know the
structure of the world, the working of the elements, the beginning, end
and middle of times, the changes of the solstices, the succession of
seasons, and how he hath ordered all things by measure and weight. For
he can shew his great strength at all times, and who may withstand the
power of his arm? For the whole world before him is as a little grain
of the balance, yea, as a drop of the morning dew that falleth down
upon the earth. But he hath mercy upon all; for he can do all things,
and winketh at the sins of men, because they should amend. For he
abhorreth nothing, nor turneth away from them that run unto him, he,
the only good Lord and lover of souls. Blessed be the holy name of his
glory, praised and exalted above all for ever! Amen."

XVIII.

Ioasaph said unto him, "If thou hadst for a long time considered, most
wise Sir, how thou mightest best declare to me the explanation of the
questions that I propounded, methinks thou couldest not have done it
better than by uttering such words as thou hast now spoken unto me.
Thou hast taught me that God is the Maker and preserver of all things;
and in unanswerable language thou hast shown me that the glory of his
majesty is incomprehensible to human reasonings, and that no man is
able to attain thereto, except those to whom, by his behest, he
revealeth it. Wherefore am I lost in amaze at thine eloquent wisdom.

"But tell me, good Sir, of what age thou art, and in what manner of
place is thy dwelling, and who are thy fellow philosophers; for my soul
hangeth fast on thine, and fain would I never be parted from thee all
the days of my life."

The elder said, "Mine age is, as I reckon, forty and five years, and in
the deserts of the land of Senaar do I dwell. For my fellow combatants
I have those who labour and contend together with me on the course of
the heavenly journey."

"What sayest thou?" quoth Ioasaph. "Thou seemest to me upwards of
seventy years old. How speakest thou of forty and five? Herein
methinks thou tellest not the truth."

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. But now the world hath be