Chremes

“ Have you heard, Chremes, what has happened to my son in my absence?
Chrem. ’Tis that, in fact, that has embarrassed me in my plans. For if I offer my daughter in marriage to any person that’s a stranger, it must all be told how and by whom I had her. You I knew to be fully as faithful to me as I am to myself; if a stranger shall think fit to be connected with me by marriage, he will hold his tongue, just as long as good terms exist between us: but if he takes a dislike to me, he’ll be knowing more than it’s proper he should know. ”

“ Bind the slave hand and foot. Away!
Exeunt Dromo and Davus.
86 SCENE IV. Manent Simo, Chremes.
—By Heav’n,
As I do live, I’ll make you know this day
What peril lies in trifling with a master,
And make him know what ’tis to plague a father.
Chremes. Ah, be not in such rage.
Simo. Oh Chremes, Chremes,
Filial unkindness!—Don’t you pity me!
To feel all this for such a thankless son!——
Here, Pamphilus, come forth! ho, Pamphilus!
Have you no shame? (Calling at Glycerium’s door.)
SCENE V. Enter Pamphilus.
Pam. Who calls?—Undone! my father!
Simo. What say you? Most——
Chremes. ”

“ Philtere.
290 Syrus. The very same! she’s found, and I am lost.
Aside.
Chrem. In with me, Sostrata!
Sostra. Beyond my hopes.
How much I fear’d you should continue still
So rigidly inclin’d, as formerly,
When you refus’d to educate her, Chremes!
Chrem. Men can not always be as they desire,
But must be govern’d by their fortunes still.
The times are alter’d with me, and I wish
To have a daughter now; then, nothing less.
291 ACT THE FOURTH. SCENE I. Syrus, alone. ”

“ Naus. That I do. Pho. Well, then, invite me to dinner. Naus. With all my heart, I do. Dem. Come then, let's go inside. Chr. Agreed; but where is Phædria, my judge? Pho. I'll soon have him here.
And so ends this merry play, as the whole party moves toward Chremes' house, where, let us hope, all family differences were forgotten in the good dinner awaiting them.
Meanwhile the man before the curtain reminds us that we still have a duty to perform:
Fare you well, my friends, and give us your applause. ”

“ Pyth. As sure as I’m alive, this is a trick
Of Parmeno’s.
Dori. No doubt on’t.
Pyth. I’ll devise
Some means to-day to fit him for’t.—But now
What would you have me do?
Dori. About the girl!
Pyth. Aye; shall I tell; or keep the matter secret?
Dori. Troth, if you’re wise you know not what you know,
Nor of the Eunuch, nor the ravishment:
So shall you clear yourself of all this trouble,
And do a kindness to our mistress too.
Say nothing, but that Dorus is gone off.
Pyth. I’ll do so.
Dori. Prithee is not Chremes yonder?
Thais will soon be here.
Pyth. How so? ”

“ After I had written down the commandments and similitudes of the Shepherd, the angel of repentance, he came to me and said, “I wish to explain to you what the Holy Spirit [102] that spake with you in the form of the Church showed you, for that Spirit is the Son of God. For, as you were somewhat weak in the flesh, it was not explained to you by the angel. When, however, you were strengthened by the Spirit, and your strength was increased, so that you were able to see the angel also, then accordingly was the building of the tower shown you by the Church. ”

“ But it was a sacred emblem in the dateless antiquity of Egypt. To primitive man it stood for that sacred light and fire of life which was himself. For he himself is a cross—the first cross he has ever known. The faithful may truly think of the Son of Man as crucified as the image of humanity. And thus ages before Christ, cross worship and forest worship were brought together: for instance, among the Druids who hunted for an oak, two boughs of which made with the trunk of the tree the figure of the cross ”

“ Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached in the whole world, that also which this woman hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.” (Matthew xxvi. 6 to 13; Mark xiv. 3 to 10; John xii. 2 to 8.)
Immediately after his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, on the first day of the week of his crucifixion, he was told that certain Greeks desired to see him. It was to him a sign of his glorification among the Gentiles, and, therefore, of his death. He answered, “The hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified. ”

“ The altar was a huge pile of ashes. For hundreds of years Greeks had sacrificed here. The holy ashes had piled up and piled up until they stood as a hill more than twenty feet high. The people waited around the foot of it, watching. The priests walked up its side. Men led up the sleek cattle to be slain for the feast of the gods. And on the very top a fire leaped toward heaven. Far up in the sky Charmides could half see the beautiful gods leaning down and smiling upon their worshiping people.
Then he turned and walked with the crowd under the temple porch and into the great, dim room. ”

“ With what love and devotion should we, then, make the sign of the Cross! As often as we sign ourselves with the Cross we profess our belief in the holy Trinity, and in the merciful and blessed work of the redemption, and express our gratitude to the holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. It is hard to believe that there are Christians who are ashamed to make the sign of the Cross ”

“ Come, all ye faithful, let us worship the holy Resurrection of Christ, for behold, through the Cross joy hath come to the whole world. At all times blessing the Lord, we praise His Resurrection; for, having endured the Cross for us, He hath overcome death by death. Shine out, shine out, new Jerusalem, for the glory of the Lord is spread abroad over thee ”

“ The Divine breathing, too, called the Holy Ghost, is a person in the figurative sense; several personal pronouns being applied to this Divine afflatus in the Scriptures. Our meaning thus explained, we may truly say that there are three Persons in the Deity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, all comprised in our glorious Saviour, in whom dwells all the fulness of the Deity bodily. But the doctrine of there being literally three distinct personal divinities in the Deity, has no foundation in the Scriptures. ”

“ If we even say, with Peter, ‘Thou art Christ, the son of the living God!’ not through our own flesh and blood, but through the light of God in our heart, then will each one of us become a rock. Every one of Christ's disciples, who drinks the water which flows from that spiritual rock, may bear its name. These words, ‘the gates of hell shall not prevail against this rock,’ are applicable to the whole of the Apostles. ”

“ Accordingly, at the first fresh insolent jest on the part of Chram at the impositions practiced by the clergy, the prelate answered, measuring the length of his words with the progress made by the spreading storm-cloud:
"It is not for an unworthy servant of God, for a humble earth worm like me, to defend the Church of the Eternal; the Lord has His own power and miracles with which to convince the incredulous, His celestial punishments with which to chastise the impious. ”

“ To thee all Angels cry aloud,
the Heavens and all the Powers therein.
To thee Cherubim and Seraphim continually do cry:
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth;
Heaven and earth are full of the majesty of thy glory. ”

“ As in Palestine, so everywhere, Christ—not only Christ after the flesh, but after the Spirit—is a crucified Christ. Only those can open the Sealed Book—can penetrate the divine Revelation—who bear the mark of the Cross on their forehead, who have eaten the flesh and drunk the blood of the suffering and crucified Christ, who have discovered that the Word of God is eternally a Word of the Cross. ”

“ He set before them fruits, drinking cups, and a vase of water.
“We are come,” said Hermas, the elder of the deacons, “to inquire of thee why thou differest from other preachers of Christus of whom we have heard? Thou eatest not with us, neither dost thou visit our sick.”
[See p. 101.]
“Tis false! Did not I, when the fierce ungodly mob stoned Lepidus, the slave of the armourer of the River Street,—did not I visit him? Did not these arms support his dying head—these garments wipe from his bleeding mouth the foam of death? Did not these lips speak to him of Christus and the future world ”

“ The eighth, of the Fixed Stars, revolved by the Cherubim, is inhabited by the apostles and saints. The ninth, or Primum Mobile, revolved by the Seraphim, is the abode of the moral philosophers. These abodes, however, are not real, but representative, to illustrate the differences in glory of the inhabitants of Paradise, for the real seat of each is in the Rose of the Blessed. In the heavens, the saints appear swathed in cocoons of light; in the Rose they are seen in their own forms. They know all because they behold God continually. ”

“ The crux ansata, or handled cross. This is the form usually seen in the hands of the gods of India and Egypt. It is the symbol of the sun-god, and is interpreted by modern Egyptologists as the symbol of life. It was primarily a phallic symbol of reproduction. An English writer (Rev. Mourant Brock) has pertinently said:
“And it is high time that Christians should understand a fact of which skeptics have been long talking and writing, that the cross was the central symbol of ancient paganism. ”

“ Who for us men, and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate of the Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mary,—and was made man.
Was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was buried.
And rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.
And ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of the Father.
And shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and the dead, of whose kingdom there is no end. ”

“ Perfect in humanity, beneath the lightsome vault of heaven he stands and prays—a prayer of joy and calm thanksgiving, a Greek prayer—no Roman adoration with veiled eyes and muttering lips, no Jewish prostration with the putting-off of sandals on the holy ground, no Christian genuflection like the bending of wind-smitten reeds beneath the spirit-breath of sacraments. ”

“ The dying Christ shares with the dying Prometheus the sympathies of men. But how trivial the crucifixion, how light the suffering, and how weak the courage of the Christian god appear compared with the cruel crucifixion, the infinite suffering, and the deathless courage of the immortal Pagan! Transfixed to the rock on Caucasus, the Golgotha of Greek mythology, with the devouring eagle feeding forever on his vitals, there falls from his lips no murmur of pain, no Sabachthani of despair. ”

“ S. Cyril of Jerusalem, in a like spirit, instructs his catechumens “not to be ashamed of the Cross of Christ, but openly to mark it on the forehead, and to use that sign in eating and drinking, sitting and lying, rising from bed, conversing and walking, in a word, on all occasions.”
S. John Chrysostom in his fifty-fifth homily thus gives us a reason for these exhortations; “the passion of our Lord,” says he, “is the fountain of that happiness by which we live and are; with a joyous heart, then, as if crowned, let us carry about with us the Cross of Christ. ”

“ Finally, the Homeric ritual appears as on the higher level of theism. We can detect it in no trace of savagery and but little contamination of the religion with magic. The sacrifice is more than a mere bribe; it is a friendly communion with the divinity; and the service is solemn and beautiful with hymn and dance. The cult is furnished with altar and sometimes with temple and a priesthood, but not yet, as a rule, with the idol, though this is beginning to appear. ”

“ Thy time is well spent, very sacred are thy thoughts, when thou art occupied in contemplating Jesus hanging on the Cross. As a cluster of cypress in the vineyards of Engaddi, so is the thought of the Crucified in the heart of a good man. If, then, thine eye is pitiful, if thou hast in thee aught of the milk of human kindness, lift up the eyes of thy mind to meditate upon God, crucified for thee, hanging dead upon the Cross. There before thee is the Tree of the Cross, upon which hangs thy Salvation ”

“ But the rollicking infant and his half-angry, half-amused victim must be remembered to complete the idea of a religion which left a definite place for humour. While the gravely beautiful Hermes which adorned the temple of Hera at Olympia revealed, in perfect marble, a serious and noble conception of divinity, it may well be that among the many wooden or stone statues of the god which stood in orchard closes, by cool wayside springs, and in crossways near the gray seashore, more than one recalled his lovable and mischievous boyhood. ”

“ Those that have faith, and have learned to fight fearlessly against the treacherous fiend by God's help, and have Christ's armour, they may break in pieces the gods. ' Then said Chromatius to the brave servant of God, God's will, and yours also, be done in this. ”

“ Incense is the Divinity of the Son, and our prayers which rise up like vapours in the presence of the Most High, as the Psalmist says. Myrrh is repentance, the sufferings of Jesus, His death, the martyrs, and also, according to Monsieur Olier, the type of the Virgin who heals the souls of sinners as myrrh cauterizes the festering of wounds ”

“ There never has been nor will there ever be one.”
I asked him, "Do you believe the scriptures?"
He said, "Yes."
I said, "Then you do not understand them, Sherem, because they truly testify of Christ. None of the prophets have written or prophesied without speaking of Christ.
I have seen and heard Christ in vision, and by the power of the Holy Ghost it has been made known to me that if no atonement were made everyone would be lost."
Sherem replied, "Show me a sign by the power of this Holy Ghost, whom you know so much about." ”