Now, as I have already said, the old man had up to that time never gone out of his cell. And when the old man heard the message, he said, “If God had not worked in him he would not have sent for me”; and he rose up and came to him; and having saluted each other, they sat down with gladness. And Abbâ Poemen said unto him, “There were two men living in one place, and both of them had dead, and one of them left weeping for his own dead and went and wept over that of his neighbour”; and when the old man heard these words he repented, and he remembered what he had done, and said, “Abbâ Poemen is above in heaven, but I am down, down, on the earth.”
327. An old man used to say, “It is right for a man to keep his work in all diligence so that he may lose nothing thereof; for if a man worketh even a very little, and keepeth it, his work remaineth and abideth.” And the old man used to narrate the following matter: An inheritance was left unto a certain brother, and whilst he was wishing to make therefrom a memorial to him that had died, a certain brother who was a stranger came to him, and he roused him up in the night saying, “Arise, and help me to sing the service.” Then the stranger entreated him, saying, “Leave me, O my brother, for I am away from labour, and I cannot [get up]”; and the brother who had welcomed him said, “If thou wilt not come, get up and depart from this place”; and the stranger rose up and departed. And at the turn of the night he saw in his dream him who had driven him out giving wheat to the baker, and that the baker did not give him [back] even one loaf of bread; and he rose up and went to an old man and related unto him the whole matter even as it had taken place, and the old man said unto him, “Thou hast performed a beautiful action, but the Enemy hath not allowed thee to receive the reward [thereof].” And after these things the old man said that [this] story was a proof according to which it is right for a man to be watchful and to guard his work with great care.
328. An old man said, “The Calumniator is the Enemy, and the Enemy will never cease to cast into thy house, if he possibly can, impurity of every kind, and it is thy duty neither to refuse nor to neglect to take that which is cast in and to throw it out; for if thou art negligent thy house will become filled with impurity, and thou wilt be unable to enter therein. Therefore whatsoever the Enemy casteth in little by little do thou throw out little by little, and thy house shall remain pure by the Grace of Christ.”
329. On one occasion Abbâ Poemen entreated Abbâ Macarius with frequent supplication, saying, “Tell me a word [whereby
