if we must extol with laudations this
gift from the great
God, the
words of His
Apostle are sufficient in its
praise; they are few, but
they throw into the background all extravagant laudations; he only
styles as “holy and without
blemish1347
” her who has this
grace for her
ornament. Now if the achievement of this saintly
virtue consists in
making one “without
blemish and holy,” and these epithets
are
adopted in their first and fullest force to
glorify the
incorruptible Deity, what greater
praise of
virginity can there be than
thus to be shown in a manner
deifying those who share in her
pure
mysteries, so that they become partakers of His
glory Who is in
actual
truth the only Holy and Blameless One; their
purity and their
incorruptibility being the means of bringing them into relationship
with Him? Many who
write lengthy laudations in detailed treatises, with
the view of adding something to the wonder of this
grace, unconsciously
defeat, in my opinion, their own end; the fulsome manner in which they
amplify their subject brings its credit into suspicion.
Nature’s
greatnesses have their own way of striking with admiration; they do not
need the pleading of words: the
sky, for instance, or the sun, or any
other wonder of the universe. In the
business of this lower
world words
certainly act as a basement, and the skill of
praise does impart a look
of magnificence; so much so, that
mankind are apt to suspect as the
result of mere art the wonder produced by panegyric. So the one
sufficient way of praising
virginity will be to show that that
virtue
is above
praise, and to evince our admiration of it by our lives rather
than by our words. A man who takes this theme for ambitious
praise has
the appearance of supposing that one drop of his own perspiration will
make an appreciable increase of the boundless ocean, if indeed he
believes, as he does, that any human words can give more dignity to so
rare a grace; he must be ignorant either of his own powers or of that
which he attempts to praise.
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
