fused to do so. Then the old man said within himself, “Those who bring go away in sorrow, and those who beg also go away grieving because they have received nothing; I will, therefore, act as follows: If any man bringeth me anything I will take it, and if any man asketh me for anything I will give it”; and he did so, and pleased every one.
432. The disciple of Abbâ Theodore said, “A certain man on one occasion came to sell onions, and he filled a basin with some of them and gave them to us; and the old man said to me, ‘Fill [the basin] with wheat and give it to him.’ Now there were two baskets of wheat there, one full of clean wheat, and the other was full of wheat which was dirty, and I filled the basin with the dirty wheat and gave it to him. Then the old man looked at me in wrath and anger, and in my fear I fell down, and broke the basin; and the old man said unto me, ‘Arise, thou art not akin to me, but I know well what I said unto thee.’ And the old man went in and filled his garment with clean wheat, and gave it to the man with the onions, together with his onions.”
433. A certain monk used to dwell by the side of a coenobium, and he was occupied in great ascetic labours, and led a life of hard work, and strangers came to the coenobium, and forced him to eat before his time; and afterwards the brethren said unto him, “Art thou not now afflicted, father?” He said unto them, “Although I am afflicted I have cut off my desire.”
434. A certain old man used to say, “It is right for a man to take up the burden for those who are akin (or near) to him, whatsoever it may be, and, so to speak, to put his own soul in the place of that of his neighbour, and to become, if it were possible, a double man; and he must suffer, and weep, and mourn with him, and finally the matter must be accounted by him as if he himself had put on the actual body of his neighbour, and as if he had acquired his countenance and soul, and he must suffer for him as he would for himself. For thus is it written:—‘We are all one body,’ and this [passage] also affordeth information concerning the holy and mysterious kiss.”
435. An old man said that the father had a custom of going to the cells of the new brethren, who wished to live by themselves, to visit them, lest one of them might be tempted and injured in his mind by the devils, and if they found any man who had been harmed they would bring him to the church, and would place a wash-basin full of water [in the midst], and when prayer had been made on behalf of him that had been brought there, all the brethren would wash themselves and
