and true?'"

Ioasaph heard this tale also with amazement and asked the
interpretation thereof. Then said Barlaam, "The first friend is
the abundance of riches, and love of money, by reason of which a
man falleth into the midst of ten thousand perils, and endureth
many miseries: but when at last the appointed day of death is
come, of all these things he carrieth away nothing but the
useless burial cloths. By the second friend is signified our
wife and children and the remnant of kinsfolk and acquaintance,
to whom we are passionately attached, and from whom with
difficulty we tear ourselves away, neglecting our very soul and
body for the love of them. But no help did man ever derive from
these in the hour of death, save only that they will accompany
and follow him to the sepulchre, and then straightway turning
them homeward again they are occupied with their own cares and
matters, and bury his memory in oblivion as they have buried his
body in the grave. But the third friend, that was altogether
neglected and held cheap, whom the man never approached, but
rather shunned and fled in horror, is the company of good deeds,
-- faith, hope, charity, alms, kindliness, and the whole band of
virtues, that can go before us, when we quit the body, and may
plead with the Lord on our behalf, and deliver us from our
enemies and dread creditors, who urge that strict rendering of
account in the air, and try bitterly to get the mastery of us.
This is the grateful and true friend, who beareth in mind those
small kindnesses that we have shown him and repayeth the whole
with interest."