st. john of damascus (676-749 - Cristo Raul

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110 ST. JOHN OF DAMASCUS.
Christ. For light was in existence before the sun.
so Christ, being Light of light, eternal and
unapproachable, came to dwell in a temporal and
created body, and is thus one Sun of Righteousness,
one Christ, revealed to us in two undivided natures
(c. xiii.).
In describing the benefits that the chosen
apostles would gain, by the sight of their predecessors
in God s service, Moses and Elias, thus glorified, the
preacher allows himself to be carried away for a
moment from the patient task of the expositor
: It
was meet that they should see this glory and state of
freedom of their own fellow-servants and ministers of
God ;
and having seen it, be amazed at the loving
condescension of their Master, and be more filled
with zeal, and become nerved for the contest. For
he who has seen what are to be the fruits of his
labours, will most readily
venture on the conflict.
The desire of gain can tempt men to be unsparing of
their bodies. For soldiers, and athletes, and husband
men, and merchants, betake themselves cheerfully to
their labours, risking the ocean billow, and heeding
not wild beasts or robbers, that they may obtain the
longed-for reward and the more
;
they see those who
have toiled before them enjoying their gains, the more
are they spurred on to endure hardships. Even so will
the spiritual men-at-arms, and athletes, and husband
men, and merchants of the Lord, who covet not
earthly gains, nor aspire after fleeting honours, when
with their own eyes they behold what they have stored
up in expectation, and see those who have toiled
before them realising the delights of the good things
they had hoped for, gird themselves up more reso-