Who said, ‘Those who take the sword shall perish by the sword’ ” (St. Matthew 26:52). And they said unto him, “We then will not flee, but will die with thee.” He said unto them, “This is not my affair, but your own desire; let every man look after himself in the place where he dwelleth.” Now the brethren were seven in number. And after a little he said unto them, “Behold, the barbarians have drawn near the door”; and the barbarians entered and slew them. Now one of them had been afraid, and he fled behind the palm leaves, and he saw seven crowns come down and place themselves on the heads of those who had been slain.
46. The brethren asked an old man, saying, “How is it that God promiseth in the Scriptures good things to the soul, and that the soul desireth them not, but turneth aside to impurity?” And he answered and said unto them, “It is my opinion that it is because it hath not yet tasted the good things which are above, and therefore the good things which are here are dear unto it.”
47. Abbâ Arsenius used to say, “The monk is a stranger in a foreign land; let him not occupy himself with anything [therein], and he will find rest.”
48. They used to say that on one occasion when Abbâ Macarius the Great went up from Scete, and was carrying palm leaves, he became weary and sat down; and he prayed to God, and said, “God, thou knowest that I have no strength,” and straightway he found that he was by the side of the sea (or river).
49. There was a certain old man in the mountain of Athlîbâ (Athribis), and thieves came to attack him, and he cried out; and when his neighbours heard [his cry] they hunted down the thieves, and they sent them to the governor, who shut them up in prison. And the brethren were sorry, and said, “They were delivered into our hands”; and they rose up and went to Abbâ Poemen, and informed him about the matter. Then he wrote to that old man, and said unto him, “Thou must understand whence hath come the first betrayal, and then thou wilt perceive how the second betrayal arose; for if thou hadst not been betrayed first of all by those that were within thou wouldst never have effected the second betrayal.” Now when the old man heard the letter of Abbâ Poemen, who was famous throughout all that country, and who kept himself strictly secluded in his cell, and never went out, straightway he rose up and went into the city, and took the thieves out of prison, and thus the assembly set them free.
50. On one occasion Abbâ Macarius, wishing to rebuke the brethren, said unto them, “There came here a young man with
