30 (7). To Eusebius, Bishop of Samosata
SAINT BASIL
'to stay on in the flesh.'2 To whom for the future can we entrust the cares of the churches? Whom can we take as a sharer of our sorrows and of our joys? 0 terrible and miserable loneliness! How truly have we become like to a pelican of the wilderness P But, assuredly, the members of the Church joined as with one soul under his leadership and bound together into a union of affection and true fellowship are both firmly preserved by those bonds of peace in a spiritual union, and will always be thus protected, if God bestows upon us this grace
-that the works that blessed soul undertook for the churches of God remain firm and immovable. However, there is no slight danger that, because ,of some chance contention, strifes and contentions may spring up again at the election of the new leader and overturn at once all past labor.
30. To Eusebius, Bishop of Samosata 1 If I should enumerate, one after another, all the causes which have kept me at home until the present time, even though I was exceedingly eager to visit your Reverence, I would produce a story of interminable length. I omit mention of my continual illnesses, of the burden of the winter season, and of the constant succession of business affairs, which are well known and are already familiar to your
Perfection. But, now, because of my sins, I have been bereft of the only consolation which I have had in this life, my mother.2 And do not smile because at my age I lament my
2 Cf. Phil. 1.23.24.
3 Cf. Ps. 102.7.
I This letter was written in the summer of 368; Schafer, loco cit.
2 SI. Emmelia.