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And that this is not done without the prompting of devils we are taught
by the surest proofs, for when one very highly esteemed Elder was passing
by the cell of a certain brother who was suffering from this mental disease
of which we have spoken, as he was restlessly toiling in his daily
occupations in building and repairing what was unnecessary, he watched him
from a distance breaking a very hard stone with a heavy hammer, and saw a
certain Ethiopian standing over him and together with him striking the
blows of the hammer with joined and clasped hands, and urging him on with
fiery incitements to diligence in the work: and so he stood still for a
long while in astonishment at the force of the fierce demon and the
deceitfulness of such an illusion. For when the brother was worn out and
tired and wanted to rest and put an end to his toil, he was stimulated by
the spirit's prompting and urged on to resume his hammer again and not to
cease from devoting himself to the work which he had begun, so that being
unweariedly supported by his incitements he did not feel the harm that so
great labour was doing him. At last then the old man, disgusted at such a
horrid mystification by a demon, turned aside to the brother's cell and
saluted him, and asked "what work is it, brother, that you are doing?" and
he replied: "We are working at this awfully hard stone, and we can hardly
break it at all." Whereupon the Elder replied: "You were right in saying
'we can,' for you were not alone, when you were striking it, but there was
another with you whom you did not see, who was standing over you not so
much to help you as urge you on with all his force." And thus the fact that
the disease of worldly vanity has not got hold of our hearts, will be
proved by no mere abstinence from those affairs which even if we want to
engage in, we cannot carry out, nor by the despising of those matters which
if we pursued them would make us remarkable in the front rank among
spiritual persons as well as among worldly men, but only when we reject
with inflexible firmness of mind whatever ministers to our power and seems
to be veiled in a show of right. And in reality these things which seem
trivial and of no consequence, and which we see to be permitted
indifferently by those who belong to our calling, none the less by their
character affect the soul than those more important things, which according
to their condition usually intoxicate the senses of worldly people and
which do not allow a monk to lay aside earthly impurities and aspire to
God, on whom his attention should ever be fixed; for in his case even a
slight separation from that highest good must be regarded as present death
and most dangerous destruction. And when the soul has been established in
such a peaceful condition, and has been freed from the meshes of all carnal
desires, and the purpose of the heart has been steadily fixed on that which
is the only highest good, he will then fulfil this Apostolic precept: "Pray
without ceasing;" and: "in every place lifting up holy hands without wrath
and disputing:" for when by this purity (if we can say so) the thoughts
of the soul are engrossed, and are re-fashioned out of their earthly
condition to bear a spiritual and angelic likeness, whatever it receives,
whatever it takes in hand, whatever it does, the prayer will be perfectly
pure and sincere.
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