ware are those who possess a little ascetic excellence. If now a man will cleanse his soul from all the things which are outside what is right, he will become a pure vessel of honour suitable for the use of his Lord, and be ready for every good work.”
138. A brother also asked Abbâ Poemen, “Why is it that I am not allowed to be free in my thoughts like the other old men?” The old man said unto him, “John Kolob used to say, ‘The Enemy doth not rejoice in anything so much as in those who do not reveal and lay bare their thoughts to their fathers.’ ”
139. Abbâ Poemen used to say, “Men are wont to speak great and perfect things, but in their deeds they draw nigh unto the things which are little and inferior.”
140. An old man used to say, “Neither shame nor fear confirms sin.”
141. An old man used to say, “As the company of the monks is more excellent than and superior to the children of the world, so it is meet that the monk who is a stranger should be a mirror to those who are found in a monastery which is devoted to the ascetic life.”
142. A brother asked an old man, saying, “What shall I do?” The old man said unto him, “Go, and love the constraint of thyself in everything.”
143. The same old man said unto him, “Reveal and shew forth thy gift”; and the brother said unto him, “My thoughts will not permit me [to do so].” The old man said, “It is written, ‘Call upon Me in the day of affliction, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt praise Me’ (Psalm 50:15); call then upon Him, and He shall deliver thee.”
144. An old man used to say, “Teach thy heart to keep and to take heed unto the things which thy tongue speaketh.”
145. An old man used to say, “If a man teacheth and performeth not he is like unto the large basin which receiveth the water for the assembly, which watereth and cleanseth many, but cannot itself be cleaned, and is full of dirt and impurity.”
146. Abbâ Jacob used to say, “As a lamp illumineth a dark chamber, so doth the fear of God, if it abide in the heart of a man, illumine him, and teach him all the excellences of the commandments of God.”
147. Abbâ Muthues used to say, “I would rather have the man with a little work, which abideth and is constant, than him who at the beginning laboureth severely, and soon ceaseth altogether.”
148. On one occasion Abbâ Theodore went to Abbâ John,
