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This twenty-fourth Conference of Abbot Abraham is by the favour of
Christ produced, which concludes the traditions and decisions of all the
Elders; and when by the aid of your prayers it has been finished, as the
number mystically corresponds to that of the four and twenty Elders who are
said in the holy Apocalypse to offer their crowns to the Lamb, we think
that we shall have paid the debt of all our promises. And henceforth if
these four and twenty Elders of ours have been crowned with any glory for
the sake of their teaching, they shall with bowed heads offer it to the
Lamb who was slain for the salvation of the world: for He it was Who
vouschafed for the honour of His name to grant to them such exalted
feelings and to us whatever words were needful to set forth such profound
thoughts. And the merits of His gift must be referred to the Author of all
good, to whom the more is owed, as the more is paid. Therefore with anxious
confession we laid before this Abraham the impulse of our thoughts. whereby
we were urged by daily perplexities of our mind to return to our country
and revisit our kinsfolk. For from this the greatest reason for our desire
sprang, because we remembered that our kinsfolk were endowed with such
piety and goodness that we felt sure that they would never interfere with
our purpose, and we constantly reflected, that we should gain more good out
of their earnestness, and should be hampered by no cares about bodily
matters, and no trouble in providing food, as they would gladly minister
abundantly to the supply of all our wants, and besides this we were feeding
our souls on the hope of empty joys, as we thought that we should gain the
greatest good from the conversion of many, who were to be turned to the
way of salvation by our example and instructions. Then besides this the
very spot, where was the ancestral possession of our forefathers, and the
delightful pleasantness of the neighbourhood was painted before our eyes,
how pleasantly and suitably it stretched away to the desert, so that the
recesses of the woods would not only delight the heart of a monk, but would
also furnish him with a plentiful supply of food. And when we explained
all this to the aforesaid old man, in a straightforward way, according to
the faith of our conscience, and showed by our copious tears that we could
no longer resist the violence of the impulse, unless the grace of God came
to our rescue by the healing which he, could give, he waited for a long
time in silence and at last sighed deeply and said:
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