As soon as the saint uttered these words, Satan became invisible, leaving behind only a puff of smoke, as if from fire. The saint, kneeling down, prayed:

"Glory to Thee, O Christ our God, the Refuge of those who are overwhelmed, and the Salvation of those who come to Thee." Amen.

9. It was said of an elder that he asked God to grant him the gift of seeing demons, but he was told:

"You have no need to see them.

But the elder insisted:

"Lord, you can cover me with your grace."

Then God opened his eyes, and the elder saw evil spirits, which, like bees, circled around him, clanging their teeth in front of his face, and the angel of the Lord drove them away with whips.

10. Abba Isaiah said, "I am like a sparrow that a boy has tied by the leg. If he loosens the rope, the sparrow immediately flies up, thinking that he has been released. But the boy only needs to pull the rope to stop the bird. I say this because nothing can be treated with disdain until the very last breath, for the enemy's malice is manifold."

11. And he said: "If a man has received great powers of knowledge, healing, and even raising the dead, but once he falls into sin, he has no right to forget, he cannot escape repentance."

Let us exert all our strength, brethren, let us prostrate ourselves before God, and His goodness will have mercy on us and send us the strength to cast off the burden of impure passions. After all, the enemy will not calm down and will pursue us hourly to steal our souls. But our Lord Jesus Christ is with us! He forbids him to act if we keep the commandments given to us.

Blessed is the man who, with all his knowledge, is ashamed and prays for the remission of sins. But woe betide those who have wasted all their time in neglect. Thinking that they were infallible, they trampled on their own conscience. They simply did not want their conscience to reproach them, and they did not understand that such a "little" was in fact a great thing.

The farmer sows grain, but if there are no sprouts, he will consider all the work in vain and will be upset that nothing has sprouted. In the same way, a person, even if he knows all the mysteries and all knowledge, if he works great miracles and healings, even if he endures a lot of various sufferings, even if he has nothing to wear, he should still be afraid of sin and not treat his conscience with complacency. After all, he has enemies who plot against him and hunt him. They will not lag behind him until a person achieves perfect love. And then we understand that love never ceases..., it covers everything, believes everything, hopes everything, endures everything. Whoever has the fear of God in him performs a feat with all his might, enduring the sufferings that constantly fall to his lot and preserving himself, and even after this he considers himself unworthy to pronounce the name of God with his lips.

12. He also said: "Brother, while you are in the body, do not give indulgences to the heart. Just as a peasant cannot be sure whether he will get a harvest in his field, because he does not know what may happen before the harvest, so a man should not take his eyes off his heart while his breath is warming in his chest. As long as he is alive, even though he suffers from many bodily infirmities, he does not know until his very last breath what passion may begin to overtake him. That is why he must not neglect his soul for a moment, for he is surrounded on all sides by enemies. Life is an enemy environment, and therefore one must always call out to God, asking for help and mercy.

Brothers! It is necessary that spiritual people, both those who have succeeded in the spiritual life and those who are less successful and already tired, should be strengthened in faith until their last breath. As they say, whoever neglects the small first falls into a small sin, and then gradually into a greater one. Do not say that spiritual people do not fall, and great pillars do not crumble.