Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| Chapter X. The answer how true discretion may be gained.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Chapter X.
The answer how true discretion may be gained.
Then Moses: True discretion,
said he, is only secured by true humility. And of this
humility the first proof is given by
reserving everything (not only what you do but also what you think),
for the scrutiny of the elders, so as not to trust at all in your own
judgment but to acquiesce in their decisions in all points, and to
acknowledge what ought to be considered good or bad by their
traditions.1181
| 1181 Cf. what is said on
this subject in the Institutes, Book IV. c. ix. | And this habit
will not only teach a young man to walk in the right path through the
true way of discretion, but will also keep him unhurt by all the crafts
and deceits of the enemy. For a man cannot possibly be deceived, who
lives not by his own judgment but according to the example of the
elders, nor will our crafty foe be able to abuse the ignorance of one
who is not accustomed from false modesty to conceal all the thoughts
which rise in his heart, but either checks them or suffers them to
remain, in accordance with the ripened judgment of the elders. For a
wrong thought is enfeebled at the moment that it is discovered: and
even before the sentence of discretion has been given, the foul serpent
is by the power of confession dragged out, so to speak, from his dark
under-ground cavern, and in some sense shown up and sent away in
disgrace. For evil thoughts will hold sway in us just so long as they
are hidden in the heart: and that you may gather still more effectually
the power of this judgment I will tell you what Abbot Serapion
did,1182
| 1182 Probably the
author of Conference V., where see the note on c. i. | and what he used often to tell to the
younger brethren for their edification.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
