Letter 750

To Eurycles the Presbyter. The demons who are our enemies not only furnish pains to good and worthy men who have been weakened in body, but they also suggest thoughts of blasphemy and murmurings against the providence of God; and from outside, too, they send to such men, under the pretext, supposedly, of a friendly visit, certain persons, sometimes upright men but often base ones, who recite to the sick some corrupting words, or witty and laughable ones, for consolation as they claim, and who draw the mind away from the just judgments of God. If then you have been pierced, as you write, by frequent and many bodily sicknesses, and by afflictions and various distresses, by no means lose heart, but, like a noble athlete, multiply many times over your customary thanksgiving. Those who discourse about endurance, and forbearance, and the manifold dispensation of our Master, receive gladly and praise, and entreat them to converse with you about such things the more often; but those who dare to converse about things vulgar, and rotten, and earthly, and of no profit to the soul, drive away and dismiss to a greater distance, lest by their more putrid words they ensnare the soul and do the greatest harm to one who is sick and struggling against his bed.

Οὐ μόνον ἀλγηδόνας χορηγοῦσιν οἱ ἐχθροὶ ἡμῶν δαίμονες τοῖς; ἐξησθενηκόσι κατὰ τὸ σῶμα χρηστοῖς καὶ ἀγαθοῖς ἀνθρώποις, ἀλλὰ καὶ λογισμοὺς βλασφημίας καὶ γογγυσμοὺς ὑποβάλλουσι κατὰ τῆς Θεοῦ προνοίας· καὶ ἔξωθεν δὲ ἐπιπέμπουσιν αὐτοῖς, ἐν προσχήματι δῆθεν ἐπισκέψεως, ἀνθρώπους τινὰς καλοὺς, ἢ πολλάκις φαύλους, διεφθορότα τινά, ἢ ἀστεῖα ῥήματα καὶ γελοιώδη τοῖς κάμνουσι, πρὸς παραμυθίαν φασὶν, ἐπιλέγοντας, καὶ ἀποσπῶντας τὸν νοῦν ἀπὸ τῶν δικαίων κριμάτων τοῦ Θεοῦ. Εἰ οὖν πυκναῖς τισὶ καὶ πολλαῖς, καθὼς γράφεις, ἐμπέπαρσαι ἀῤῥωστίαις σωματικαῖς, καὶ θλίψεσιν καὶ διαφόροις ἀνάγκαις· μηδαμῶς μὲν ὀλιγωρήσῃς ὡς γενναῖος ἀθλητής, πολυπλασίασον δὲ τὴν κατὰ τὸ σύνηθες εὐχαριστίαν· καὶ τοὺς μὲν περὶ ὑπομονῆς διαλεγομένους, καὶ ἀνεξικακίας, καὶ ποικίλης τοῦ Δεσπότου ἡμῶν οἰκονομίας, ἡδέως ἀπόδεχου, καὶ ἐπαίνει, καὶ δυσώπει περὶ τῶν τοιούτων πλεονάκις προσομιλεῖν σοι· τοὺς δὲ τολμῶντας δημώδη τινὰ, καὶ σαθρὰ, καὶ γήϊνα, καὶ μὴ συμβαλλόμενα τῇ ψυχῇ προσομιλεῖν, δίωκε καὶ ἀποπέμπου μακρότερον, ἵνα μὴ διὰ τῶν ὠλωδεστέρων ῥημάτων τὴν ψυχήν παγιδεύσαντες, τὰ μέγιστα βλάψωσι τὸν νοσῶντα καὶ κλίνη πυκτεύοντα.