do not at all times travel in great haste, and because my thoughts are not always in a turmoil.” Now this is a proof that a man should travel on the path of God with a well ordered mind.
406. One of the old men came to one of the fathers [and asked him] to go and visit Abbâ Joseph, and he said to him, “Tell thy disciple to go with us”; and the father said, “Call him, and whatsoever thou commandest him, he will do.” The old man said unto him, “What is his name?” and the Rabbâ of the disciple said, “I know not.” The old man said unto him, “And how long hath he been with thee? Dost thou not know his name?” And the father said, “Behold, he hath been with me for two years”; then the old man answered and said, “If he hath been with thee for two years, and thou hast not learnt his name, how can I learn it in one day?”
407. A brother asked Abbâ Poemen, and said, “On one occasion I was distressed, and I begged one of the holy men to lend me a certain thing, and he gave it to me as a free gift; now if God prospereth me shall I give it to another man, or shall I return it to him that gave it to me in the time of my tribulation?” The old man saith, “The gift was most certainly from God, and it is meet for thee to return it to Him, for it belongeth to Him.” And that brother said unto him, “Supposing that I carry it to Him, and He refuse to take it, and say unto me, ‘Get thee gone, and give it as a free gift to anyone at thy pleasure,’ what am I to do?” The old man said, “The thing still belongeth to Him. For if a man bringeth thee something of his own accord and thou hast no knowledge about it, in this manner the thing is his; but if thou hast borrowed something, either from a monk or from a man in the world, and he refuseth to take it back, it belongeth to thee and thou mayest do what thou pleasest with it.”
408. Abbâ Joseph related that Abbâ Isaac said, “I was on one occasion sitting with Abbâ Poemen, and I saw that he was in a state of great stupefaction, and because I possessed some influence over him, I offered entreaty to him, saying, ‘Father, where is thy mind?’ And after I had pressed him greatly, he answered and said, ‘My mind was in the place of the Crucifixion, where the holy woman Mary, the God-bearer, was standing and weeping by the Cross of our Redeemer, and I was wishing that I might at all times feel thus.’ ”
409. They used to say that Abbâ Sisoes the Theban was wont to dwell among the reeds of Arsânîâ, where there was, at some distance from him, an old man who was sick; and
