Page:ParadiseOfTheHolyFathersV2.djvu/207

 went to her grave, and dug it up, and he found her not, for she had departed, and had been laid with the believers.

172. The old man Macarius used to say, “These are the three principal things, and it is right that a man should set them before him at every season. The remembrance of his death should be before him at every hour, and he should die to every man, and he should be constant always in his mind towards our Lord. For, if a man have not the remembrance of his death before him at all seasons, he will not be able to die to every man, and if he die not to every man he will be unable to be constantly before God.”

173. The old man Macarius used to say, “Strive for every kind of death, for the death of the body, that is to say, if thou hast not the death which is in the spirit; strive for the death of the body, and then shall be added unto thee the death which is in the spirit. And death of this kind will make thee to die to every man, and henceforward thou wilt acquire the faculty of being constantly with God in silence.”

174. The same old man also said, “If thou hast not the prayer of the spirit, strive for the prayer of the body, and then shall be added unto thee the prayer in the spirit. If thou hast not humility in the spirit, strive for the humility which is in the body, and then shall be added unto thee the humility which is in the spirit. For it is written, ‘Ask, and ye shall receive’ ” (St. Matthew 7:7; 21:22).

175. A brother asked an old man, saying, “Why do I keep my sins in remembrance without being pained about them?” The old man said unto him, “This happeneth unto us through contempt and negligence. When a man wisheth to boil some food for his need, and he findeth some small sparks of fire in his fireplace, he desireth to take care of them, and preserve them, and to kindle therefrom a large flame; but if he neglecteth them they become black and die out. And thus also is it with ourselves, for if, according as God hath bestowed upon us, we remember our sins, and we desire and come to the life of silence, and we possess persistence in remembering our sins, we shall acquire great grief in our hearts; but, if we hold them in contempt and do not even remember them, we shall be rejected.”

176. A brother asked Abbâ Poemen, saying, “Who is a hypocrite?” The old man said unto him, “The hypocrite is he who teacheth his neighbour to do a certain thing which he himself hath not performed, and to the doing of which he hath not attained; for it is written, ‘Hypocrite! why dost thou look at the mote which is in the eye of thy brother, and behold there is a beam in thine own eye? And how canst