nt way?"

The elder answered and said, "I teach thee no law introduced but
yesterday, God forbid! but one given unto us of old. For when a
certain rich young man asked the Lord, 'What shall I do to inherit
eternal life?' and boasted that he had observed all that was written in
the Law, Jesus said unto him, 'One thing thou lackest yet. Go sell all
that thou hast and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have
treasure in heaven, and come, take up thy cross and follow me. But
when the young man heard this he was very sorrowful, for he was very
rich. And when Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful, he said, 'How
hardly shall they which have riches enter into the kingdom of God! For
it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a
rich man to enter into the kingdom of God!' So, when all the Saints
heard this command, they thought fit by all means to withdraw from this
hardness of riches. They parted with all their goods, and by this
distribution of their riches to the poor laid up for themselves eternal
riches; and they took up their Cross and followed Christ, some being
made perfect by martyrdom, even as I have already told thee; and some
by the practice of self-denial falling not a whit short of those others
in the life of the true philosophy. Know thou, then, that this is a
command of Christ our King and God, which leadeth us from things
corruptible and maketh us partakers of things everlasting."

Said Ioasaph, "If, then, this kind of philosophy be so ancient and so
salutary, how cometh it that so few folk now-a-days follow it?"

The elder answered, "Many have followed, and do follow it; but the
greatest part hesitate and draw back. For few, saith the Lord, are the
travellers along the strait and narrow way, but along the wide and
broad way many. For they that have once been taken prisoners by the
love of money, and the evils that come from the love of pleasure, and
are given up to idle and vain glory, are hardly to be torn therefrom,
seeing that they have of their own free will sold themselves as slaves
to a strange master, and setting themselves on the opposite side to
God, who gave these commands, are held in bondage to that other. For
the soul that hath once rejected her own salvation, and given the reins
to unreasonable lusts, is carried about hither and thither. Therefore
saith the prophet, mourning the folly that encompasseth such souls, and
lamenting the thick darkness that lie