XII.

To this said Ioasaph, "But how, after baptism, shall a man keep
himself clear from all sin? For even if there be, as thou
sayest, repentance for them that stumble, yet it is attended with
toil and trouble, with weeping and mourning; things which,
methinks, are not easy for the many to accomplish. But I desired
rather to find a way to keep strictly the commandments of God,
and not swerve from them, and, after his pardoning of my past
misdeeds, never again to provoke that most sweet God and Master."

Barlaam answered, "Well said, my lord and king. That also is my
desire; but it is hard, nay quite impossible, for a man living
with fire not to be blackened with smoke: for it is an uphill
task, and one not easy of accomplishment, for a man that is tied
to the matters of this life and busied with its cares and
troubles, and liveth in riches and luxury, to walk unswervingly
in the way of the commandments of the Lord, and to preserve his
life pure of these evils. `For,' saith the Lord, `no man can
serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the
other; or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye
cannot serve God and Mammon.' So also writeth the beloved
Evangelist and Divine in his Epistle, thus saying, `Love not the
world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love
the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is
in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes,
and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he that