say unto thee? I read the New Testament, and I reflect on the Old Testament.”
490. That same brother went to Abbâ Sisoes of Pâtârâ, and told him the word which Abbâ Sisoes of the Thebaïd had spoken, and Abbâ Sisoes said unto him, “I lie down to sleep in my sins, and I rise up in my sins.”
491. There was a certain monk who lost himself in the desert, and he said to himself, “I have kept myself rightly, and I possess all the virtues,” and he prayed to God and said, “If I be lacking in anything, shew Thou me how I may perform it.” And God, wishing to humble his mind, said unto him, “Go to such and such a head of a monastery, and whatsoever he telleth thee to do that do.” And God sent a revelation to the head of the monastery, and said unto him, “Behold, such and such a monk will come unto thee, and say thou unto him, ‘Take a whip in thy hands, and go forth and pasture swine.’ ” And the monk went forth immediately, even as the head of the monastery told him, and pastured swine, and when those who had known him formerly, and those who had heard about him, saw him pasturing swine, they said, “Ye see the great monk about whom we have heard, behold, his heart hath gone mad, and a devil hath seized him, and he is [now] pasturing swine.” Then God, when He saw his humility, and that he was hearing and bearing the reproach of men, set him free so that he might go back where he had been formerly.
492. An old man used to say, “If a man hath laid some work upon a brother to do, he must perform that command in the fear of God and in humility; for he who for God’s sake layeth [some work] upon a brother maketh the brother to submit himself thereto, and [the one brother] must do what [the other brother] hath laid upon him. But if a man wisheth to give commands to a brother, not in the fear of God, but on his own authority, wishing to be unto him a master and a governor, God, Who seeth the hidden things of his heart, will not allow him to be obedient unto him and to do [that] work, for the work that is for God’s sake is evident, and that which is of the man’s own authority is well known. For that which is for God’s sake cometh with humility and entreaty, whilst the works which are of man’s own authority are with wrath and trouble, and they come from the Evil One.”
493. A brother asked Abbâ Isidore, “Why is it that the devils fear thee so greatly? The old man said, “Because from the time that I became a monk I have laboured hard not to allow anger to enter into my throat; that is why they fear me.”
494. An old man used to say, “On one occasion I went to the
