Augustine of Hippo

When therefore a man has commenced thus to order his ascent; to speak more plainly, when a Christian has begun to think of spiritual amendment, he begins to suffer the tongues of adversaries. Whoever has not yet suffered from them, has not yet made progress; whoever suffers them not, does not even endeavour to improve. Does he wish to know what we mean? Let him at the same time experience what is reported of us. Let him begin to improve, let him begin to wish to ascend, to wish to despise earthly, fragile, temporal objects, to hold worldly happiness for nothing, to think of God alone, not to rejoice in gain, not to pine at losses, to wish even to sell all his substance, and distribute it among the poor, and to follow Christ; let us see how he suffers the tongues of detractors and of constant opponents, and— a still greater peril— of pretended counsellors, who lead him astray from salvation...He then, who will ascend, first of all prays God against these very tongues: for he says, "When I was in trouble, I called on the Lord; and He heard me" [Psalm 120:1]. Why did He hear him? That He might now place him at the steps of ascent.

"Deliver my soul, O Lord, from unrighteous lips, and from a deceitful tongue" [Psalm 120:2]. What is a deceitful tongue? A treacherous tongue, one that has the semblance of counsel, and the bane of real mischief. Such are those who say, And will you do this, that nobody does? Will you be the only Christian?...Some deter by dissuasion, others discourage yet more by their praise. For since such is the life that has for some time been diffused over the world, so great is the authority of Christ, that not even a pagan ventures to blame Christ. He who cannot be censured is read. They cannot contradict Christ, they cannot contradict the Gospel, Christ cannot be censured; the deceitful tongue turns itself to praise as an hindrance. If you praise, exhort. Why do you discourage with your praise?...You turn yourself to another mode of dissuasion, that by false praise you may turn me away from true praise; nay, that by praising Christ you may keep me away from Christ, saying, What is this? Behold these men have done this: thou, perhaps, will not be able: you begin to ascend, you fall. It seems to warn you: it is the serpent, it is the deceitful tongue, it has poison. Pray against it, if you wish to ascend.

And your Lord says unto you, "What shall be given you, or what shall be set before you, against the deceitful tongue?" [Psalm 120:3]. What shall be given you, that is, as a weapon to oppose to the deceitful tongue, to guard yourself against the deceitful tongue? "Or what shall be set before you?" He asks to try you: for He will answer His own question. For He answers following up his own inquiry, "even sharp arrows of the Mighty One, with coals that desolate, or that lay waste" [Psalm 120:4]. They that desolate, or that lay waste (for it is variously written in different copies), are the same, because by laying waste, as you may observe, they easily lead unto desolation. What are these coals? First, beloved brethren, understand what are arrows. The "sharp arrows of the Mighty One," are the words of God...What then are the "coals that lay waste?" It is not enough to plead with words against a deceitful tongue and unrighteous lips: it is not enough to plead with words; we must plead with examples also...The word coals, then, is used to express the examples of many sinners converted to the Lord. Thou hear men wonder, and say, I knew that man, how addicted he was to drinking, what a villain, what a lover of the circus, or of the amphitheatre, what a cheat: now how he serves God, how innocent he has become! Wonder not; he is a live coal. You rejoice that he is alive, whom you were mourning as dead. But when you praise the living, if you know how to praise, apply him to the dead, that he may be inflamed; whosoever is still slow to follow God, apply to him the coal which was extinguished, and have the arrow of God's word, and the coal that lays waste, that you may meet the deceitful tongue and the lying lips.

"Alas, that my sojourning has become far off!" [Psalm 120:5]. It has departed far from You: my pilgrimage has become a far one. I have not yet reached that country, where I shall live with no wicked person; I have not yet reached that company of Angels, where I shall not fear offenses. But why am I not as yet there? Because sojourning is pilgrimage. He is called a sojourner who dwells in a foreign land, not in his own country. And when is it far off? Sometimes, my brethren, when a man goes abroad, he lives among better persons, than he would perhaps live with in his own country: but it is not thus, when we go afar from that heavenly Jerusalem. For a man changes his country, and this foreign sojourn is sometimes good for him; in travelling he finds faithful friends, whom he could not find in his own country. He had enemies, so that he was driven from his country; and when he travelled, he found what he had not in his country. Such is not that country Jerusalem, where all are good: whoever travels away from thence, is among the evil; nor can he depart from the wicked, save when he shall return to the company of Angels, so as to be where he was before he travelled. There all are righteous and holy, who enjoy the word of God without reading, without letters: for what is written to us through pages, they perceive there through the Face of God. What a country! A great country indeed, and wretched are the wanderers from that country.

"With them that hated peace, I was peaceful" [Psalm 120:7]. But howsoever ye may hear, most beloved brethren, you will not be able to prove how truly ye sing, unless you have begun to do that which you sing. How much soever I say this, in whatsoever ways I may expound it, in whatsoever words I may turn it, it enters not into the heart of him in whom its operation is not. Begin to act, and see what we speak. Then tears flow forth at each word, then the Psalm is sung, and the heart does what is sung in the Psalm...Who are they who hate peace? They who tear asunder unity. For had they not hated peace, they would have abode in unity. But they separated themselves, forsooth on this account, that they might be righteous, that they might not have the ungodly mixed with them. These words are either ours or theirs: decide whose. The Catholic Church says, Unity must not be lost, the Church of God must not be cut off. God will judge afterwards of the wicked and the good...This we also say: Love ye peace, love ye Christ. For if they love peace, they love Christ. When therefore we say, Love ye peace, we say this, Love ye Christ. Wherefore? For the Apostle says of Christ, "He is our peace, who has made both one." [Ephesians 2:14] If Christ is therefore peace, because He has made both one: why have ye made two of one? How then are you peace-makers, if, when Christ makes one of two, you make two of one? But since we say these things, we are peace-makers with them that hate peace; and yet they who hate peace, when we spoke to them, made war on us for nought.

Sing therefore what follows; if you wish to hear how you may most securely set your feet on the steps, so that you may not be fatigued in that ascent, nor stumble and fall: pray in these words: "Suffer not my foot to be moved!" [Psalm 121:3]. Whereby are feet moved; whereby was the foot of him who was in Paradise moved? But first consider whereby the feet of him who was among the Angels were moved: who when his feet were moved fell, and from an Angel became a devil: for when his feet were moved he fell. Seek whereby he fell: he fell through pride. Nothing then moves the feet, save pride: nothing moves the feet to a fall, save pride. Charity moves them to walk and to improve and to ascend; pride moves them to fall...Rightly therefore the Psalmist, hearing how he may ascend and may not fall, prays unto God that he may profit from the vale of misery, and may not fail in the swelling of pride, in these words, "Suffer not my feet to be moved!" And He replies unto him, "Let him that keeps you not sleep." Attend, my beloved. It is as if one thought were expressed in two sentences; the man while ascending and singing "the song of degrees," says, "Suffer not my foot to be moved:" and it is as if God answered, You say unto Me, Let not my feet be moved: say also, "Let Him that keeps you not sleep," and your foot shall not be moved.

Choose for yourself Him, who will neither sleep nor slumber, and your foot shall not be moved. God is never asleep: if you dost wish to have a keeper who never sleeps, choose God for your keeper. "Suffer not my feet to be moved," you say, well, very well: but He also says unto you, "Let not him that keeps you slumber." Thou perhaps wast about to turn yourself unto men as your keepers, and to say, whom shall I find who will not sleep? What man will not slumber? Whom do I find? Whither shall I go? Whither shall I return? The Psalmist tells you: "He that keeps Israel, shall neither slumber nor sleep" [Psalm 121:4]. Do you wish to have a keeper who neither slumbers nor sleeps? Behold, "He that keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep:" for Christ keeps Israel. Be thou then Israel. What means Israel? It is interpreted, Seeing God. And how is God seen? First by faith: afterwards by sight. If you can not as yet see Him by sight, see Him by faith...Who is there, who will neither slumber nor sleep? When you seek among men, you are deceived; you will never find one. Trust not then in any man: every man slumbers, and will sleep. When does he slumber? When he bears the flesh of weakness. When will he sleep? When he is dead. Trust not then in man. A mortal may slumber, he sleeps in death. Seek not a keeper among men.