"John," said he, "had not the Christians stolen him from us."[2] Our
saint was then priest. While he was only a scholar, that sophist one day
read to an assembly of orators a declamation composed by him, and it was
received with unusual tokens {234} of admiration and applause. Libanius
pronounced the young orator happy, "as were also the emperors," he said,
"who reigned at a time when the world was possessed of so great a
treasure."[3] The progress of the young scholar in philosophy, under
Andragatius, was no less rapid and surprising; his genius shone in every
disputation. All this time his principal care was to study Christ, and
to learn his spirit. He laid a solid foundation of virtue, by a perfect
humility, self-denial, and a complete victory over himself. Though
naturally hot and inclined to anger, he had extinguished all emotions of
passion in his breast.[4] His modesty, meekness, tender charity, and
singular discretion, rendered him the delight of all he conversed with.

The first dignities of the empire were open to John. But his principal
desire was to dedicate himself to God, without reserve, in holy
solitude. However, not being yet twenty years of age, he for some time
pleaded at the bar. In that employment he was drawn by company into the
diversions of the world, and sometimes assisted at the entertainments of
the stage. His virtue was in imminent danger of splitting against that
fatal rock, when God opened his eyes. He was struck with horror at the
sight of the precipice upon the brink of which he stood; and not content
to flee from it himself, he never ceased to bewail his blindness, and
took every occasion to caution the faithful against that lurking place
of hellish sirens, but more particularly in his vehement sermons against
the stage. Alarmed at the danger he had narrowly escaped, full of
gratitude to God his deliverer, and to prevent the like danger for the
time to come, he was determined to carry his resolution of renouncing
the world into immediate execution. He began by the change of his garb,
to rid himself the more easily of the importunities of friends: for a
penitential habit is not only a means for preserving a spirit of
mortification and humility, but is also a public sign and declaration to
the world, that a person has turned his back on its vanities, and is
engaged in an irreconcilable war against them. His clothing was a coarse
gray coat: he watched much, fasted every day, and spent the g