"For as men deprived of this daylight would not walk aright, so they that look not to the gleaming of the Holy Scriptures must needs be frequently and constantly sinning, in that they are walking in the worst darkness."

“As I keep hearing the Epistles of the blessed Paul read, and that twice every week, and often three or four times … I grieve and am pained, that all people do not know this man, as much as they ought to know him … And this comes not of incapacity, but of their not having the wish to be continually conversing with this blessed man. … For, what belongs to men beloved, they who love them know above all others; because they are interested in them. … And so ye also, if ye be willing to apply to the reading of him with a ready mind, will need no other aid. For the word of Christ is true which saith, ‘Seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.’ (Matt. vii. 7.) … For as men deprived of this daylight would not walk aright, so they that look not to the gleaming of the Holy Scriptures must needs be frequently and constantly sinning, in that they are walking in the worst darkness. And that this fall not out, let us hold our eyes open to the bright shining of the Apostle’s words; for this man’s tongue shone forth above the sun, and he abounded more than all the rest in the word of doctrine … Paul … went continually round to all, abiding nowhere nor standing still. For since he had heard Christ saying, ‘Peter, lovest thou Me? feed My sheep’ (John xxi. 15); and setting forth this as the greatest test of love, he displayed it in a very high degree. Let us too then, in imitation of him, each one bring into order, if not the world, or not entire cities and nations, yet at all events his own house, his wife, his children, his friends, his neighbors. And let no one say to me, ‘I am unskilled and unlearned:’ nothing were less instructed than Peter, nothing more rude than Paul, and this himself confessed, and was not ashamed to say, ‘though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge.’ (2 Cor. xi. 6.) Yet nevertheless this rude one, and that unlearned man, overcame countless philosophers, stopped the mouths of countless orators, and did all by their own ready mind and the grace of God. What excuse then shall we have, if we are not … even of service to them that live with us? This is but a pretence and an excuse - for it is not want of learning or of instruction which hindereth our teaching, but drowsiness and sleep. (Acts i. 15; ii. 41.) …

And what more need one say of it, than that whatsoever Christ was doing when present, this he committed to their (the Apostles’) hands when He departed. Which also Paul cries aloud, speaking thereof and magnifying the dignity of the Apostles’ office … For in that he was writing to a vainglorious city, and one every way puffed up, he therefore uses every mode of showing that his election was of God. For he himself called him, and Himself separated him. And he does this, that he may make the Epistle deserve credit, and meet an easy reception. … And how comes he to say, that the Gospel ‘of God’ is preached by himself? for he says, ‘separated to the Gospel of God’—for the Father was manifest, even before the Gospels. … But he calls it the ‘Gospel’ of God, to cheer the hearer at the outstart. For he came … with glad tidings, even the ‘Gospel of God;’ countless treasures of abiding and unchangeable blessings. ‘Which He promised afore by His Prophets in the Holy Scriptures.’ For the Lord, saith he, ‘shall give the word to them that proclaim glad tidings with great power’ (Ps. lxviii. 12, Sept.); and again, ‘How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace.’ (Is. lii. 7; Rom. x. 15.) See here both the name of the Gospel expressly and the temper of it, laid down in the Old Testament. For, we do not proclaim it by words only, he means, but also by acts done; since neither was it human, but both divine and unspeakable, and transcending all nature. Now since they have laid against it the charge of novelty also, He shows it to be older than the Greeks, and described aforetime in the Prophets. … For when God is about to do openly some great things, He announces them of a long time before … What dost, thou, O Paul … speaking of the Gospel, and that too the Gospel of God, and bringing in the chorus of the Prophets, and showing the whole of them heralding forth many years before those things which were to come … our discourse is not, saith he, of any bare man … they saw Him a man upon earth, and then they understood Him to be God. In the same direction then, as He Himself had framed His teaching, did His disciple also shape out the way which leadeth thither. …

… ‘By Whom we have received grace and Apostleship for obedience to the faith.’ See the candor of the servant. He wishes nothing to be his own, but all his Master’s. And indeed it was the Spirit that gave this. … it was not the Apostles that achieved it, but grace that paved the way before them. For it was their part to go about and preach, but to persuade was of God … God, Who wrought in them. As also Luke saith, that ‘He opened their heart’ (Acts xvi. 14); and again, To whom it was given to hear the word of God. ‘To obedience;’ he says not, to questioning and parade (kataskeuen) of argument but ‘to obedience.’ For we were not sent, he means, to argue, but to give those things which we had trusted to our hands. For when the Master declareth aught, they that hear should not be nice and curious handlers of what is told them, but receivers only; for this is why the Apostles were sent, to speak what they had heard, not to add aught from their own stock, and that we for our part should believe—that we should believe what?—‘concerning His Name.’ Not that we should be curious about the essence, but that we should believe on the Name; for this it was which also wrought the miracles. For it says, ‘in the Name of Jesus Christ rise up and walk.’ (Acts iii. 6.) And this too requireth faith, neither can one grasp aught of these things by reasoning (logismo katalabein). ‘Among all nations, among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ.’ What? Did Paul preach then to all the nations? Now that he ran through the whole space from Jerusalem to Illyricum, and from thence again went forth to the very ends of the earth, is plain from what he writes to the Romans; but even if he did not come to all … after death he ceaseth not to preach in all parts of the world.”

Nicene & Post-Nicene Fathers, Ser I, Vol XI, Chrysostom, Homilies on Romans, The Argument & Homily I

“When he therefore was come up again, and had broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long while, even till break of day, so he departed. And they brought the young man alive, and were not a little comforted.” (Acts 20:8–12.) But observe, I pray you, the theatre, how crowded it was: and the miracle, what it was. ‘He was sitting in a window,’ at dead of night. Such was their eagerness to hear him! Let us take shame to ourselves! ‘Aye, but a Paul’ say you, ‘was discoursing then.’ Yes, and Paul discourses now, or rather not Paul, either then or now, but Christ, and yet none cares to hear.”

Nicene & Post-Nicene Fathers, Series I, Vol XI, Chrysostom, Homilies on Acts, Homily XLIII

“Many of our women now wear Gospels hung from their necks. And in order that by another thing again they may be reminded, like as many often do, binding round their finger with a piece of linen or a thread.”

Nicene & Post-Nicene Fathers, Series I, Vol X, Chrysostom, Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew, Homily LXXII