191. An old man was asked, “What is the work of monks?” And he said, “To cultivate [all] the virtues, to make themselves strangers to all wickedness, and to be watchful against judging and condemning others; prayer, and obedience, and the cultivation of the virtues are the mirror of the monk. For his soul is a fountain, and if it cast forth from it the things which are abominable it shall be made pure; but if he dig a pit, God is not wicked that He should lead us out from one house of bondage and carry us into another.”
192. An old man used to say, “Do nothing without prayer, and afterwards thou wilt never be sorry.”
193. Abbâ Poemen used to say, “The work of the monastic life is poverty, and trouble, and separation; for it is written, If there be there these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, as I live, saith the Lord (Ezekiel 14:14). Noah must be taken [as representing] the personification of self-abnegation, and Job as representing labours, and Daniel as representing separation; if then a man possess these three rules of conduct the Lord dwelleth in him.”
194. A brother asked Abbâ Poemen, “Which is the better, to speak or to keep silence?” The old man said unto him, “He who speaketh for God’s sake is a good man, and he doeth well, and he who holdeth his peace for God’s sake doeth well.”
195. A brother asked Abbâ Poemen about pollutions and impurities of all sorts and kinds, and he said unto him, “If we stablish in ourselves a portion [only] of the work of our soul[s], a man may seek for impurity or uncleanness and it shall not be found.”
196. An old man used to say, “We saw in Abbâ Pambô three virtues which appertained to the body, namely, fasting from one evening to the other, and silence, and abundant work of the hands.”
197. Abbâ Pambô asked Abbâ Anthony, saying, “What shall I do?” The old man said unto him, “Put no confidence in thine own righteousness, and regret not nor cogitate upon a matter which is past, and be persistent in restraining thy tongue and thy belly.”
198. An old man was asked, “What is it right for a man to do that he may live?” Now the [old man himself] used to plait palm leaves into mats, and he never lifted up his head from the work of his hands, but he occupied himself at all times therewith. And the old man answered and said unto him that asked him, “Behold, what thou seest.”
199. The old men used to say, “There is nothing worse than a man passing judgement upon his neighbour.”
