1.

The descendants of Seth, the son of Adam, lived virtuously and God-pleasing all the time that Adam was alive, for which reason the Holy Scriptures call them "sons of God"; they did not mingle with the lawless descendants of Cain, whom the word of God calls the sons of men. But after the death of the forefather Adam, the piety of the sons of God began to weaken, and after the death of Seth they became completely depraved, and the reason for this corruption was that they drew near to the impious streams of Cain, for close acquaintance and friendship with evil people will not corrupt whom? It is well said in the Psalms: "With the monk shalt thou be venerable,.. and with the obstinate thou shalt be corrupted" (Psalm 17:26-27). And Jesus, the son of Sirach, likens soul-damaging friendship with vicious people to pitch: "Touch the pitch and be blackened, and commune with the proud, it will be exact" (Sir. 13:1). In the same way, one should reason not only about pride, but also about every other sin, and especially about the impurity of carnal sin. Whoever makes friends with a wicked man will learn from him also his vice, and will blacken himself, as a man who touches pitch is blackened. And the vicious life of depraved people is justly likened to pitch: as pitch is black and sticky, as it easily adheres to every thing, and when it burns, it emits a foul smoke, and its flame is difficult to extinguish, so the vile deeds of wicked people are dark, disgusting and black, like the Ethiopians. And God Himself says to such in the book of the prophet Amos: "Are you not the sons of the Ethiopians, you are to Me the children of Israel?" (Amos 9:7). When, he says, you became corrupt, did you not become in My sight as dark as the Ethiopians? Every sinner is a black Ethiopian, he "hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds be exposed, for they are evil" (John 3:20). And he who makes friends with such Ethiopians as tarred as pitch cannot help but be blackened by his abominable deeds: for evil is sticky, it easily clings to a person who by his very nature is more inclined to evil than to good, as it is said in the Scriptures: "... A man's mind is diligent in evil from his youth" (Gen. 8:21). And as soon as a person, having made friends with vicious people, begins to corrupt himself, and, like tar, to be kindled by the fire of sin, then he already begins to emit the malevolent smoke of temptation, backbiting, and shamelessness; everywhere, like smoke in the wind, bad rumors spread about him, and all good people shun him... When sin becomes a habit for him, it is difficult to correct it, just as it is not easy to extinguish a burning tar. That is why God commands: "Depart from among them, and be separated, and touch not their uncleanness: and I will receive you, and I will be unto you the Father" (2 Corinthians 6:17:18). And the holy Apostle Peter thus implores: "Be saved from this obstinate generation" (Acts 2:40), — be saved, he says, as from inevitable destruction, for it would truly be a miracle if someone, living among the obstinate and depraved, did not perish completely. We marvel at the righteous men: Noah, Abraham, Lot, Job, Tobit, who were saved, dwelling among lawless nations, we glorify their life as a miraculous phenomenon in the world. One of the Greek sages said it well when he was asked: what in life is worthy of wonder? "A good man among the wicked," he answered. If you meet, he says, one good man among a multitude of depraved people, then marvel at him, as if it were a miracle, because such people are not often encountered, not often, for "all are bent, and together they are useless," as the Psalmist says, "do not do good, not to one" (Psalm 52:4).

What is the reason for such universal corruption among people? And this is the reason that people seduce each other and harm each other with bad examples of each other's sinful life. Everyone sees the bad life of another and is offended, and he himself also begins to do evil, and in this way the number of evil people increases and the number of good people decreases. That is why the Lord says in the Gospel: "Woe to the world because of temptation" (Matt. 18:7) — woe, for the world is full of temptations, just as it is full of sins! The sight is offended, for how many are seen in the world who commit iniquity! The ear is offended, for how many flattering, blasphemous, deceitful, and unclean speeches are heard in the world! And who can escape all these temptations? Many, wishing to save themselves from temptation, fled to the deserts, took refuge in the mountains and caves, just not to see, not to hear worldly temptations, among which it is difficult to escape. And if many passions are at war against those who live in the deserts, far from the world, and some of them are even completely stopped on the path to salvation, then all the more easily these passions conquer and completely destroy people who live among the obstinate and corrupt race. A certain elder, who lived in a skete in the Egyptian deserts, once came to Alexandria to sell his needlework, and seeing there a young monk who had entered the tavern, he was greatly grieved; he waited until the monk came out of the tavern, took him aside and said to him: "Brother! Do you not know how many snares the devil has? Do you not know how we monks are damaged by sight and hearing when we are in the city? And you, young monk, go to the tavern, for there you involuntarily hear and see only sin, I beseech you, my son, to flee into the wilderness, where salvation is easier for a monk with the help of God." The young monk boldly answered him: "Go away, old man! God does not demand anything from us, if only the heart is pure." Then the elder raised his hands to heaven and said: "Glory to Thee, O God! For fifty-five years now I have been living in a wilderness skete, but I have not yet acquired a pure heart, but this brother, even while in the tavern, already has a pure heart." The elder said this only to express his surprise, but in fact he did not at all believe that anyone, living among the temptations of the world, could acquire a pure heart.

(From the works of St. Demetrius, Metropolitan of Rostov)

2.

As the body often perishes from the contagion of spoiled air, so the soul often suffers harm from association with vicious people; And just as one who suffers from scabies communicates his illness to the healthy, so it often happens to the soul from communion with vicious people. For this reason Christ also commanded not only to avoid such people, but also to reject them. "If," He says, "thy eye of thy right hand offend thee, turn it away from thee" (Matt. 5:29), meaning in this commandment not the eye, for what evil can the eye do when the soul is in a healthy state? — but friends who are close to us and have become, as it were, our members, commanding us not to value their friendship either, in order to work out our own salvation more safely. For this reason the Prophet also says: "I am not gray with a vain assembly, neither will I enter with those who transgress the law" (Psalm 25:4). "Blessed is the man who does not go into the counsel of the wicked" (Psalm 1:1). Usually, it is not so much wild beasts that cause harm as vicious people; the latter clearly produce their poisonous actions, but these insensibly and silently spread the infection every day, gradually weakening the power of virtue. And you, when you intend to settle in the city, try hard to find out everything about the climate there, whether it is harmful, damp, or dry, and when it comes to the soul, you do not in the least try to get to know the people with whom you have to live...

(From the Discourses of St. John Chrysostom)

3.

Blessed Augustine thus bemoaned the misfortunes of his youth: "I wandered in such blindness that I was ashamed not to have so much shamelessness as my companions had; I became more vicious day by day, only in order not to be known as a dishonest man among my comrades for my honesty. My god! Thou hast seen with what pleasure I walked through the streets of Babylon, and how I delighted, wallowing in the mud of vice, as if it were the most precious balm... The invisible enemy trampled me under his feet and led me at will, and I, poor man, followed him everywhere with joy." Why did such blindness occur? "O hostile friendship! Augustine continues, "you corrupt the hearts of young people so much that they do evil not for their own benefit, not to harm others, but without intention, for the sake of a joke alone... Oh! sometimes they would only say: "Come with us; we will do this or that," and I was ashamed not to indulge in all the pranks.."

(From the works of Blessed Augustine)

87. Can every dream be trusted?

Dreams are of three kinds: some of them come from God or good angels, others from evil angels or the devil, and still others are ordinary dreams from nature.

Our dreams, which we see every night, are for the most part ordinary: we dream for the most part what we see or hear in our ordinary life, and for this reason, for example, the rich man has his own dreams, which the poor man does not see; the poor man has his own, which the rich man does not see; women have their own, children have their own, etc. It goes without saying that such dreams should not be believed, because what is there to believe? Many will say that "it sometimes happens that dreams are fulfilled exactly as they are interpreted." It is true that it happens, but it only happens sometimes, and not always. And if each of our dreams were to mean something, then not sometimes, but always, it would have to be fulfilled in practice. In addition to ordinary dreams, there are other dreams: some from evil angels or demons, and others from good angels and from God. That there are dreams from the devil, from which God save us, here is an example. There lived a certain monk on Mount Sinai and there he asceticized a lot, but for all his piety he had the fault that he fully believed in dreams. So the devil took advantage of this, and once imagined to him in a dream that on one side were the holy Apostles, martyrs and all Christians were in darkness – in hell, and were enduring the most terrible tortures, and on the other – the Jews, and in the light they enjoyed bliss. The poor monk woke up, believed the dream, went to the Jews, and not only accepted the Jewish faith, but also married a Jewess... But the Lord also punished him; Three years later, the former righteous man, still alive, began to rot, his body was eaten away by worms, and in such an unfortunate situation he died. Such are the pillars that the power of demons can shake! And it is not surprising: after all, the devil "walks like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour," and therefore he is ready to take advantage of any opportunity to do us some harm; and then in a dream he has a convenient opportunity to inspire our soul with various sinful thoughts and desires, since a dreamy person cannot drive it away from himself in any way, neither by the Cross nor by prayer, because at that time he can neither pray nor be baptized. But the Holy Church, like a tender mother, takes care of us in order to warn us against this dangerous enemy: she commands each of us, before lying down in bed, first to kiss his Cross on his chest, then to cross his bed from head to foot and in all directions, and at the same time to read the prayer "May God arise, and His enemies shall be scattered." All this prayer is directed against evil spirits, for example, "let the demons perish from the presence of those who love God... Rejoice, O Most Honorable and Life-Giving Cross of the Lord, Thou who castest out demons," and so on. And the devil fears prayer and the sign of the cross like fire. Thus, once he appeared to Saint Simeon the Stylite, who was saving himself on a pillar, and appeared to him in the form of a bright Angel, and moreover with fiery horses and a fiery chariot, and, tempting him, he began the following speech with him: "Behold, Simeon, thou hast pleased God as Elijah the prophet has, and therefore I have been sent hither to earth, to rapture thee as Elijah, in this chariot to heaven." The saint believed, but as soon as he crossed himself and said: "Lord bless" (i.e. to move from the pillar to the chariot), then suddenly there was no angel, no horses, no chariot – everything disappeared. Thus, there can be dreams from the devil, and such dreams, of course, should not be believed, because the devil will never tell the truth. And so that he could not tempt us in our sleep, for this we must pray before going to bed, and cross our bed, reading the prayer "May God arise."