Letter 10

Tell your companion that an unbridled hot temper becomes the cause of the greatest evils for human beings. Letter 12. — To the same. "He who makes all things," Scripture says, "and transforms them, and turns into the morning the shadow of death, and darkens day into night" [Amos 5:8]; for he himself is the one who alters conditions, and times, and affairs. God, then, turns aside the shadow of death — that is, he changes the sinful and dark condition into virtue, and good cheer, and brightness. And he has the power also to darken day into night — that is, to transform what is full of joy and splendid into something more gloomy.

Εἶπε πρὸς τὸν σὸν ἑταῖρον, ὅτι θερμότης ἀχαλίνωτος μεγίστων κακῶν πρόξενος τοῖς ἀνθρώποις γί­νεται. ΙΒ΄. – Τῷ αὐτῷ. Ὁ ποιῶν, φησί, πάντα, καὶ μετασκευάζων, καὶ ἐκτρέπων εἰς τὸ πρωὶ σκιὰν θανάτου, καὶ νύκτα εἰς ἡμέραν συσκοτάζων· αὐτὸς γάρ ἐστιν ὁ ἀλλοιῶν καταστάσεις, καὶ χρόνους, καὶ πράγματα· ἐκτρέπει οὖν ὁ Θεὸς τὴν σκιὰν τοῦ θανάτου, τουτέστιν εἰς ἀρετήν, καὶ εὐθυμίαν, καὶ φαινότητα μεταβάλλει τὴν ἁμαρτητικήν, καὶ σκοτεινὴν κατάστασιν. Ἐξουσίαν δὲ ἔχει καὶ ἡμέραν εἰς νύκτα συσκοτάσαι· τουτέστιν τὰ περιχαρῆ, καὶ λαμπρά, ἐπὶ τὸ σκυθρωπότερον μεταθεῖναι.