§2. To S. Gregory of
Nyssa.
(Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, was a younger brother of
Basil the Great. Ordained a Reader at an early age he grew tired
of his vocation, and became a professor of Rhetoric. This gave
scandal in the Church and occasioned much grief to his friends.
Gregory of Nazianzus, wrote him the following letter of remonstrance,
which was not without effect, for shortly afterwards he gave up his
secular avocation, and retired to the Monastery which his brother Basil
had founded in Pontus. Here he spent several years in the study
of Holy Scripture and the best Commentators.)
Ep. I.
There is one good point in my character, and I
will boast myself of one point out of many. I am equally vexed
with myself and my friends over a bad plan. Since, then, all are
friends and kinsfolk who live according to God, and walk by the same
Gospel, why should you not hear from me in plain words what all men are
saying in whispers? They do not approve your inglorious glory (to
borrow a phrase from your own art), and your gradual descent to the
lower life, and your ambition, the worst of demons, according to
Euripides.4741
For what has
happened to you, O
wisest of men, and for what do you
condemn yourself,
that you have cast away the
sacred and delightful books which you used
once to read to the people (do not be
ashamed to hear this), or have
hung them up over the chimney, as men do in
winter with rudders and
hoes, and have applied yourself to
salt and
bitter ones, and preferred
to be called a Professor of Rhetoric rather than of Christianity?
I, thank
God, would rather be the latter than the former. Do not,
my dear
friend, do not let this be longer the case, but, though it is
full late, become sober again, and come to yourself once more, and make
your apology to the
faithful, and to
God, and to His
Altars and
Sacraments, from which you have withdrawn yourself. And do not
say to me in
proud rhetorical style, What, was I not a
Christian when I
practised rhetoric? Was I not a
believer when I was engaged among
the
boys? And perhaps you will call
God to witness. No, my
friend, not as thoroughly as you ought to have been, even if I grant it
you in part. What of the
offence to others given by your present
employment—to others who are prone naturally to
evil—and of
the opportunity afforded them both to think and to speak the worst of
you? Falsely, I grant, but where was the necessity? For a man lives not
for himself alone but also for his neighbour; nor is it enough to
persuade yourself, you must
persuade others also. If you were to
practise boxing in
public, or to give and receive blows in the
theatre,
or to writhe and twist yourself shamefully, would you speak of yourself
as having a temperate
soul? Such an argument does not
befit a
wise man; it is frivolous to accept it. If you make a change I
shall
rejoice even now, said one of the Pythagorean
philosophers,
lamenting the fall of a
friend; but, he wrote, if not you are dead to
me. But I will not yet say this for your sake. Being a
friend, he became an
enemy, yet still a
friend, as the Tragedy
says. But I shall be
grieved (to speak gently), if you do neither
yourself see what is right, which is the highest method of all, nor
will follow the
advice of others, which is the next. Thus
far my
counsel.
Forgive me that my
friendship for you makes me
grieve,
and kindles me both on your behalf and on behalf of the whole priestly
Order, and I may add on that of all Christians. And if I may pray
with you or for you, may God who quickeneth the dead aid your
weakness.
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