drinking water sparingly, Satan will never be able to injure him by means of this passion. And the devil will never be gratified at the fulfilment of this passion by him, for there is nothing which will dry up the arteries, and prevent the accident of the night, and make a monk to possess chaste and quiet thoughts by day, so much as the restraining of the belly by thirst. Some fast the whole day until the evening, and some fast for [several] nights at a time, yet when they break their fast and eat a little food, because they drink much water, they benefit in no wise by their fasting and by the sparing use of food which they practise because of the war of lust. For the drinking of much water filleth the arteries [of the monk] with [excessive] moisture, and Satan findeth an occasion for exciting him by means of thoughts in the daytime, and he trippeth him up by means of dreams by night, and he depriveth him of the light of purity. Therefore, in another place, Abbâ Evagrius admonisheth the monk, saying, ‘If thou wishest for chastity make little thy food, and restrain thyself in the drinking of water, and then impassibility of heart shall rise upon thee, and thou shalt see in thy prayer a mind which emitteth light like unto a star.’ ”
657. The brethren said, “In how many ways doth Divine Grace call the brethren unto the life of the solitary ascetic?” The old man said, “In very many and different ways. Sometimes Divine Grace moveth a man suddenly, even as it moved Abbâ Moses, the Ethiopian, and sometimes by the hearing of the Scriptures, as in the cases of the blessed Mâr Anthony and Mâr Simon Stylites, and at others by the doctrine of the word, as in the cases of Serapion, and Abbâ Bessarion, and others who were like unto them. Concerning these three ways whereby Divine Grace calleth to those who would repent, I would say that Divine Grace moveth the conscience of a monk in the manner which is pleasing to God, and that through these even evil-doers have repented and pleased God. And there is, moreover, the departure from this world by the hands of angels, by terrors, and sicknesses, and afflictions, even as that which took place in respect of the blessed Evagrius; and sometimes God Himself calleth from heaven and taketh a man out of the world, as in the cases of Paul, and Abbâ Arsenius.”
658. The brethren said, “Wherefore is it that the beginning of the doctrine of the old men is laid down in the books from the choice (or election) of Abbâ Arsenius, and on [his] coming forth from the world into a monastery, and from a monastery of the brethren into the seclusion which is in a cell?”
