44.
While Antony was thus speaking all rejoiced; in some the love of virtue
increased, in others carelessness was thrown aside, the self-conceit of
others was stopped; and all were persuaded to despise the assaults of
the Evil One, and marvelled at the grace given to Antony from the Lord
for the discerning of spirits. So their cells were in the mountains,
like filled with holy bands of men who sang psalms, loved reading,
fasted, prayed, rejoiced in the hope of things to come, laboured in
alms-giving, and preserved love and harmony one with another. And truly
it was possible, as it were, to behold a land set by itself, filled
with piety and justice. For then there was neither the evil-doer, nor
the injured, nor the reproaches of the tax-gatherer: but instead a
multitude of ascetics; and the one purpose of them all was to aim at
virtue. So that any one beholding the cells again, and seeing such good
order among the monks, would lift up his voice and say, ‘How
goodly are thy dwellings, O Jacob, and thy tents, O Israel; as shady
glens and as a garden10851085 by a river; as
tents which the Lord hath pitched, and like cedars near waters10861086.’
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