her, and her sins, and her ruin. And I fled secretly at night, and
buried myself here in the desert, to await the end of the world.
Night and day I pray the Lord to accomplish His elect, and to hasten
His kingdom. Morning by morning I look up trembling, and yet in
hope, for the sign of the Son of man in heaven, when the sun shall
be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, and the stars
shall fall from heaven, and the skies pass away like a scroll, and
the fountains of the nether fire burst up around our feet, and the
end of all shall come. And thou wouldst go into the world from
which I fled?'

'If the harvest be at hand, the Lord needs labourers. If the times
be awful, I should be doing awful things in them. Send me, and let
that day find me, where I long to be, in the forefront of the battle
of the Lord.'

'The Lord's voice be obeyed! Thou shalt go. Here are letters to
Cyril the patriarch. He will love thee for my sake: and for thine
own sake, too, I trust. Thou goest of our free will as well as
thine own. The abbot and I have watched thee long, knowing that the
Lord bad need of such as thee elsewhere. We did but prove thee, to
see by thy readiness to obey, whether thou wert fit to rule. Go,
and God be with thee. Covet no man's gold or silver. Neither eat
flesh nor drink wine, but live as thou hast lived--a Nazarite of the
Lord. Fear not the face of man; but look not on the face of woman.
In an evil hour came they into the world, the mothers of all
mischiefs which I have seen under the sun. Come; the abbot waits
for us at the gate.'

With tears of surprise, joy, sorrow, almost of dread, Philammon hung