and holy, and. good (and he ought never to say anything else),
CHAP. XV.] NECESSITY FOR PEAYER. l43 of eloquence, such as we find in his subsequent letters, a style which is admired without effort, is sought after with eagerness, but is not attained without great difficulty. He says, then, in one place, " Let us seek this abode : the neighbouring solitudes afford a retreat where, whilst the spreading shoots of the vine trees, pendulous and intertwined, creep amongst the supporting reeds, the leafy covering has made a portico of vine."^ There is wonderful fluency and exuberance of language here ; but it is too florid to be pleasing to serious minds. But people who a;:e fond of this style are apt to think that men who do not use it, but employ a more chastened style, do so because they cannot attain the former, not because their judgment teaches them to avoid it. Wherefore this holy man shows both that he can speak in that style, for he has done so once, and that he does not choose, for he never uses it again.
Chap. xv.— The Christian teacher should x^ray before preaching.
32. And so our Christian orator, while he says what is just, and holy, and. good (and he ought never to say anything else), does all he can to be heard with intelligence, with pleasure, and with obedience ; and he need not doubt that if he succeed in this object, and so far as he succeeds, he will succeed more
- by piety in prayer than by gifts of oratory ; and so he ought to pray for himself, and for those he is about to address, before he attempts to speak. And when the hour is come that he must speak, he ought, before he opens his mouth, to lift up his thirsty soul to God, to drink in what he is about to pour forth, and to be himself filled with what he is about to distribute. For, as in regard to every matter of faith and love there are many things that may be said, and many ways of saying them, who knows what it is expedient at a given moment, for us to say, or to be heard saying, except God who knows / the hearts of all ? And who can make us say what we ought, and in the way we ought, except Him in whose hand both we and our speeches are ? Accordingly, he who is anxious both to know and to teach should learn all that is to be taught, and acquire such a faculty of speech as is suitable for a divine. But when the hour for speech arrives, let him reflect upon that
1 Cyprian, ad Donat. Ep. i