Page:King Alfred's West-Saxon Version of Gregory's Pastoral Care (2).djvu/73

64 Arone þæt nan mon hiera cynnes ne hiera hioredes ne offrode his Gode nanne hlaf, ne to his ðenunga ne come, gif he ænig wam hæfde: gif he blind wære oððe healt, oððe to micle nosu hæfde, oððe to lytle, oððe eft [to] wó nosu oððe tobrocene honda oððe fett, oððe hoferede wære, oððe torenigge, oððe fleah hæfde on eagan oððe singale sceabbas oððe teter oððe healan. Se bið eallinga blind se þe naht ne ongit bi ðæm leohte ðære uplican sceawunge, & se se þe big ofseten mid ðæm ðiestrum ðisses andweardan lifes, ðonne he næfre ne gesihð mid his modes eagum ðæt towearde leoht, ðy þe he hit lufige, & he nat hwider he recð mid ðæm stæpum his weorca. Be ðæm witgode Anna, þa hio cwæð: Dryhten gehilt his haligra fet, & þa unrihtwisan siccettað on ðæm ðistrum. Se bið eallinga healt se þe wat hwider he gan sceal, & ne mæg for his modes untrymnesse, ðeah he gesio lifes weg, he ne mæg medomlice ongan, ðonne he hæfð to godum weorce gewunad, & læt ðonne þæt aslacian, & hit nyle uparæran to ðæm staðole fulfremedes weorces; ðonne ne magon ðider fullice becuman þa stæpas ðæs weorces ðider þe he wilnað. Be ðæm cwæð Paulus: Astrecceað eowre agæledan honda & eowru cneowu, & stæppað ryhte, ne healtigeað leng, ac bioð hale. Đonne is sio lytle nosu ðæt mon ne sie gesceadwis; forðæm mid ðære nose we tosceаdað ða stenceas, forðæm is sio nosu gereaht to sceadwisnesse [gesc.]. Đurh ða gesceadwisnesse we tocnawað good & yfel, & geceosað ðæt good, & aweorpað ðæt yfel. Be ðæm is gecweden on ðære bryde lofe: Đin nosu is swelc swelce sé torr on Libano ðæm munte. Forðæm sio halige gesomnung ðurh gesceadwisnesse gesihð

that no man of their kin or household was to offer to his God any bread, nor come to his ministration, if he had any blemish: if he were blind or lame, or had too big or too little a nose, of if he were crooked-nosed, or had broken hands or feet, or were hump-backed or blear-eyed, or afflicted with albugo or continual scabbiness, or eruptions or hydrocele. He is quite blind who has no conception of the light of sublime contemplation, and is enveloped in the darkness of this present life, when he never sees with his mind's eye the future light so as to love it, and knows not whither he is tending with the steps of his works. About which Anna prophecied, saying: "The Lord will direct the feet of his saints, and the unrighteous shall lament in darkness." He is altogether lame who