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I REMEMBER an elder, when I was staying in the desert of Scete, who
went to the cell of a certain brother to pay him a visit, and when he had
reached the door heard him muttering inside, and stood still for a little
while, wanting to know what it was that he was reading from the Bible or
repeating by heart (as is customary) while he was at work. And when this
most excellent eavesdropper diligently applied his ear and listened with
some curiosity, he found that the man was induced by an attack of this
spirit to fancy that he was delivering a stirring sermon to the people. And
when the elder, as he stood still, heard him finish his discourse and
return again to his office, and give out the dismissal of the catechumens,
as the deacon does, then at last he knocked at the door, and the man
came out, and met the elder with the customary reverence, and brought him
in and (for his knowledge of what had been his thoughts made him uneasy)
asked him when he had arrived, for fear lest he might have taken some harm
from standing too long at the door: and the old man joking pleasantly
replied, "I only got here while you were giving out the dismissal of the
catechumens."
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