A monk gave away his wealth to the poor, but kept
back some for himself. Antony said to him, “Go
to the village and buy meat, and bring it to me on
thy bare back.” He did so: and the
dogs and birds attacked him, and tore him as well
as the meat. Quoth Antony, “So are those
who renounce the world, and yet must needs have money,
torn by daemons.”
Antony heard high praise of a certain brother; but,
when he tested him, he found that he was impatient
under injury. Quoth Antony, “Thou art
like a house which has a gay porch, but is broken into
by thieves through the back door.”
Antony, as he sat in the desert, was weary in heart,
and said, “Lord, I long to be saved, but my
wandering thoughts will not let me. Show me
what I shall do.” And looking up, he saw
one like himself twisting ropes, and rising up to
pray. And the angel (for it was one) said to
him, “Work like me, Antony, and you shall be
saved.”
One asked him how he could please God. Quoth
Antony, “Have God always before thine eyes;
whatever work thou doest, take example for it out
of Holy Scripture: wherever thou stoppest, do
not move thence in a hurry, but abide there in patience.
If thou keepest these three things, thou shalt be
saved.”
Quoth Antony, “If the baker did not cover the
mill-horse’s eyes he would eat the corn, and
take his own wages. So God covers our eyes,
by leaving us to sordid thoughts, lest we should think
of our own good works, and be puffed up in spirit.”
Quoth Antony, “I saw all the snares of the enemy
spread over the whole earth. And I sighed, and
said, ‘Who can pass through these?’ And
a voice came to me, saying, ’Humility alone can
pass through, Antony, where the proud can in no wise
go.’”
Antony was sitting in his cell, and a voice said to
him, “Thou hast not yet come to the stature
of a currier, who lives in Alexandria.”
Then he took his staff, and went down to Alexandria;
and the currier, when he found him, was astonished
at seeing so great a man. Said Antony, “Tell
me thy works; for on thy account have I come out of
the desert.” And he answered, “I
know not that I ever did any good; and, therefore,
when I rise in the morning, I say that this whole
city, from the greatest to the least, will enter into
the kingdom of God for their righteousness:
while I, for my sins, shall go to eternal pain.
And this I say over again, from the bottom of my
heart, when I lie down at night.” When
Antony heard that, he said, “Like a good goldsmith,
thou hast gained the kingdom of God sitting still
in thy house; while I, as one without discretion, have
been haunting the desert all my time, and yet not arrived
at the measure of thy saying.”
Quoth Antony, “If a monk could tell his elders
how many steps he walks, or how many cups of water
he drinks, in his cell, he ought to tell them, for
fear of going wrong therein.”
