er thirteen years in contempt and the most
fervent practices of penance, he deserved to see in a vision his whole
debt blotted out. Another monk, in a grievous fit of illness, fell into
a trance, in which he lay as if he had been dead for the space of an
hour: but recovering, he shut himself up in his cell, and lived a
recluse twelve years, almost continually weeping, in the perpetual
meditation of death. When he was near death, his brethren could only
extort from him these words of edification: "He who hath death always
before his eyes, will never sin." John, abbot of Raithu, explained this
book of our saint by judicious comments, which are also extant. We have
likewise a letter of St. John Climacus to the same person, concerning
the duties of a pastor, in which he exhorts him in correcting others to
temper severity with mildness, and encourages him zealously to fulfil
the obligations of his charge; for nothing is greater or more acceptable
to God than to offer him the sacrifice of rational souls sanctified by
penance and charity.

St. John sighed continually under the weight of his dignity, during the
four years that he governed the monks of Mount Sinai: and as he had
taken upon him that burden with fear and reluctance, he with joy found
means to resign the same a little before his death. Heavenly
contemplation, and the continual exercise of divine love and praise,
were his delight and comfort in his earthly pilgrimage: and in this
imitation of the functions of the blessed spirits in heaven he placeth
the essence of the monastic state.[6] In his excellent maxims concerning
the gift of holy tears, the fruit of charity,[7] we seem to behold a
lively portraiture of his most pure soul. He died in his hermitage on
the 30th day of March, in 605, being fourscore years old. His spiritual
son George, who had succeeded him in the abbacy, earnestly begged of God
that he might not be separated from his dear master and guide, and
followed him by a happy death within a few days. On several Greek
commentaries on St. John Climacus's ladder, see Montfaucon, Biblioth.
Coisliana, pp. 305, 306.

* * * * *

St. John Climacus, speaking of the excellence and the effects of
charity, does it with a feeling and energy worthy of such a subject. "A
mother," says he,[8] "feels less pleasure when she folds within her arms
the dear infant whom she nourishes with her own milk, than the true
child of charity does, wh