Page:Aelfric's Lives of Saints Vol 1.djvu/387

 can help  them,  or  give  them  health,

when they  themselves  never  stir  from  the  place.

The Christian  man  must  cry  to  his  Lord

with mind  and  with  mouth,  and  beseech  His  protection,

that He  may  shield  him  against  the  devil's  snares,

and set  his  hope  in  the  true  God,

Who alone  ruleth  over  all  creatures,

that He  may  provide  for  his  safety,

even, lo! as He  will,  as  being  the  all-ruling  God.

I We  should  on  every  occasion  and  in  every  trouble

cross ourselves  with  true  faith,

and by  the  sign  of  the  Cross  put  to  flight  the  wicked  ones,

because the  wicked  devil  was  vanquished  by  the  Cross,

land it  is  ever  our  beacon  of  victory  against  the  fiend.

Likewise some  witless  women  go  to  cross-roads,

and draw  their  children  through  the  earth,

and thus  commit  themselves  and  their  children  to  the  devil.

Some of  them  kill  their  children  before  they  are  born,

or after  birth,  that  they  may  not  be  discovered,

nor their  wicked  adultery  be  betrayed;

but their  wickedness  is  awful,  and  everlasting  their  perdition.

Then the  child  perisheth,  a  loathsome  heathen,

and the  wicked  mother,  unless  she  ever  do  penance  for  it.

Some of  them  devise  drinks  [philtres]  for  their  wooers,

or some  mischief,  that  they  may  have  them  in  marriage.

But such  shameful  ones  shall  go  to  hell,

where they  shall  ever  suffer  in  the  tormenting  fire,

and in  awful  punishments,  for  their  witlessness.

But Christian  men  must  fight  against  devils

by strong  faith,  like  trained  champions,