209. It is related of a certain old man that if he heard a brother speak evilly to him he would labour very hard to make something which would please the brother who had spoken to him, and that if that brother did not live with him, the old man would send whatsoever he had made to the place where he was.
210. A certain old man used to say, “It is a disgrace for a monk to enter into judgement with the man who hath done him an injury.”
211. A brother asked a certain old man, saying, “Tell me one thing, whereby, if I keep it, I shall live.” The old man said unto him, “If thou canst endure being reviled and cursed, this command is the greatest of all the commandments.”
212. A brother asked Abbâ Poemen, saying, “What shall I do to my heart which flaggeth and is frightened if a little toil, and tribulation overtake me, or if temptation come upon me?” The old man said unto him, “Therefore we should wonder and admire the righteous man Joseph who, being only a very young man—that is to say, seventeen years of age—was sold into slavery into the land of Egypt, the land of the worshippers of idols, and he endured temptations, and God made him glorious to the end.”
213. And he said also, “We may consider also the blessed Job, who never became slothful, for he persevered in his trust in his God, and his enemies were not able to shake him from his hope.”
214. On one occasion the brethren who were in Scete were cleaning and dressing palm leaves, and there was among them a man who had become ill through his excessive spiritual labours, and he was coughing, and bringing up clots of phlegm and spittle; and as he spat, involuntarily, some of the spittle fell upon a certain brother. Then the mind of that brother on whom the spittle had fallen said unto him, “Tell that brother not to spit upon thee”; but straightway he licked up the spittle, and he turned and said to his mind, “Thou hast not licked up the spittle, therefore do not tell him not to spit upon thee.”
215. Abbâ Poemen used to say that John Colob, who made entreaty unto God, and [his] passions were removed from him, and he was set free from anxious care, went and said unto a famous old man, “I perceive that my soul is at rest, and that it hath neither war nor strife [to trouble it].” Then the old man said unto him, “Go and entreat God to let war and strife come unto thee again, for it is through war and strife that the soul advanceth in spiritual excellence.” And afterwards, whensoever war stood up before him, he did not pray, “O Lord, remove striving from me,” but he made supplication unto
