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"The Lord said to Abram: 'I am the God who has brought you out of the land of the Chaldeans to give you this land for your inheritance.' But Abram replied: 'My lord and master, how shall I coe that I am to inherit it?"
=| ONDERFUL IS [341] THE POWER Of Sacred Scripture, and immense the wealth of ideas concealed in its expressions. Hence it behooves us to attend precisely and give ourselves to close study so as to reap the lavish benefits it offers. You see, the reason Christ himself gave this command, "Search the Scriptures,"? was that, far from idly listening to the mere reading, we should rather descend to its very depths and be in a position to grasp the true sense of Scripture. This, after all, is the way with Scripture: in a few words it is often possible to find a great number of ideas. Its teachings, you see, are divine, not human, and consequently you can see it all composed in a manner opposite to human wisdom. What way that is, I will tell you: in the latter case—
I mean human wisdom—people's whole interest is concentrated on the sequence of the words, whereas in this case it is completely different. No study of Scripture is about words, their beauty or sequence: it has of itself divine grace resplendent upon it and its sayings have their own beauty. With that other writing you can grasp the sense only after a great amount of unspeakable [342] nit-picking, whereas in this case, as you know, often a short phrase suffices for us to piece out the complete message.
Gen 15.7—8. Chrysostom follows the LXX in avoiding reference to Ur as ie home of the patriarchs after Haran had earlier been given that designation, though mention of the Chaldeans is still an anachronism.
2. John 5.39.
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(2) Consequently, then, yesterday also we proposed the reading to you and picked up the thread of our theme, but since we found such wealth of ideas we weren't able to press ahead further without swamping your recollection with the multitude of ideas and distorting it with the words already spoken.? Hence I want to pick up that very thread and link together what was said yesterday with what follows so that we may be able to make a complete commentary on the reading and then send you home from here. But pay precise attention, I beseech you, to what is said: if the labor is ours, the gain is yours, or rather it belongs to us both. But why do I say labor? Not at all; instead, it is the gift of God's grace.
Accordingly, let us in our turn receive with attention what is granted us by God so that we may gain something for our soul's salvation and thus go off from here. You see, the reason that we lay out for you each day this spiritual table is that by the frequency of the exhortation and by constant attention to the holy Scriptures we may fend off all the evil demon's wiles.
After all, when he sees us displaying much zeal for spiritual things, far from attacking us he doesn't even dare to cast a glance in our direction, knowing as he does that he will be making efforts in vain and bringing trouble on his own head.
(3) So, come now, let us pick up the thread of yesterday's remarks and comment on what remains. Well, what was it you were told yesterday? We gave an account of the promise made to Abram, where he directed him to look up at the sky and see the multitude of stars. "'Count the number of the stars,'" he said, remember, "'if in fact you can number them.' He said, "That will be the number of your descendants.'"* Then, to show us the patriarch's godfearing attitude and the fact that he had faith in God's words through having regard for the one who made the promise and considering the power of the one who gave the guarantee, Sacred Scripture added,
"Abram had faith in God, and this was reckoned as righ3. As we remarked at that point, Chrysostom spent much of Homily 36 rehearsing the matter of the previous few homilies—and now finds an excuse in the richness of Scripture.
4. Gen 15.5.
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teousness in him." Our sermon reached that point yesterday, and we were unable to proceed further; hence it is necessary to propose what follows. "The Lord said to Abram: 'I am the God who has brought you out of the land of the Chaldeans to give you this land for your inheritance.'" See God's considerateness in wanting to strengthen his faith and persuade him to have complete certainty about what had been promised, as if to say, Remember that I took you from your home. Lo, what was said by God about the patriarch proves to be consistent with blessed Stephen's words, that the Lord's directions led to his transfer from his home and from Chaldea itself.> His father, too, responding to his attitude, as we said before, infidel though he was, yet having in his love for Abram a strong basis for attachment, followed him and left that country.
(4) Consequently, on the present occasion God reminds Abram of all the care he had shown him by revealing to him that it was due to his great plans for him and his wish to put into effect his promises in his regard and bring them to fulfillment that he caused him to make such a long journey. "'I am the one who has brought you out of the land of the Chaldeans to give you this land for your inheritance.'" It was not idly and in vain that I brought you from that place, was it?
The reason [343] that I wanted you to settle in Palestine, to leave your ancestral home and come to this land was that you might inherit it. Accordingly, considering how much care you have enjoyed on my account from the time you left Chaldea up until the present and how famous you have become from day to day as you proved to be more conspicuous for my support and providence in your regard, have confidence also in my words. Do you see the extraordinary degree of his loving kindness? Do you see the extent of his considerateness in wanting to confirm Abram's spirit and make his faith stronger so that he might no longer be inclined to have regard for natural obstacles but rather consider the power of the one who had made the assurances, as if his promises had already taken effect, and thus be free to trust him?
5. Acts 7.2—-4.
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(5) Once more, however, notice the patriarch, when he had taken comfort in these words, how he looked for greater certitude. "He said," remember, " 'My lord and master, how shall
I know that I am able to inherit it?'" Even if Sacred Scripture had previously testified to his having faith in the words of God, for which reason it was reckoned as righteousness in _ him, nevertheless when he heard that the reason why "'I have brought you from the land of Chaldea is to give you this land for your inheritance,'" he said, While it is not possible for me to have no faith in the words you have spoken, still I would like to know as well the way I would come to inherit it. After all, I see that by now I have reached my old age and to the present time I have been going about like a vagrant, unable to discern the future by human reasoning—even though from the outset (he says) I had faith in your words as being a statement from you, the one able to bring things from nonbeing to being, to create and transform everything. So it is not out of unbelief that I am asking this; but since you mentioned once again the inheritance, I was wanting to receive as well some more concrete and visible sign, something capable of shoring up the limitations of my thinking. What, then, did the good Lord do? Showing considerateness for his own servant, and out of a wish to fortify his spirit, when he saw him admitting his own limitations and, while believing in the promise, yet wanting some confirmation, he said to him:
"Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old goat, a ram, a turtledove and a pigeon.'"® Observe how he makes a covenant with him in human fashion: just as in the case of human beings, when they make a promise to someone and want to convince the recipient of the promise not to entertain doubts about what is promised, they supply some sign or pledge so that the recipient may have it before his eyes and thus be in a position to know that the promises will take effect in every detail, so too the good Lord, when Abram said,
""How shall I know?'" replied, Lo, this too I provide you with: "'Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old
6. Gen 15.9, involving a slight abbreviation on Chrysostom's part.
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goat, a ram, a turtledove and a pigeon.'" Notice, I ask you, the degree of detail the good Lord deigns to go into for the sake of the just man's certitude. Since in ancient times it was the custom to make covenants in this way for people of that time and by that means to endorse them, this was the way the Lord himself followed.
(6) "He brought them," the text goes on, "and [344] cut them in half." Observe carefully how it was not idly or to no purpose that it indicated the age as well: he bade him bring three-year-old animals, that is, mature, perfect. "He cut them in half, and put the halves opposite each other, but the birds he did not cut." He sat down to take care that birds on the wing should do no damage to the divided animals, and he kept that watch through the whole day. "Other birds, however, swooped down on the divided carcases, and Abram sat with them. Now, at sunset Abram fell into a trance and, lo, a terrible gloom came upon him."' Why at sunset, when already the day had reached evening? God wants to make him more attentive in every way; a trance and terrible gloom fall upon him for the reason that through what happens he may gain some sense of seeing God—this, after all, being God's way invariably. Later, remember, when God was on the point of giving the Law and the Commandments to Moses on Mt.
Sinai, "there was darkness and a hurricane," the text says, "and the mountain smoking."* Hence Scripture also says, "He touches the mountains and they smoke."® You see, since it is impossible to see anything incorporeal through these physical eyes, he wants to convey to him his characteristic activity. Accordingly, when that just man was terrified and fear struck
7. Gen 15.11-12. The Greek version of v. 11 differs from the Hebrew and represents Abram's reactions strangely. Chrysostom, of course, who had made an individual point in the previous homily of the vision of 15.1 occurring at night, has now some explaining to do with reference to day in v. 10 and sunset in v. 12: unable to have recourse, like modern critics, to diversity of sources and traditions, he dodges the issue with hardly a comment and a tangential digression.
8. Apparently a composite text of Chrysostom's, recalling Exod 10.22, 19.18; Deut 4.11, 5.22. g. Ps 104.32.
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his mind as well as the trance that had developed, word came to him (the text says): You asked, God said, How shall I know? and you wanted to get a sign of the way you were destined to inherit the land. Behold, I am giving you a sign: you need great faith to learn that I can bring things from desperate straits to optimistic prospects. "Abram was told,
'You shall surely know that your descendants will be inhabitants of a land that is not theirs, and people will enslave them, maltreat and humiliate them for four hundred years. My judgment, however, will fall on whatever people they are enslaved by, and later they will depart from there with great possessions.' "?° (7) A wonderful statement, requiring a robust spirit capable of rising above every human consideration and leaving it behind. I mean, if the patriarch had not possessed a noble and manly spirit and good sense too, these words would have been sufficient even to alarm him. "'You shall surely know,'" the text says, remember, "'that your descendants will be inhabitants of a land that is not theirs, and people will enslave them, maltreat and humiliate them for four hundred years.
My judgment, however, will fall on whatever people they are enslaved by, and later they will depart from there with great possessions.'" Do not be surprised, he says, as you have eyes for yourself, your old age, Sarah's sterility and the barrenness of her womb, nor think that I have said anything remarkable in the word, "'I will give this land to your descendants.'" It is not only this that I foretell to you, but also the fact that your very descendants as well will be led off to a foreign land.
He did not say, to Egypt, nor did he state the name of the land, but said, "a land that is not theirs'"; they would undergo slavery and hardship, and suffer, not for a short time nor a small number [345] of years, but for four hundred years.
Certainly I will wreak vengeance on them, and my judgment will fall on that people that enslaves them, and thus I will cause them to return from there with great possessions—in the one word foretelling to him precisely the things due to 10. Gen 15.13—14.
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happen afterwards and revealing the enslavement, the descent into Egypt, the wrath which the Egyptians were due to experience on their account, and their return in glory. He shows him that it is not only in his case that developments beyond the limits of nature will occur and despite such great obstacles the outcome promised by God will reach a conclusion, but in the case of all his descendants as well this will occur. These things, however, he says, I already told you so that before you end your life you might be in a position to know the things about to happen in turn to your descendants.
(8) "*You, however,'" he says, " 'will go to your fathers after reaching a fine old age.'"!! He did not say die but "go," as if he were due to travel on and move from one homeland to another. " 'You will go to your fathers,'" he says, not to fathers in the flesh; after all, how could he, since his own father was an infidel, and it wasn't possible that the patriarch, believer that he was, would go to the same place as he had gone.
"There is a great gulf," Scripture says, remember, "between us and you."!? So why had he said, "'to your fathers'"? Referring to good men, like Abel, Noe, Enoch. "'After reaching a fine old age'": perhaps someone may say, What kind of a fine old age could he have had, spending a life full of troubles? But don't have regard for that, O man; instead, consider as well his notoriety on every occasion and the manner in which esteem came the way of this stranger, this refugee, bereft of hearth and home, and the degree of support he enjoyed from God at all times.
(9) Accordingly, don't judge affairs by current values, nor think a fine old age consists in living in luxury and gluttony, or gaining wealth and hordes of servants and crowds of slaves. I mean, far from constituting a fine old age, this would bring heavy condemnation on the person showing no self11. Gen 15.15 in a text that departs from Hebrew and LXX, not only in omitting "in peace," which would have been grist to Chrysostom's mill, but in making the gross copyist's/reader's error of reading Greek tapheis ("buried") as trapheis ("brought to," "nourished")—something Chrysostom perhaps suspects, as he uncharacteristically allows the word to pass without comment.
12. Luke 16.26.
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control in old age or giving no heed to anything appropriate to a person at his last gasp but rather wolfing food day in day out, panting after drunken orgies, and doomed to give an account of it all not long after. Of course, the person who lives his life with such great virtue has truly reached a fine old age before ending his days, and for the troubles of this life will gain reward and recompense. Hence, Scripture says:
While these things will happen to your descendants, you will pass on after reaching a fine old age. Consider further in this case how, unless the just man's valor had been considerable and his good sense extraordinary, these very events also would have been sufficient to derange his thinking. I mean, he would have said, [346] had he been an ordinary man: Why does he promise to cause so many descendants to issue forth from me if they were fated to be beset with so many troubles and to endure slavery for so great a number of years? What good is that to me? The just man, however, had no such thoughts; instead, like a grateful servant he submitted to everything coming from God and gave precedence to his judgments ahead of his own preferences.
(10) Then God also indicates to him the time of their return from slavery: after quoting the number of years as four hundred the text goes on, "'But in the fourth generation they shall return here.'"!® At this point, however, someone may raise the difficulty of how he said they would be slaves for four hundred years whereas in fact they spent not even half that time in Egypt. The reason he did not say they would spend four hundred years in Egypt but "'in a land that is not theirs'" was that it might be possible to calculate the years they spent down in Egypt from the time the patriarch was ordered to leave Charran. Scripture, you recall, revealed to us also his age at that time in saying that he was seventy-five years old when he left Charran.'* So from that time till the Exodus from Egypt, if you want to check it, you will find the 13. Gen 15.16. Editors of the Hebrew text warn us against as specific a translation as "generation," to avoid the complicated calculations that Chrysostom and his editors are obliged to go into at this point.
14. Gen 12.4.
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number correct. Another equation is possible, however, that the Lord in his loving kindness always measures his punishments by our limitations, so when he saw them suffering and the Egyptians giving evidence of great cruelty to them, he inflicted his vengeance before the set time and led them to freedom. You see, that is the way with him: since in every way he devises our salvation, even if he threatens to punish us, yet if we resolve to give evidence of real conversion, he revokes his sentences. On the other hand, even if he promises to provide us with some benefit, he likewise does not put his promise into effect lest we prove to be the worse off on that score.
(11) All this you will find to be the case to the extent that you are devoted to the reading of the holy Scriptures. "'But in the fourth generation,'" the text says, remember, " 'they shall return here, for the iniquities of the Amorites will not have run their course until then.'" That will be the moment, eee it means, for bringing them to freedom and for the enemy to be punished for the extent of their sins and to be driven from the land. So both events will occur at the appropriate ttme— their redemption and the expulsion of the enemy. In this way, you see, the text says, their iniquities will have run their course, as if someone were to say, To that point they had not committed sin to such an extent as to sustain such dreadful punishment. Being loving as he is, you see, far from imposing harsher penalties than their sins deserve, he imposes much less. The reason he gives evidence of longsuffering even in their regard is that they may bring punishment on themselves and thus have no excuse.
(12) Do you see how precisely he brought everything home to the patriarch so as to strengthen his faith in every way and enable him to have confidence from the words spoken to him that even the events affecting his descendants would take effect, and [347] from what was said previously he might likewise gain a solid faith that what had concerned himself as well had of necessity already been implemented. Then, when the prophecy had been fulfilled, he also received an adequate sign of the events that affected him. "After the sun had set,"
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the text goes on, "flames appeared, and lo, there was a smoking oven and fiery torches that passed between the cut portions."!5 The flames, oven and torches revealed to the just man the stability of the covenant and the presence of God's activity. Then, when everything had been fulfilled and completed and the fire had consumed the offerings, "On that day," the text goes on, "the Lord made a covenant with Abraham, saying, "Io your descendants I will give this land from the river of Egypt to the great river Euphrates, the Kinites, the Kenezites, the Kedmonites, the Chettites, the Pherezites, the Raphaim, the Amorrites, the Canaanites, the Evites, the Gergesites and the Jebusites.'"!© See how once more by the repetition he confirms his promise to Abram. "He made a covenant," the text says, "saying, "Io your descendants I will give this land.'" Then, so that the just man could realize from the extent of the land and the length of its boundaries how far his descendants would be distributed, he added, "From the river of Egypt to the river Euphrates"—such, he says, will be the extent of your descendants. Notice how by every means he wants to bring out to him the extraordinary size of the multitude: having previously said that he would cause it to be counted by the great number of the stars, in this instance too he made clear the length of the boundaries so that in this way as well Abram might learn the extent of the multitude there would eventually be. In addition to this he makes particular mention of those nations whose occupancy he was about to cede to Abram's descendants, so that in every way he might convey greater certitude to the good man. Though such wonderful promises had been made, Sarah still remained childless and old age pressed further upon them, so that in giving a remarkable sign of their faith they saw both the limitations of human nature and the greatness of God's power.
(13) Lest, however, we once more prolong the instruction to great length, let us call a halt to the development of our theme at this point and bring the sermon to a close by urging you to become imitators of the patriarch. Consider, dearly
15. Gen 15.17.
16. Gen 15.18—21.
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beloved, in view of the words he addressed to the king of Sodom and more especially all the virtues he gave evidence of throughout his whole life how great a reward he was accorded and how much considerateness the Lord evinced in his regard, revealing through the events affecting the patriarch the extraordinary degree of his generosity to us all and the fact that, despite our only being able to anticipate him with the slightest display on our part, he rewards us with wonderful gifts without delaying at all, provided we show sincere faith in the manner of this just man and never vacillate in mind but rather maintain a steady disposition. On these grounds, after all, this man won a reputation: listen to Paul's eulogy of the faith he showed right from the outset. "At the call of faith," he says, remember, "Abraham obeyed the command to depart for the place he was due to occupy, and he set out without knowing where he was going,"!' referring to that statement from God, "'Go [348] forth from your country, onwards to a land that I will show you.""!® Do you see his unshakable faith? Do you see his steady disposition?
(14) Let us in turn imitate this and go forth from the affairs of the present life with enthusiasm and relish, and travel to heaven. It is possible, you see, if we are willing, to take the road for that goal while still living here when we perform deeds worthy of heaven, when we are not caught up in the affairs of the world, when instead of chasing after the empty glory of this life we rather scorn it and devote ourselves to longing after that true and everlasting glory, when instead of being captivated by extravagance in dress and being anxious to deck out the body we exchange all this external adornment for care of the soul and do not permit ourselves to let it go bare and bereft of the garments of this virtue, when we mock luxury, when we avoid gluttony, when far from looking for parties and banquets we are content with frugality in keeping with the apostolic exhortation that says, "having food and shelter we will be content with these."!2 What good, after all, ieee bel des:
18. Gen 12.1.
1g. 1 Tim 6.8.
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Obl tell me, is overabundance, bursting the stomach with excessive eating, or impairing the sense of judgment from immoderate drinking? Isn't that the source of all the troubles of body and soul? Whence come those manifold ills and paralysis of limbs? Is it not from your going to excess in loading the stomach? Whence come acts of adultery, impurity, robbery, greed, murder, piracy and the complete ruination of the soul?
Is it not from letting desire go beyond the bounds of moderation? You see, just as Paul called avarice the root of all evils,2° so one would not be wide of the mark in naming as the source of all evils intemperance and our desire to go beyond the proper limit in everything. After all, if we were prepared in matters of diet, clothing, shelter and all our other bodily needs not to let our desires run riot but to look only for what was needed, the human race would be relieved of great harm.
(15) I am at a loss to know, however, how each of us according to his own ability welcomes this infection of greed and shows no anxiety to keep within the bounds of need; instead, quite at variance with the apostolic exhortation in the words, "Having food and shelter, we will be content with these,"?! we do everything in this way without realizing that we will be held to account for all our excesses beyond limits of necessity on the score of abusing the things provided us by the Lord.*?? You see, it was not only for us to serve our own enjoyment that he provided us with these things but that we might alleviate the neediness of our fellows. So how could they deserve pardon who give evidence of vanity in their
'clothes and go to pains to dress in the threads of insects—a shocking thing that they pride themselves on whereas they ought be ashamed of it and fear and tremble on the score
20.
1 Tim 6.10.
ONea dibs limiy0.3; 22. Chrysostom's editor De Montfaucon chooses this point to vent his spleen on an admittedly disconcerting habit of the preacher, his syntactical inconsistency: "He begins with the first plural, then the third plural, then moves to second singular, and finally returns to third plural." Perhaps the point serves to document the thesis that the homilies betray signs of actual delivery rather than merely carefully written composition. See Introduction
(7) and (12) in FOTC 74.
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that while they get about like that for no good reason or subject to no need but merely out of vanity and show and the desire to be the object of public attention, someone else who is in fact of the same human nature goes about naked without a respectable cloak to wear.
(16) Not even nature itself provokes you to sympathy, nor does conscience stir you to assistance of your fellow, nor the thought of that dread day, [349] nor the fear of hell, nor the greatness of the promises, nor the fact that the common Lord of us all takes as done to himself what is done to our fellows.
Instead, as if they had hearts of stone and were not part of human nature, they think they are now superior to mankind on account of the garments they wear, heedless of the great guilt they thus incur by wrongly disposing of what has been entrusted to them by the Lord; far from wanting to give some portion to their fellow slaves, they are happy to have it consumed by moths and thus are already fuelling the fire of hell in prodigal manner for themselves. After all, even if people of wealth distributed to the needy all they had stored up, not even in this way would they escape the punishment for continuing to live luxuriously in matters of clothing and diet. I mean, how could those people not fail to deserve punishment who go to all kinds of trouble to dress up in silken garments and strut around in public decked out in clothes of gilt or otherwise embroidered while despising the naked Christ and declining to supply him with necessary sustenance?
(17) These words, I should remind you, are particularly applicable to women: among them you would find a greater degree of vanity and intemperance, and the habit of wearing gold-encrusted dresses and golden adornments on the head, around the throat and on other parts of the body, as well as taking a lot of pride in all this. How many poor people's stomachs could have been filled and how many bodies reduced to nakedness could have been covered merely with the proceeds of what dangles idly and to no purpose from their ears, to no one's advantage but only to the harm and damage of their soul? Hence the world's teacher, too, after saying, "Having food and shelter,' then directs his remarks to women and
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adds, "Let them not adorn themselves in braid or gold, in pearls or extravagant clothing."?? See how he doesn't want them to be adorned in these things nor to wear gold adornments, pearls or extravagant dresses, but rather to apply real adornment to their souls and through the practice of good deeds to heighten the soul's beauty, and not to have to despise it as it hankers after these things for being defiled, squalid, clad in rags, wasted with hunger and frozen with cold. You see, the very anxiety about beautifying the body betrays its ugliness, luxurious diet makes clear its hunger, and extravagance in clothing shows up its nakedness.
(18) I mean, it is impossible for someone who cares for his soul and places great store by its loveliness and beauty to hanker after external adornment, just as, on the other hand, it is impossible for someone absorbed in external appearance, beauty of attire and adornments of gold to give much attention to the soul. After all, when will such a person manage to take account of anything that is proper or commence contemplating spiritual matters once he has given himself to earthly things and crawls on the ground, so to say, unable ever to draw breath, lying prone and weighed down with the burden of countless sins? In fact, it is impossible to bring home to you in words the number of maladies that spring from this behavior; instead, it suffices to leave to the conscience of the people absorbed in those things the thought of how many delusions they experience daily on that score. That is to say, either some of the gold crumbles, and a great storm and panic strikes the whole household; or a servant turns thief, and all are subjected [350] to stripes, torture and bonds; or some envious people hatch a plot and all at once relieve them of their possessions, to their great disappointment beyond all limits; or their business affairs take a turn for the worse and reduce them to extreme indigence, making their life more onerous than death; or something else befalls them and brings upon them deep gloom." In short, it is not possible to 23.
1 Tim 2.9.
24. For all his exclusively scriptural interest as a preacher and his lack of reference to contemporary events, Chrysostom is nevertheless aware of his congregation's real life situation and capable of evoking it, as here.
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find a soul absorbed in these things that is ever free from turmoil; instead, just as the waves of the sea can never be still or be counted owing to their great number, in just the same way you could not count the number of all the disturbances arising from that source.
(19) Hence, I beseech you, let us shun greed in all its forms and the tendency to exceed what is needful. True wealth, after all, real prosperity safe from default happens to be this: wanting what is necessary and disposing properly of what is over and above the necessary. Such a person, in fact, will never fear indigence nor endure insult nor be subjected to turmoil; rather, he will be beyond calumny, will be free from the plotting of conspirators and, in a word, will enjoy unbroken peace, tranquility and harmony. And what is greater than all these, the very pinnacle of good things, such a person will have God's favor and enjoy abundant grace from on high for being a faithful steward of the things of the Lord. "Blessed is that servant," Scripture says, remember, "whom the master at his coming finds behaving this way,'?° dispensing his possessions to his fellow servants in this way, not locking them up behind doors and bars nor allowing them to become the food of worms, but assuaging the neediness of the poor and proying a good and faithful steward of the things bestowed by the Lord so as to gain as well the great reward for this excellent management and be judged worthy to attain the promised blessings, thanks to the grace and loving kindness of our
Lord Jesus Christ, to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory, power and honor, now and forever, for ages of ages. Amen.
25. Luke 12.43.