hope of the world which is to come, and the glory which is laid up for the saints.”
646. The brethren said, “One of the old men said, ‘I have toiled for twenty years that I might see all men together (i.e., alike).’ How can a man attain to this measure, and when, and by what means? Give us a demonstration concerning this matter.” The old man said, “It is only the perfect men who attain to this measure, and according to what the Fathers say, without contemplation in silence, and prayer, and great conflicts, and humility, no man can attain thereto. And there is a similarity to this demonstration in the case of natural parents, for as they regard all their children in the same way, and as they love them all equally, and pity and spare all of them alike, even though there be among them great and small, and healthy and sick, and righteous and sinners, and good-looking and bad-looking, so the strenuous Fathers after the labours and the contests which they have passed through during long periods of time spent in silent and solitary retirement, regard all men, both the righteous and the sinners, in the same way, and they love them all alike and without distinction. And as God maketh the shadow to fall upon all men, both upon the righteous and upon sinners, even though he loveth the righteous for their righteousness, yet He sheweth most compassion upon the sinners. And the coming of our Lord was for the sake of sinners, for [saith He], ‘I did not come to call the righteous,’ &c.”
647. The brethren said, “Why was it, when the brother, according to the body, of one of the Fathers who was living the life of a recluse, sent to him, when he was about to die, to come and see him, that he would not do so, and that the one brother died without seeing the other? And what is the meaning of the words which he spake, ‘If I go forth and see him my heart will not be pure before God’?” The old man said, “The holy man was living secluded in a cell, in a habitation of the brethren, and his brother according to the body was also living, like the other brethren in another cell, and when the latter became sick unto death, he wished to see his brother before he died. Now to the holy man, since he was keeping silence in respect of all the other brethren, it did not appear to be right to go forth to his brother according to the body, and not to go forth afterwards to his spiritual brethren, that is to say, to those who dwelt in the monastery with him. Had he gone forth to his brother according to the body at the season of his death, and had not gone forth to his brethren in the spirit, he would not have found freedom of speech with God at the season of prayer, but his mind would have passed
