thou say to thy brother, Let me take out the mote from thine eye, seeing that thou hast not first taken the beam out of thine own eye?’ ” (St. Matthew 7:5.)
177. A brother asked Abbâ Chronius, saying, “What shall I do in respect of the error which leadeth captive my mind? For I do not perceive it until it bringeth me to the committal of sin.” And the old man said unto him, “When the Philistines took captive the Ark of the Lord because of the evil deeds of the children of Israel, they dragged it along and carried it until they had brought it into the house of Dagon their God, and then Dagon fell down on his face in that place” (1 Samuel 5:3). The brother said unto him, “What [meaneth] this word?” The old man said unto him, “If the unclean devils take captive the mind of a man by their own means, they lead it on until they bring it to invisible and unknown passion; but if, on the spot, the mind turneth and seeketh God, and remembereth fervently the judgement of the world which is to come, straightway the passion departeth, and is destroyed. For it is written, ‘When ye repent and groan, ye shall be redeemed, and ye shall know in what condition ye are.’ ”
178. Again a brother asked Abbâ Chronius, saying, “In what manner doth a man come to humility?” The old man said unto him, “In my opinion a man doeth this by restraining and withdrawing himself from everything, and by devoting himself to the labour of the body, and as far as he hath the power so to do he should remember his departure from the body, and the awful judgement of God.”
179. Abbâ Anthony used to say, “Behold a time shall come to the children of men when they shall become silly, and they shall turn aside and depart from the fear of God, and if they see a man who is neither as mad nor as silly as they are, they shall rise up against him, saying, ‘Thou art both mad and silly,’ because he is not like unto them.”
180. Abbâ Ammon of Nitria went to Abbâ Anthony, and said unto him, “I see that the labours which I perform are greater than thine, how then is it that thy name is more renowned among men than mine?” Abbâ Anthony said unto him, “Because I also love the Lord more than thou.”
181. When Abbâ Poemen heard that Abbâ Nastîr was dwelling in the coenobium he desired greatly to see him, and he told his Abbâ that he ought to send him to go and visit him, but he refused to send him by himself, and he would not let him go. Now a few days afterwards the steward of the coenobium, who had certain thoughts, persuaded Abbâ to send him to Abbâ Nastîr, and he dismissed him, saying, “Take this
