him] to say some words of excellence to them; and the old man answered and said unto them, “It is right that we all should travel the path of God with well-ordered [minds].”
471. Abbâ Anthony used to say, “When we rise up in the morning each day let us think that we shall not abide until the evening, and when we come to lie down also let us think that we shall not abide until the morning; for we know not the days of our life, but they are known unto God. If we do this each day we shall not sin, and we shall do nothing wicked before God, and we shall not lust eagerly for anything belonging to this world, and we shall not be angry with anyone, but in everything we shall be regarding our souls, even as men who await death.”
472. And he also said, “As fish die when they are drawn out of the water, even so do monks, who have forsaken the world, become sluggish, when they remain with the children of this world or dwell with them; it is then meet for us to hasten to the mountain even as fish haste to the water.”
473. Now they used to say that Abbâ Anthony was wholly [illumined] by the appearance of the light of the spirit, and that he could see what was happening from a distance; now on one occasion he saw the soul of the blessed Ammon being taken up into heaven by the hands of angels, although he was distant from him ten stages.
474. One of the brethren asked him once about the thoughts, and the old man answered and said unto him, “Do not carry them into effect, but let them settle down and down until they breed worms and perish.”
475. Abbâ Poemen used to say, “If a man pass a hundred years in the cell he will not understand his departure from this world and become a monk, unless he attribute sin to himself at all times, and make himself to be remote, both in his mind and in his actions, from those things which he knoweth will separate him from God, and make supplication unto God at all times through suffering and tears.”
476. A brother asked Abbâ Poemen, saying, “What is the repentance of sins?” And he said unto him, “The repentance of sins consisteth in a man not committing the sin again from the moment wherein he repenteth of it; and on account of this the righteous were called ‘spotless,’ and because they had forsaken [their] sins, and had cleansed themselves from them.”
477. And another brother also asked him, saying, “Shew me a word whereby I may live”; and the old man said unto him, “The first thing of all which the fathers have given us [to do] is to mourn.”
