What said the blessed Anthony?
That a monk should not busy his brain with painting spectres, or give himself up for lost; but rather be cheerful, as one who knows that he is redeemed, and in the hands of the Lord, where the Evil One has no power to hurt him.

"For," he used to say, "the demons behave to us even as they find us.

If they see us east down and faithless, they terrify us still more, that they may plunge us in despair.

But if they see us full of faith, and joyful in the Lord, with our souls filled with the glory which shall be, then they shrink abashed, and flee away in confusion." Cheer up, friend! such thoughts are of the night, the hour of Satan and of the powers of darkness; and with the dawn they flee away.' 'And yet things are revealed to men upon their beds, in visions of the night.' 'Be it so.

Nothing, at all events, has been revealed to thee upon thy bed, except that which thou knowest already far better than Satan does, namely, that thou art a sinner.