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 of wine, and when they urged him to drink it, he said to them, “Forgive me, O my fathers, but ye did the same thing to me last year, and I drank a cup of wine, and I was greatly troubled thereby for a long time.”

78. The monks were celebrating a festival in Scete, and they gave a certain old man a cup of wine, and he handed it back, saying, “Take this death away from me”; and when the others who were eating with him saw him [do this] they also would not take the wine.

79. And again on another occasion certain first-fruits of wine were sent that it might be given to the brethren cup by cup, (i.e., a cup each). And one of the brethren went up to a roof, that he might escape from drinking, and it parted asunder beneath him, and he fell through it; and when the sound came [to the brethren] they went and found him lying [on the ground], and they began to think about him, and said, “O lover of vainglory, this hath befallen thee rightly.” And an old man laid him out, saying unto them, “Forgive ye my son, for he hath done a good work. And, as the Lord liveth, this breach shall not be built up in my days, for all the world shall know that because of a cup of wine a schism hath taken place in Scete.”

80. It was reported to Abbâ Poemen about a certain brother that he would not drink wine, and the old man Poemen said, “The nature of wine is not such as to make it useful to the dwellers in monasteries.”

81. They used to say about Abbâ Sisoes the Theban that he never ate bread. During the Easter Festival the brethren came to him, and having made excuses they entreated him to eat with them; and he answered and said, “I will do one [of two] things; I will either eat bread and bread alone, or I will eat of the meats which ye have boiled.” And they said unto him, “Then eat bread only.”

82. A certain old man said, “Reduce thy knowledge of the things of man, and thy belly also, and thou shalt find all [manner of] delights.”

83. Abbâ Poemen used to say, “The Spirit of God never entereth into the house wherein there are delights and pleasures.”

84. A brother asked Abbâ Sisoes, “What [good do] I do in going to church, for often [the devils] recognize me and seize me?” The old man saith unto him, “There is work in the matter.”

85. Abraham his disciple thereupon said unto him, “Father, if there happen to be a congregation on the Sabbath, or on Sunday, and a brother drink three cups of wine, is that too much?” The old man saith unto him, “If Satan did not