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

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5^ ST. JOHN OF DAMASCUS.
The house of the new patriarch, Anastasius, was
attacked, and it was not without considerable blood
shed that order was restored. The statue was how
ever removed to be erected again at a later time by
the Empress Irene and a plain cross set up in the
niche where it had stood. An inscription was added,
in Greek iambics, as a testimony to the emperor s
zeal :
"
Enduring not that here a lifeless form,
A speechless wooden image, smeared with paint,
Should bear the name of Christ, our sov ran lord
Leo, and with him Constantine his son,
Have carved this blessed emblem of the cross,
o er the palace gates."
Joy of the faithful,
It was to minds thus excited that the remaining
letters of John were addressed. His second and
third discourses do not contain many fresh arguments ;
the third in particular being
little more than a repeti
tion of the other two ;
but he uses much stronger lan
guage in the second than in the first. It is the welfare
of the state, he says, that is the concern of kings ;
the
settlement of the church is for pastors and teachers.
Without as yet going so far as to anathematise Leo,
even praying that the necessity for such a step may
be averted, he hints very plainly at such an issue in
the turn he gives to a passage from St. Paul. Citing
the words of Gal. i. 8, he significantly inserts the
name of king
: But though we, or an angel from
heaven, or a king, preach any other gospel unto you
than that which we have preached unto you and
there stops short. Shut your ears,"
he concludes,