of the country heard about him, and they brought him a man who was afflicted with a devil that he might heal him; and when the devil saw him, he began to revile him, saying, “Hast thou brought this winebibber to me?” And the old man did not wish to cast him out because of the praise of men, but, because the devil had reviled him, he said unto him, “I believe in Christ, and I shall not have drunk [this] cup of wine until thou hast gone forth”; and as he began to drink that devil cried out, and said, “Thou art consuming me”: and before the old man could drink that cup [of wine] the devil went forth by the grace of Christ.
395. They used to say that a certain father who was a recluse had a brother, according to the body, who lived in another cell, and that this brother fell ill, and sent to him a message to come and see him before he died; and his brother said, “I am unable to go out for the sake of my brother in the flesh.” And his brother sent him another message, saying, “Come, if it be only in the night, that I may see thee”; and the recluse said, “I cannot do so, for if I did my heart would not be pure before God.” So the brother died, and they did not see each other.
396. They once wanted to make Abbâ Isaac priest in Scete, and when he heard [this] he fled to Egypt, and he went into a field and hid himself among the crop because the fathers were pursuing him, and when they came to that field they began to weary a little; and they turned the ass which they had with them out to feed, but he left the whole field, and went and stood up in that place where Abbâ Isaac was hidden. And in the morning they went out to look for the ass, and they found the ass and the old man [together] and they marvelled; and when they wished to make Abbâ Isaac take an oath [not to run away] he would not allow them [to do so], and he said unto them, “I shall not flee again, for it is the will of God, and whithersoever I flee I shall come to this thing, for this is a consecration by God.”
397. Abbâ Macarius asked Abbâ Arsenius, saying, “Is it good for a man not to have any pleasure at all in his cell? I know a brother who used to have a few garden herbs in his cell, and to prevent himself from having any gratification therefrom, he pulled them up by the roots”; and Abbâ Arsenius said unto him, “This is good, but every man [must do] as he is able, and if he hath not strength to persist in this perhaps he should plant others.”
398. The old men who were in Egypt told Abbâ Elijah that Abbâ Agathon was a great man. And the old man said unto them, “Considering his youth he was a great man in his
