fifteen days, expecting that he would some time cease to pray and that I should be able to go on my way; but he never ceased from his prayer, and I was prevented from going on, and so I delayed in coming, and I have done nothing.” Then was the wicked Julian angry, and he said, “When I come back I will take vengeance upon him”; but before a few days were over, he was slain by Divine Providence. And straightway one of the eparchs who were with him went and sold everything which he possessed and gave [the money] to the poor, and he came to that monk, and himself became a chosen monk; and he died with a good ending, and with works which were pleasing unto God.
634. On one occasion Abbâ Pambô was travelling with some monks in the districts of Egypt; and seeing some worldly folk sitting down he said unto them, “Rise up, and salute the monks so that ye may be blessed, for they are always holding converse with God, and their mouths are holy.”
635. Abbâ John used to say, “The whole company of the holy men is like unto a garden which is full of fruit-bearing trees of various kinds, and wherein the trees are planted in [one] earth, and all of them drink from one fountain; and thus is it with all the holy men, for they have not one rule only, but several varieties, and one man laboureth in one way, and another man in another, but it is one Spirit which operateth and worketh in them.”
