The Laughable Stories Collected by Mar Gregory John

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THE LAUGHABLE STORIES OF BAR-HEBR^US.
''wrought righteousness, and thy hope In Him shall
''increase in thee in proportion as thou dost not
"commit sin/'
CCCIX. Another ascetic said, "Teachers are the
"physicians of the people, and lusts are the diseases
"thereof. If a physician hath not the power to remove
"sickness from himself he is a fool to imagine that he
"can heal other folk." It seems as if this saying had
been stolen from the Holy Gospel wherein it saith,
Physician, heal thyself
CCCX. When certain folk went to the abode of
another ascetic they did not find in his house even a
^ mat whereon to sit, and while they were marvelling
that it was thus he said to them, "If we had been
"going to remain here^ we should have spread the
"place with the finest carpets."
CCCXI. Another ascetic said, "Paradise was our first
"abode, and since we have been driven out therefrom
"we earnestly desire to return thither; therefore do we
"crave to return to the place which gave us birth, and
"not to an alien country."
CCCXII. Another ascetic said, "He that renounceth
"the world is not worthy to be praised overmuch, be-
"cause, although for a short time he doth not voluntarily
"renounce it, after a little he is made to to do so in-
"voluntarily."
CCCXIII. Another ascetic wrote to a fellow ascetic
and asked him to shew him what this world resembled,
and what that which is to come will be like, and he
' This remark may be that of a scribe. Compare St. Luke
iv. 23.
^ /. ^., "If we were not going to die."