Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 7, 1896.djvu/127

Rh deniers of God shall be punished. I, O king, am ready for earthly tortures; so delay not, that I may the more quickly depart to my Lord, to rest in peace for ever." But at these words the king was softened and said: "Beloved Balavari, how hast thou deprived me of hope by disobeying my orders. Depart from my country, that the knowledge of thee may never reach my ears. If I shall find thee again, I will not be guiltless of thy blood."

So Balavari abandoned his transitory greatness, and departed unto the Eremites to serve Christ our God.

This present life is like unto a man whom an elephant pursued in fury, and drove him into a well most terrible. And the man saw trees, upon which he held himself up. And he saw two mice, one black and one white, which were gnawing at the roots of the trees, upon which he was raised up. And he looked down into the well and he saw snakes which opened their mouths and desired to devour him. Then he looked up and saw a little honey which kept dropping from the trees. And he began to lick it up, and once more he no longer bethought him of the disaster into which he was fallen.

But the mice ate deep into the trees, and the man fell, and the elephant caught him up and threw him to the serpents. Now, then, O son of the king, the elephant is the image of death, which pursues the sons of men. And the tree is this life, and the mice are days and nights, and the honey is the sweetness of this world, and the man is distracted by the taste for this life. Days and nights are fulfilled, and death carries him off; and in hell the serpent devours him. And this is the life of men.

Iodasaph said: "What is the sustenance on which ye live in the wilderness?" He answered: "Off the herbs of the land we subsist; but when we run short, we accept from our brethren that believe."

There is one God the father, sovereign of all, creator of heaven and of earth, our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father. He is the only creator, but all else is created. He alone is without time, but all others are in time. He alone is powerful, but all they are powerless. He alone is sublime, but all they are low. Everything was made by him, and without him is nothing which was made. For he is good, gracious, and patient, and a lover of mankind; and there are in store for them that obey him delights, but for the disobedient torments. The same in trinity and unity is glorified.