2/18 Tired and melancholy, his mind returned inward to prey on itself, and the last words of Arsenius rose again and again to his thoughts. 'Was his call of the spirit or of the flesh ?' How should he test that problem? True; but, he wished to convert the world.... was not that spiritual? thirsting for toil, for saintship, for martyrdom itself, if it would but come and cut the Gordian knot of all temptations, and save him-for he dimly felt that it would save him--a whole sea of trouble in getting safe and triumphant out of that world into which he had not yet entered .... |