| Love God, if He has wrought in you somewhat of that which you hear and praisest. Use the world: let not the world hold you captive. You are passing on the journey you have begun; you have come, again to depart, not to abide. You are passing on your journey, and this life is but a wayside inn. Use money as the traveller at an inn uses table, cup, pitcher, and couch, with the purpose not of remaining, but of leaving them behind. If such you would be, you, who can stir up your hearts and hear me; if such you would be, you will attain to His promises. It is not too much for your strength, for mighty is the hand of Him who has called you. He has called you. Call upon Him, say to Him, You have called us, we call upon You; see, we have heard You calling us, hear us calling upon You: lead us whither You have promised; perfect what You have begun; forsake not Your own gifts; leave not Your own field; let Your tender shoots yet be gathered into Your barn. Temptations abound in the world, but greater is He who made the world. Temptations abound, but he fails not whose hope reposes in Him in whom there is no deficiency. 1. Of what follows of the previous lesson, and has been read publicly to us today from the holy Gospel, I then deferred speaking, because I had already said much, and of that liberty into which the grace of the Saviour calls us it was needful to treat in no cursory or negligent way. Of this, by the Lord’s help, we purpose speaking to you today. For those to whom the Lord Jesus Christ was speaking were Jews, in a large measure indeed His enemies, but also in some measure already become, and yet to be, His friends; for some He saw there, as we have already said, who should yet believe after His passion. Looking to these, He had said, When you have lifted up the Son of man, then shall you know that I am [He]. There also were those who, when He so spoke, straightway believed. To them He spoke what we have heard today: Then said Jesus to those Jews who believed on Him, If you continue in my word, you shall be my disciples indeed. |
| In another type of parable the small scale of property is equally apparent. The story of the Prodigal Son reflects a small peasant economy – a few hired servants and a single beast kept for a special feast. So, too, the hired servants of the fisherman Zebedee. 512 There is the owner of a vineyard which contained a special fig-tree, watched for three years. 513 There is the owner of another vineyard, in the parable of the hired labourers, who went down to the village square five times on his own feet to hire his harvesters, though he had a bailiff in his service. 514 The vineyard owner is a favorite figure. There is yet again Matthew’s graphic account of the walled vineyard and its strong barn or tower. This seems to be a man of some substance for once, with a staff of slaves, though he does not work his land by slave labour, but lets it on lease. 515 Land predominates, even more than in other accounts of the working economy of the ancient world. 516 There is but a single merchant in all the material of the three Galilean narratives – the pearl buyer who sells his all to secure one, and only one, costly pearl. 517 It is a principle of modern literary criticism to consider the poet or author in relation to his audience. Christ primarily addresses the crowds, o χλοι, and his illustrations must have been chosen with their preoccupations in mind. Hence the stress on the worker, the proletarian, the sower, or the hired man, or the woman with her treasure of ten denarii, ten silver shillings, with a value comparable to such a sum in the eighteenth century. But the proletarian has his counterpart in the Rich Man, πλοσιος νθρωπος in simple terms. The contrast of poor and rich is a standard type in the parables. If the scale of wealth and the proportion seems different in the Galilean scene from the pattern of organized wealth in the more developed areas of the Hellenistic world, that is as likely to reflect the actual situation in Galilee as the bias of the writer or speaker. It would agree with the general indications of Josephus’ account of Galilee, and with the failure of the Hellenistic city system to catch hold, that Galilee should have been less dominated by a landowning class or a middle class of moderately wealthy bourgeoisie. |
| 4 . Variations coming from the fact that for the first 150 to 200 years after the Hejira, the hand written copies of the Qur " an were written without vowel marks, and without dots to distinguish between different letters written in the same way. What does it mean to write without vowel marks? It is hard to give an example that would be clear to English readers. but perhaps the following will help. The sentence «he painted the barn» would be «h pntd th brn» if written without vowels as in Arabic. After one tries this for a while, one gets used to it, and the above sentence couldn " t be anything else. However, if we consider the sentence, «h gv hm a bd», it might mean «he gave him a bed» if he was in a furniture store, or «he gave him a bud» in a florist " s shop, or «he gave him a bid» if he were a contractor. In most cases the context would make this type of situation clear, but not always. Secondly, to compound the problem, there are certain letters in Arabic which are written in exactly the same way except that they have dots over them or under them to show the difference. One of these letters is made somewhat like an English «i», but in Arabic one dot above [arabic letter]=n, 2 dots above [arabic letter]=t, three dots above [arabic letter]=th, one dot below [arabic letter]=b, and two dots below [arabic letter]=y as in the words «you» or «yours». There are seven other pairs of letters in which the two members of the pair are told apart by the number of dots, and one group of three. Or to put the problem simply. There are only l5 letter forms to represent 28 different letters. I have spoken to many Muslims who do not know that the first copies of the Qur " an were written without vowel marks and without dots; and perhaps some among my readers are among them. Photograph 2 shows verses 34–36 of Sura 24, the Sura of the Light (Al-Nur), as found in an old Qur " an preserved at the British Museum in London. According to the experts it is from the end of the eighth century A.D., or about 150 A.H. |
| Alas! How rich we were in misfortunes, for the fire consumed the beauties of the world. Joel 1:19 That which the palmerworm left did the locust eat, and that which the locust left did the caterpillar eat: then came the cankerworm, then, what next I know not, one evil springing up after another. But for what purpose should I give a tragic description of the evils of the time, and of the penalty exacted from us, or, if I must rather call it so, the testing and refining we endured? At any rate, we went through fire and water, and have attained a place of refreshment by the good pleasure of God our Saviour. 4. To return to my original startingpoint. This was my field, when it was small and poor, unworthy not only of God, Who has been, and is cultivating the whole world with the fair seeds and doctrines of piety, but, apparently, even of any poor and needy man of slender means. Nay it did not deserve to be called a field, requiring neither barn nor threshing-floor, and not even worthy of the sickle; with neither heap nor sheaves, or small and untimely sheaves, like those on the housetop, which do not fill the hand of the reaper, nor call forth a blessing from them which go by. Such was my field, such my harvest; great and well-eared and fat in the eyes of Him Who beholds hidden things, and becoming such a husbandman, its abundance springing from the valleys of souls well tilled with the Word: unrecognized however in public, and not collected together, but gathered in fragments, as an ear gleaned in the stubble, as gleaning-grapes in the vintage, where there is no cluster left. I think I may add, only too appropriately, I found Israel like a figtree in the wilderness, and like one or two ripe grapes in an unripe cluster, preserved as a blessing from the Lord, Isaiah 65:8 and a consecrated firstfruit, though small as yet and scanty, and not filling the mouth of the eater: and as an ensign on a hill, and as a beacon on a mountain, or any other solitary thing visible only to few. |
| ‘Well, you see,’ he began, ‘I was drafted as a soldier from the State Peasants. After about five years’ service it became intolerably hard for me; in fact, they often flogged me for negligence and for drunkenness. I took it into my head to run away, and here I am a deserter for the last fifteen years. For six years I hid wherever I could. I stole from farms and larders and warehouses. I stole horses. I broke into shops and followed this sort of trade, always on my own. I got rid of my stolen goods in various ways. I drank the money, I led a depraved life, committed every sin. Only my soul didn’t perish. I got on very well, but in the end I got into gaol for wandering without a passport. But when a chance came I even escaped from there. Then unexpectedly I met with a soldier who had been discharged from the service and was going home to a distant government; and as he was ill and could hardly walk he asked me to take him to the nearest village where he could find a lodging. So I took him. The police allowed us to spend the night in a barn on some hay and there we lay down. When I woke up in the morning I glanced at my soldier and there he was dead and stiff. Well, I hurriedly searched for his passport-that is to say, his discharge-and when I found it and a fair amount of money too, while everybody was still asleep, I was out of that shed and the back yard as quickly as I could, and so into the forest, and off I went. On reading his passport I saw that in age and distinguishing marks he was almost the same as I. I was very glad about this and went on boldly into the depths of the Astrakhan Government. There I began to steady down a bit and I got a job as a labourer. I joined up with an old man there who had his own house and was a cattle dealer. He lived alone with his daughter, who was a widow. When I had lived with him for a year I married this daughter of his. Then the old man died. We could not carry on the business. I started drinking again, and my wife too, and in a year we had got through everything the old man had left. And then my wife took ill and died. So I sold everything that was left, and the house, and I soon ran through the money. |
| God in His goodness brought what exists into being out of nothing, and has foreknowledge of what will exist in the future. If, therefore, they were not to exist in the future, they would neither be evil in the future nor would they be foreknown. For knowledge is of what exists and foreknowledge is of what will surely exist in the future. For simple being comes first and then good or evil being. But if the very existence of those, who through the goodness of God are in the future to exist, were to be prevented by the fact that they were to become evil of their own choice, evil would have prevailed over the goodness of God. Wherefore God makes all His works good, but each becomes of its own choice good or evil. Although, then, the Lord said, Goad were it for that man that he had never been barn, He said it in condemnation not of His own creation but of the evil which His own creation had acquired by his own choice and through his own heedlessness. For the heedlessness that marks man« " s judgment made His Creator» " s beneficence of no profit to him. It is just as if any one, when he had obtained riches and dominion from a king, were to lord it over his benefactor, who, when he has worsted him, will punish him as he deserves, if he should see him keeping hold of the sovereignty to the end. Chapter XXII. Concerning the law of God and the law of sin The Deity is good and more than good, and so is His will. For that which God wishes is good. Moreover the precept, which teaches this, is law, that we, holding by it, may walk in light: and the transgression of this precept is sin, and this continues to exist on account of the assault of the devil and our unconstrained and voluntary reception of it. And this, too, is called law. And so the law of God, settling in our mind, draws it towards itself and pricks our conscience. And our conscience, too, is called a law of our mind. Further, the assault of the wicked one, that is the law of sin, settling in the members of our flesh, makes its assault upon us through it. For by once voluntarily transgressing the law of God and receiving the assault of the wicked one, we gave entrance to it, being sold by ourselves to sin. Wherefore our body is readily impelled to it. And so the savour and perception of sin that is stored up in our body, that is to say, lust and pleasure of the body, is law in the members of our flesh. |
| As then the Divine goodness does not grant these rich crops to idle husbandmen who do not till their fields by frequent ploughing, so also toil all night long is of no use to the workers unless the mercy of the Lord prospers it. But herein human pride should never try to put itself on a level with the grace of God or to intermingle itself with it, so as to fancy that its own efforts were the cause of Divine bounty, or to boast that a very plentiful crop of fruits was an answer to the merits of its own exertions. For a man should consider and with a most careful scrutiny weigh the fact that he could not by his own strength apply those very efforts which he has earnestly used in his desire for wealth, unless the Lord " s protection and pity had given him strength for the performance of all agricultural labours; and that his own will and strength would have been powerless unless Divine compassion had supplied the means for the completion of them, as they sometimes fail either from too much or from too little rain. For when vigour has been granted by the Lord to the oxen, and bodily health and the power to do all the work, and prosperity in undertakings, still a man must pray lest there come to him, as Scripture says, a heaven of brass and an earth of iron, and the cankerworm eat what the locust has left, and the palmerworm eat what the cankerworm has left, and the mildew destroys what the palmerworm has left. Nor is it only in this that the efforts of the husbandman in his work need God " s help, unless it also averts unlooked for accidents by which, even when the field is rich with the expected fruitful crops, not only is the man deprived of what he has vainly hoped and looked for, but actually loses the abundant fruits which he has already gathered and stored up in the threshing floor or in the barn. From which we clearly infer that the initiative not only of our actions but also of good thoughts comes from God, who inspires us with a good will to begin with, and supplies us with the opportunity of carrying out what we rightly desire: for every good gift and every perfect gift comes down from above, from the Father of lights, James 1:17 who both begins what is good, and continues it and completes it in us, as the Apostle says: But He who gives seed to the sower will both provide bread to eat and will multiply your seed and make the fruits of your righteousness to increase. 2Corinthians 9:10But it is for us, humbly to follow day by day the grace of God which is drawing us, or else if we resist with a stiff neck,and (to use the words of Scripture) uncircumcised ears, Acts 7:51 we shall deserve to hear the words of Jeremiah: Shall he that falls, not rise again? And he that is turned away, shall he not turn again? Why then is this people in Jerusalem turned away with a stubborn revolting? They have stiffened their necks and refused to return. Jeremiah 8:4–5 Chapter 4. |
| The Monastery also had a number of farms: 1. In Sivukha, not far from the Orans Monastery; 2. In Satis, on the Satis River, was a dairy farm, hay barn and apiary. 3. In Polki, in the forest, seven miles away along the road to Lomasov. The metochion churches had their own priests and services were conducted daily with a choir of local sisters. They also went to read the Psalter over the reposed. During free time away from services the sisters sewed blankets and knit scarves. In Peterhof was an iconography studio. Almost every metochion had a prosphora bakery. At specific times in the metochions and churches the monastery rule was read. All the agriculture work was done on the farms—dairies, apiaries, collecting mushrooms and berries for the Monastery. A mile and a half from the Monastery, in the woods by the Lomov river there was a laundry where the monastery laundry was washed. In Sivukha the sisters went to Orans Monastery on feast days, because it was very close. In Satis they went to Sarov. No one went to work on Saturdays. It was considered their “own day” when the sisters could earn some money, for the monastery only provided living quarters and a meager trapeza. Each sister obtained her own clothing and shoes, and whoever did not receive some help from her relatives had to earn the money for these things herself. They knit scarves or decorated them, and made prayer ropes, if they knew how. They worked in the evenings in their cells. After a sister died her things were given to other sisters, but mostly to the older ones—apparently they did not put much hope in the younger ones, for not everyone lasted in the monastery. During the final years, when the Monday bazaar was instituted [by the Communists], the sisters’ “own day” was changed to Monday. In addition to this the sisters were allowed to go out for a month in summer to harvest, for there was no longer even a trapeza. It is notable that in the Monastery lived many family lines. Thus up until the very expulsion there lived “Meliukovas,” “Putkovas” and other descendants of Diveyevo eldresses. |
| Vppenbåra scrifft settias så her epter som her til dags, och för peningana som tagas j inledningen göres konunge rækenskap. Fför the peninga som plæger böthes för bandzmål göres konunge rækenskap och vare icke biscopen eller hans embitsmen alth forlæth til ath brucha ban för ringa saker som her til dagx mykit skedt ær. Om gifftermalzsaker hanla biscopen som ær 793 huad reth egthaskap ær epter gudz lag eller ey, och om åthskilnad ma skee emellom folk eller ey faller ther nogon saköre ther göres konunge rækenskap fore. Brwdhapæningar kirkiogångxpæningar ligstool etc tages epter kirkiobalken och icke ther vthöffuer, Oc borthlegges then seden ath nogot mer tages en kirkiobalken innehåller. Epter handelen inneholler ath konung skal tagha al saköre och icke biscoper må prouestenar her effter resa och fulfylgia samma saker som biscopanar plæga handla och göra konunge rækenskap aff sakören. Doch for helgedags bruth tage inga peninga för thet nogon ærbetar om helgedagar j andtimar och fiskelek ey heller för thet ath han skiuther sig en fogel j skogen, Doch för slagh böthe som vant ær. Prester sökie ting ос stempne epter sin rett både på kirkiones vegna och sina j verldzliga saker som ær ora jorda trætto slag, velle köpslagan och böthe konunge så som andre 794 . Men huar noger haffuer clagemal til prest j andelig saker, som ær ath han icke redeliga vpholler honum thet prestæmbete til hörer som ær ath han icke predicar gudz ord messar döper barn forswmmar soknabudh thet clagas och retthes för biscope. Ther prester eller legman slå huan annan vare icke then ene mer j ban en then andre epter gudh haffuer så vel forbudit then ena slå som then andra vthan böthe huar för sin sak epter landzlagen. Effter j sanningene finnes ath tyggemunkar och ståtare föra kringom landit mykit bedregerj och lygn ther före skola fogtanar tagha ther vara vppa och haffua agha med them och mvnkanar bliffue icke længer vthe j terminum en j v vekor vijd olsmesso tijd om sommeren och v vekor vijd kymdersmesso tijd om vintheren och tage breff åff fogtenom eller borgemestarenom nær han vthgar och presentera siig honum nær han igen kommer. |
|
|
