orgive, and ye shall be forgiven. Lay not up for yourselves
treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where
thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in
heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do
not break through nor steal: for where your treasure is, there will
your heart be also. Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat,
or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on:
for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these
things.' He therefore that gave life and body will assuredly give food
and raiment: he that feedeth the fowls of the air and arrayeth with
such beauty the lilies of the field. 'But, seek ye first,' saith
Christ, 'the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these
things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the
morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.
Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do
ye even so to them. Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the
gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there
be which go in thereat. Strait and narrow is the way which leadeth
unto life and few there be that find it. Not every one that saith unto
me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that
doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. He that loveth father
or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son and
daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not up
his cross and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.' Lo these and
the like of these be the things which the Saviour commanded his
Apostles to teach the Faithful: and all these things we are bound to
observe, if we desire to attain to perfection and receive the
incorruptible crowns of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous
judge, shall give at that day unto all them that have loved his
appearing."

Ioasaph said unto the elder, "Well then, as the strictness of these
doctrines demandeth such chaste conversation, if, after baptism, I
chance to fail in one or two of these commandments, shall I therefore
utterly miss the goal, and shall all my hope be vain?"

Barlaam answered, "Deem not so. God, the Word, made man for the
salvation of our race, aware of the exceeding frailty and misery of our
nature, hath not even here suffered our sickness to be without remedy.
But