him, “Thou art like unto a palace the front of which is decorated and beautiful, but the back whereof hath been broken into by thieves and plundered.”
230. A brother asked an old man a question, saying, “What shall I do?” And the old man said unto him, “Go and learn to love putting restraint upon thyself in everything.”
231. One of the old men said concerning Lazarus, the poor man, “We cannot find that Lazarus ever did one excellent thing except that he never murmured against the rich man as being one who had never shewn him an act of mercy; but he bore his infirmity with the giving of thanks, and because of this God took him to Himself.”
232. Abbâ Macarius used to say, “If contumely be accounted by thee as an honour, and blame as praise, and poverty as wealth, thou wilt not die.”
233. A certain brother asked Abbâ Poemen, saying, “What mean the words, ‘If a man be angry with his brother without a cause?’ ” (St. Matthew 5:22.) The old man said unto him, “If thy brother make use of oppression, and wrong, and fraud in respect of thee, and thou art angry with him [because of them], thou art angry with him without a cause. And if he tear out thy right eye, or cut off thy right hand, and thou art angry with him, thou art angry with him without a cause; but if a man wisheth to separate thee or to put thee away from God, then to be angry and wroth with him is a good thing.”
234. There were two men in the desert who were brethren in the flesh, and a devil came to separate them from each other; and one day the younger brother lit a lamp and set it upon a candlestick, but, by the agency of the Evil One, he overturned the candlestick and extinguished the lamp. Then the elder brother was angry and smote him, and the younger brother made excuses to him, saying, “Have a little patience with me, and I will light the lamp again.” Now when God saw his patient endurance, He punished that devil until the morning, and the devil came and told the prince of devils what had happened; and there was with the prince of devils a certain priest of idols, and straightway this man left everything, and he went and became a monk. And at the very beginning he laid hold upon humility, saying, “Humility is able to bring to naught all the power of the Adversary, even as I have heard from the devils, who said, ‘Whensoever we stir up the monks, they turn to humility, and they make excuses one to the other, and thus they do away all our power.’ ”
235. Abbâ Poemen said, “Abbâ Isidore, the priest of the church, on one occasion spake to the people, saying, My
