Barlaam and Ioasaph quotes

The task is not easy or without its perils; but in no other way, we believe, could the unity of the book be maintained; the Biblical quotations, frequent as they are, would harmonise badly with a more modern style.

Books, like men, have their vicissitudes of fate.

The favourite work of one generation may be the laughingstock of the next;

Our nobleman said unto him, “For very charity I will take thee up, and render thee such service as I may. But what is this profit which thou saidest that I should receive of thee?” The poor sick man answered,

“I am a physician of words. If ever in speech or converse any wound or damage be found, I will heal it with befitting medicines, that so the evil spread no further.”

The devout man gave no heed to his word, but on account of the commandment, ordered him to be carried home, and grudged him not that tending which he required.

The tutor said, “Though, to all seeming, thou art a man of staid and steadfast judgment, yet thy words prove thee to be boastful beyond measure.

Time would fail me to tell thee the full tale of the costly and precious gems and pearls that I have seen.

But gems, with such power as thou tellest of, I never saw nor heard of yet. Nevertheless show me the stone;

But through the eyes of my mind I perceived the value and exceeding beauty of their souls, and was glorified by their touch, and I counted them more honourable than any chaplet or royal purple.’

Thus he shamed his courtiers, and taught them not to be deceived by outward appearances, but to give heed to the things of the soul.

After the example of that devout and wise king hast thou also done, in that thou hast received me in good hope, wherein, as I ween, thou shalt not be disappointed.” Ioasaph said unto him, “Fair and fitting hath been all thy speech;

He, astonied at her speech, promised that, if he heard anything new from her, he would quickly free her from her captivity. The nightingale turned towards our friend and said,

“Never try to attain to the unattainable: never regret the thing past and gone: and never believe the word that passeth belief. Keep these three precepts, and may it be well with thee.”

The man, admiring the lucidity and sense of her words, freed the bird from her captivity, and sent her forth aloft.

But, as they have dealt treacherously, it proveth itself treacherous and false in fulfilling none of its pledges. Today it tickleth their gullet with pleasant dainties; tomorrow it maketh them nought but a gobbet for their enemies.

Today it maketh a man a king: tomorrow it delivereth him into bitter servitude.

Today its thrall is fattening on a thousand good things; tomorrow he is a beggar, and drudge of drudges. Today it placeth on his head a crown of glory; tomorrow it dasheth his face upon the ground.

how, outside, the unicorn was madly raging to devour him: how, below, the fierce dragon was yawning to swallow him: how the tree, which he had clutched, was all but severed; and how his feet rested on slippery, treacherous ground.

Yea, he forgat, without care, all those sights of awe and terror, and his whole mind hung on the sweetness of that tiny drop of honey.

“This is the likeness of those who cleave to the deceitfulness of this present life—the interpretation whereof I will declare to thee anon. The unicorn is the type of death, ever in eager pursuit to overtake the race of Adam.

“

A ship holdeth not together without a steersman, but easily foundereth; and a small house shall not stand without a protector.

How then could the world have subsisted for long ages, a work so great, and so fair and wondrous—without some glorious mighty and marvellous steersmanship and all-wise providence? Behold the heavens, how long they have stood, and have not been darkened:

Barlaam said unto him, “If it be the number of years from my birth that thou askest, thou hast well reckoned them at upwards of seventy.

But, for myself, I count not amongst the number of my days the years that I wasted in the vanity of the world.

When I lived to the flesh in the bondage of sin, I was dead in the inner man; and those years of deadness I can never call years of life.

For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.

For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.

’ And again, ‘O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?’ And once more, ‘I desire to depart and be with Christ.’ And the prophet saith, ‘When shall I come and appear before the presence of God?’

Barlaam answered, “I said not that these men were pinched by poverty, but that they plume themselves on their inexhaustible wealth.

For to be ever adding money to money, and never to curb the passion for it, but insatiably to covet more and more, betokeneth the extreme of poverty.

But those who despise the present for love of the eternal and count it but dung, if only they win Christ, who have laid aside all care for meat and raiment and cast that care on the Lord, and rejoice in penury as no lover …

But remove far from thee all pleasure and lust of the affections, not only in act and operation, but even in the thoughts of thine heart, that thou mayest present thy soul without blemish to God.

For not our actions only, but our thoughts also are recorded, and procure us crowns or punishments

: and we know that Christ, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, dwelleth in pure hearts. But, just as smoke driveth away bees, so, we learn, do evil imaginations drive out of us the Holy Spirit’s grace.

For not our actions only, but our thoughts also are recorded, and procure us crowns or punishments: and we know that Christ, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, dwelleth in pure hearts.

But, just as smoke driveth away bees, so, we learn, do evil imaginations drive out of us the Holy Spirit’s grace.

Wherefore take good heed hereto, that thou blot out every imagination of sinful passion from thy soul, and plant good thoughts therein, making thyself a temple of the Holy Ghost.

Wilt thou not understand this, my father?

Wilt thou not haste past the things which haste pass thee, and attach thyself to that which endureth?

Wilt thou not prefer a home land to a foreign land, light to darkness, the spirit to the flesh, eternal life to the shadow of death, the indestructible to the fleeting?

And for this reason Isis fled with Horus her son to Byblos in Syria, seeking Osiris and bitterly wailing, until Horus was grown up and killed Typhon.

Isis then was not able to help her own brother and husband

; nor had Osiris, who was slain by Typhon, power to succour himself; nor had Typhon, who killed his brother and was himself destroyed by Horus and Isis, any resource to save himself from death.

So, when they had gone round everywhere and brought him again unto the king, the king asked, which of all these sights had pleased him most. ‘What,’ answered the boy, ‘but the Devils that deceive men?

Nothing that I have seen today hath fired my heart with such love as these.

’ The king was astonished at the saying of the boy, to think how masterful a thing the love of women is. Therefore think not to subdue thy son in any other way than this.”

Your sacrifice is of more value than your idol; for the image was fashioned by man, but the beast was created by God. How much wiser is the unreasonable beast than thou the reasonable man?

For it knoweth the hand that feedeth it, but thou knowest not that God by whom thou wast created out of nothing, by whom thou livest, and art preserved

; and thou callest God that which thou sawest, but now, smitten by steel, and burnt and moulded in the fire, and beaten with hammers, which thou hast covered around with silver and gold, and raised from the ground, and set on high.

Then, falling upon the earth, thou liest baser than the base stone, worshipping not God but thine own dead and lifeless handiwork.

Or rather, the idol hath no right to be called even dead, for how can that have died which never lived?

Thou shouldest invent some new name worthy of such madness. Thy stone god is broken asunder; thy potsherd god shattered; thy brazen god rusteth; thy gold or silver god is melted down.

thy potsherd god shattered; thy brazen god rusteth; thy gold or silver god is melted down. Aye, and thy gods are sold, some for a paltry, others for a great price. Not their divinity but their material giveth them value.

But who buyeth God? Who offereth God for sale?

And how is that god that cannot move called God? Seest thou not that the god that standeth cannot sit, and the god that sitteth cannot stand?

Aye, and thy gods are sold, some for a paltry, others for a great price. Not their divinity but their material giveth them value. But who buyeth God? Who offereth God for sale? And how is that god that cannot move called God?

Seest thou not that the god that standeth cannot sit, and the god that sitteth cannot stand?

“Be ashamed, thou fool, and lay thine hand upon thy mouth, thou victim of folly, that commendest such things as these.

O wretched man, return to thy senses, and learn that thou art older than the god made by thee. This is downright madness. Being a man, thou hast persuaded thyself that thou canst make God. How can this be?

Thou makest not God, but the likeness of a man, or of some beast, sans tongue, sans throat, sans brains, sans inwards

, so that it is the similitude neither of a man, nor of a beast, but only a thing of no use and sheer vanity. Why therefore flatterest thou things that cannot feel?

This Holy Spirit’s grace and wisdom taught Ioasaph to speak with the king his father, enlightening him with the light of knowledge.

Before now he had bestowed much labour to drag his father from superstitious error, leaving nothing unsaid and nothing undone to win him over, but he seemed to be twanging on a broken string, and speaking to deaf ears.

But when the Lord looked upon the lowliness of his servant Ioasaph, and, in answer to his prayer, opened the closed gates of his father’s heart (for it is said, he will fulfil the desire of them that fear him, and will hear their cry), …

And herein shall he best imitate God, by considering that nothing is to be preferred before showing mercy. Nay, further, nothing so surely draweth the subject to loyalty toward his Sovereign as the grace of charity bestowed on such as need it.

For the service that cometh from fear is flattery in disguise, with the pretence of respect cozening them that pay heed to it

; and the unwilling subject rebelleth when he findeth occasion. Whereas he that is held by the ties of loyalty is steadfast in his obedience to the ruling power.

For, as thou hast received of God a mighty sovereignty, thou owest him the greater repayment. Render therefore to thy Benefactor the debt of thanksgiving, by the keeping of his holy commandments and by turning aside from every path whose end is destruction.

For it is with kingdoms as with ships. If one of the sailors blunder it bringeth but small damage to the crew. But if the steersman err, he causeth the whole ship to perish.

Even so it is with sovranty: if a subject err, he harmeth himself more than the state. But if the king err, he causeth injury to the whole realm.

And so at noontide, as he held on his way under the fierce blaze of the sun, he was parched with thirst in the hot drought of that desert place, and he suffered the extreme of anguish.

But desire of Christ conquered nature, and the thirst wherewith he thirsted for God bedewed the heat of thirst for water.

Now the devil, being envious and full of hate for that which is beautiful, unable to endure the sight of such steadfastness of purpose, and glowing love towards God, raised up against Ioasaph many temptations in the wilderness.

And when he had met with certain signs, pointed out to him by this other old hermit, he went on rejoicing, strong in hope, like a child hoping after long absence to see his father.

For when divine love hath broken into a soul, it proveth hotter and stronger than the natural.

So he stood before the door of the cave, and knocked, saying “Benedicite, father, benedicite!”

but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

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