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THERE is still one valuable charge of the blessed Macarius to be
brought forward by us, so that a saying of so great a man may close this
book of fasts and abstinence. He said then that a monk ought to bestow
attention on his fasts, just as if he were going to remain in the flesh for
a hundred years; and to curb the motions of the soul, and to forget
injuries, and to loathe sadness, and despise sorrows and losses, as if he
were daily at the point of death. For in the former case discretion is
useful and proper as it causes a monk always to walk with well-balanced
care, and does not suffer him by reason of a weakened body to fall from the
heights over most dangerous precipices: in the other high-mindedness is
most valuable as it will enable him not only to despise the seeming
prosperity of this present world, but also not to be crushed by adversity
and sorrow, and to despise them as small and paltry matters, since he has
the gaze of his mind continually fixed there, whither daily at each moment
he believes that he is soon to be summoned.
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