DISCOURSE SIXTH.

BASIL THE GREAT.

THIS distinguished ecclesiastic was born in 329, at Cesarea, in Cappa docia, and was called the Great to distinguish him from other Greek patriarchs of the same name. After completing his studies at Athens, for a time he taught rhetoric and practiced law. In 370 he was made Bishop of Cesarea, where he died in 379. Basil's first religious instruc tion was from his grandmother, Marina, a hearer and admirer of one of the Gregories. He was decidedly ascetic in his cast of mind and habits, and became a zealous monk, the habits of which order he continued, to a great extent, even when filling his highest official position. Neverthe less he was active and efficient, and did much to reform the morals of the clergy, and establish discipline in the churches. He also offered successful resistance to the tyranny of the Emperor Valens, to whose threats he replied that he had nothing to fear, possessions he had none except a few books, and his cloak; an exile was no exile for him since the whole earth was the Lord's; and if tortured, his feeble body would yield to the first blows, and death would bring him nearer to his God, for whom he longed.

In point of genius, controversial skill, and a rich and flowing eloquence, Basil was excelled by very few in the fourth century. His works that remain are numerous, consisting of discourses, homilies, epis tles, tracts, etc. Some of them are marked by classical purity and flexi bility of style, such as is rarely attained; and, taken together, they prove their author to have been a fine belles lettres scholar, an elegant writer, and good reasoner, notwithstanding the gloomy austerity of his monastic disposition. The production which follows is an epistle or address, directed to one who had renounced her vows of celibacy, and entered the marriage relation. It is chosen instead of some one of the set discourses (for it is itself a discourse to a single individual) because of its celebrity as a specimen of eloquence. Of course, fully to appreciate it, we should endeavor to occupy the author's stand-point, and conceive of his mistaken, but perhaps honest convictions as to the advantages and peculiar sanctity of the single life, and the guilt and fearful consequences of its abandonment when once the vows of virginity had been assumed.

To us the occasion seems unworthy to call forth such an effusion of tempered rebuke, ingenious argument, and lofty appeal; but this does not detract from its real merit as a production to move the mind. Fénélon says of it, in his Dialogues concerning eloquence, "There is nothing more eloquent; in my opinion, it is a masterpiece." As will be seen by a careful analysis, it possesses the essential parts of an ordinary discourse: first, the occasion of rebuke, second, the nature and aggravated features of the crime alleged; third, the remedy; fourth, persuasives to its adoption.

ADMONITION TO THE FALLEN.

It is time, now, to take up the exclamation of the prophet: 0 that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep for the wounded* of the daughter of my people!-Jeremiah 9: 1.

For, although they are wrapped in profound silence, and lie quite. stupified by their calamity, and deprived, by their deadly wound, even of the very sense of suffering, yet it does not become us to withhold our tears over so sad a fall. For if Jeremiah deemed those worthy of countless lamentations who had received bodily wounds in battle, what shall we say when souls are involved in so great a calamity? "Thy wounded," says the prophet, "are not wounded with the sword, and thy dead are not the dead of war." But my lamentation is for grievous sin, the sting of the true death, and for the fiery darts of the wicked, which have cruelly kindled a flame in both body and soul. Well might the laws of God groan within themselves, beholding such pollution on earth, those laws which always utter their loud prohibition, saying in olden time, Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife; and in the Gospels, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. But now they behold the very bride of the Lord-her of whom Christ is the head-committing adultery without fear or shame. Yes, the very spirits of departed saints may well groan, the zealous Phineas, that it is not permitted to him now to snatch the spear and to punish the loathsome sin with a summary corporeal vengeance, and John the Baptist, that he can not now leave the celestial abodes, as he once left the wilderness, and hasten to rebuke the transgression, and if the sacrifice were called for, to lay down his head sooner than abate the severity of his reproof. Nay, let us So it reads in the Sept. Le. the wounded.

rather say that, like blessed Abel, John being dead yet speaketh, and now lifts up his voice with a yet louder cry than in the case of Herodias, saying, It is not lawful for thee to have her. For, although the body of John, yielding to the inevitable sentence of God, has paid the debt of nature, and his tongue is silent, yet the word of God is not bound. And he who, when the marriage covenant had been violated in the case of a fellow servant, was faithful even unto death with his stern reproofs, what must he have felt if he had seen the holy bride-chamber of the Lord thus wantonly outraged?

But as for thee, O thou who hast thus cast off the yoke of that divine union, and deserted the undefiled chamber of the true King, and shamefully fallen into this disgraceful and impious defilement, since thou hast no way of evading this bitter charge, and no method or artifice can avail to conceal thy fearful crime, thou boldly hardenest thyself in guilt. And as he who has once fallen into the abyss of crime becomes henceforth an impious despiser, so thou deniest thy very covenant with the true bridegroom; alleging that thou wast not a virgin, and hadst never taken the vow, although thou hast both received and given many pledges of virginity. Remember the good confession which thou hast made before God, and angels, and men. Remember that venerable assembly, and the sacred choir of virgins, and the congregation of the Lord, and the Church of the saints. Remember thy aged grandmother in Christ, whose Christian virtues still flourish in the vigor of youth; and thy mother in the Lord, who vies with the former, and strives by new and unwonted endeavors to dissolve the bands of custom; and thy sister likewise, in some things their imitator, and in some aspiring to excel them, and to surpass in the merits of virginity the attainments of her progenitors, and both in word and deed diligently inviting thee, her sister, as is meet, to the same competition. Remember these, and the angelic company associated with them in the service of the Lord, and the spiritual life though yet in the flesh, and the heavenly converse upon earth. Remember the tranquil days and the luminous nights, and the spiritual songs, and the melodious psalmody, and the holy prayers, and the chaste and undefiled couch, and the progress in virginal purity, and the temperate diet so helpful in preserv ing thy virginity uncontaminated. And where is now that grave deportment, and that modest mien, and that plain attire which so becomes a virgin, and that beautiful blush of bashfulness, and that comely paleness-the delicate bloom of abstinence and vigils, that outshines every ruddier glow. How often in prayer that thou mightest keep unspotted thy virginal purity hast thou poured forth

thy tears! How many letters hast thou indited to holy men, implor ing their prayers, not that thou mightest obtain these human-nup. tials, shall I call them? rather this dishonorable defilement--but that thou mightest not fall away from the Lord Jesus? How often hast thon received the gifts of the spouse! And why should I mention also the honors accorded for his, sake by those who are his-the companionship of the virgins, journeyings with them, welcomes from them, encomiums of virginity, blessings bestowed by virgins, letters addressed to thee as to a virgin! But now, having been just breathed upon by the aerial spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience, thou hast denied all these, and hast bartered that precious and enviable possession for a brief pleasure, which is sweet to thy taste for a moment, but which afterward thou will find bitterer than gall.

Besides all this, who can avoid exclaiming with grief, "How is Zion, the faithful city, become an harlot." Nay, does not the Lord Himself say to some who now walk in the spirit of Jeremiah, "Hast thou seen what the virgin of Israel hath done unto me?" "I betrothed her unto me in faith and purity, in righteousness and in judgment, and in loving-kindness and in mercies," even as I promised her by Hosea the prophet. But she has loved strangers; and even while I her husband lived, she has made herself an adulteress, and has not feared to become the wife of another husband. And what would the bride's guardian and conductor say, the divine and blessed Paul! Both the ancient Apostle, and this modern one,* under whose auspices and instruction thou didst leave thy father's house, and join thyself to the Lord? Would not each, filled with grief at the great calamity, say, "The thing which I greatly feared has come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me," for "I espoused you unto one husband, that I might present you as a chaste virgin to Christ;" and I was always fearful, lest in some way as the serpent beguiled Eve by his subtilty, so thy mind should sometime be corrupted. And on this account I always endeavored, like a skillful charmer, by innumerable incantations, to suppress the tumult of the passions, and by a thousand safeguards to secure the bride of the Lord, rehearsing again and again the manner of life of her who is unmarried, how that she only "careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit;" and I set forth the honor of virginity, calling thee the

It would appear that the priest who administered to her the vow of celibacy and chastity was also named Paul.

temple of God, that I might add wings to thy zeal, and help thee upward to Jesus; and I also had recourse to the fear of evil, to prevent thee from falling, telling thee that "if any man defile the tem ple of God, him shall God destroy." I also added the assistance of my prayers, that if possible, "thy whole body, and soul, and spirit might be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." But all this labor I have spent in vain upon thee; and those sweet toils have ended in a bitter disappointment; and now I must again groan over her of whom I ought to have joy. For lo, thou hast been beguiled by the serpent more bitterly than Eve; for not only has thy mind become defiled, but with it thy very body also: and what is still more horrible-I dread to say it, but I can not suppress it; for it is as fire burning and blazing in my bones, and I am dissolving in every part and can not endure it-thou hast taken the members of Christ, and made them the members of a harlot. This is incomparably the greatest evil of all: this is a new crime in the world, to which we may apply the words of the prophet, "Pass over the isles of Chittim, and see; and send unto Kedar, and consider diligently, and see if there be such a thing. Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods?" For the virgin hath changed her glory, and now glories in her shame. The heavens are astonished at this, and the earth trembleth very exceedingly. Now also the Lord says, the virgin hath committed two evils, she hath forsaken me, the true and holy bridegroom of sanctified souls, and hath fled to an impious and lawless polluter of the body, and corrupter of the soul. She hath turned away from God her Saviour, and hath yielded her members servants to impurity and iniquity: she hath forgotten me, and gone after her lover, by whom she shall not profit.

It were better for him that a mill-stone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should cause one of the Lord's virgins to offend. What impudent servant ever carried his insane audacity so far as to fling himself upon the couch of his lord? Or what robber has ever become so madly hardened as to lay hands upon the very offerings devoted to God?-but here it is not inanimate vessels, but living bodies, inhabited by souls made in the image of God. Since the beginning of the world was any one ever heard of, who dared, in the midst of a great city, in broad mid-day, to deface the likeness of a king by inscribing upon it the forms of filthy swine? He that despises human nuptials dies with out mercy under two or three witnesses; of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy who hath trodder