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 he was boiling for them a little food, his neighbours saw the smoke [of his fire] rising up, and they said to the clergy, “Behold, Moses hath broken the command, and hath boiled some food in his cell”; and they said unto them, “Hold ye your peace, and when he cometh to us we will speak to him.” Now when the Sabbath arrived, the clergy, having regard to his great ascetic labours, said unto him before the whole assembly, “O Abbâ Moses, though thou dost break the command of men, thou stablishest [that of God].”

442. They used to tell the story of a certain brother who, when he was throwing away the handles of his baskets, heard his neighbour say, “What shall I do? For the festival draweth nigh, and I have no handles to put on my baskets”; and the brother went straightway and picked up the handles of his baskets, and brought them to his companion, saying, “Behold I have these, of which I have no need, take them and put them on thy baskets”; and he left his own work and completed that of his companion.

443. Certain of the old men went to Abbâ Poemen, and said unto him, “Dost thou wish us if we see brethren sleeping in the congregation, to smite them so that they may wake up?” And he said unto them, “If I see my brother sleeping, I place his head upon my knees, and I give him a place to rest upon”; then an old man said unto him, “And what dost thou say unto God?” Abbâ Poemen said unto him, “I say unto Him thus: Thou Thyself hast said, ‘First of all pluck the beam out of thine own eye, and then thou wilt be able to see to take the mote out of the eye of thy brother” (St. Matthew 7:3).

444. ABBÂ ISAAC, the priest of the Cells, used to say: When I was a young man I used to dwell with Abbâ Chronius, and he never at any time told me to do any work; now he was an old man and he trembled, but he would stand up and give water with his hands to me, and to all of us alike. And with Abbâ Theodore of Parmê it was the same, for he never told me to do any work whatsoever, but he would make ready the table with his own hands, and would say, “Brother, come [and] eat.” And I said unto him, “Father, I came that I might assist thee, and how is that thou dost not tell me to do something?” But the old man in all this held his peace. And I went up and informed the old men, and they came to him, and said unto him, “Father, this brother came