ea,' said the king, 'not every day only, but every
hour, renew in me the remembrance thereof: for it behoveth us not to
turn our mind inattentively to these things, but with very fervent
zeal.'

"We have heard," said Barlaam, "that this king lived, for the time to
come, a godly life, and, having brought his days without tempest to an
end, failed not to gain the felicity of the world to come. If then at
a convenient season one shall call these things to thy father's mind
also, peradventure he shall understand and know the dire evil in which
he is held, and turn therefrom and choose the good; since, for the
present at least, 'he is blind and cannot see afar off,' having
deprived himself of the true light and being a deserter of his own
accord to the darkness of ungodliness."

Ioasaph said unto him, "The Lord undertake my father's matters, as he
ordereth! For, even as thou sayest, the things that are impossible
with men, are possible with him. But for myself, thanks to thine
unsurpassable speech, I renounce the vanity of things present, and am
resolved to withdraw from them altogether, and to spend the rest of my
life with thee, lest, by means of these transitory and fleeting things,
I lose the enjoyment of the eternal and incorruptible."

The elder answered him, "This do, and thou shalt be like unto a youth
of great understanding of whom I have heard tell, that was born of rich
and distinguished parents. For him his father sought in marriage the
exceeding fair young daughter of a man of high rank and wealth. But
when he communed with his son concerning the espousals, and informed
him of his plans, the son thought it strange and ill-sounding, and cast
it off, and left his father and went into exile. On his journey he
found entertainment in the house of a poor old man, where he rested
awhile during the heat of the day.

"Now this poor man's daughter, his only child, a virgin, was sitting
before the door, and, while she wrought with her hands, with her lips
she loudly sang the praises of God with thanksgiving from the ground of
her heart. The young man heard her hymn of praise and said, 'Damsel,
what is thine employment? and wherefore, poor and needy as thou art,
givest thou thanks as though for great blessings, singing praise to the
Giver?' She answered, 'Knowest thou not that, as a little medicine
often times delivereth a man from great ailments, even so the giving of
thanks to God for small mercies winneth gre