It is bad enough that we must hinder the flight of the soul, and are forced to nourish and strengthen the perishable part of our being with bread and water and slothful sleep to the injury of the immortal part, however much we may fast and watch.

And shall we indulge the flesh, to the detriment of the spirit, by granting it any of its demands that can easily be denied?
Only he who despises and sacrifices his wretched self can, when he has lost his baser self by the Redeemer's grace, find himself again in God." Hermas had listened patiently to the anchorite, but he now shook his head, and said: "I cannot under stand either you or my father.

So long as I walk on this earth, I am I and no other.

After death, no doubt, but not till then, will a new and eternal life begin." "Not so," cried Paulus hastily, interrupting him.

"That other and higher life of which you speak, does not begin only after death for him who while still living does not cease from dying, from mortifying the flesh, and from subduing its lusts, from casting from him the world and his baser self, and from seeking the Lord.