do, in addition, these services, you will have joy if you observe them according to my com- mand.” I said to him, “Sir, whatsoever you enjoin upon me I will observe, for I know that you are with me.” “I will be with you,” he replied, “because you have such a desire for doing good; and I will be with all those,” he added, “who have such a desire. This fasting,” he continued, “is very good, provided the commandments of the Lord be observed. Thus, then, shall you observe the fasting which you intend to keep.269 First of all,270 be on your guard against every evil word, and every evil desire, and purify your heart from all the vanities of this world. If you guard against these things, your fasting will be perfect. And you will do also as follows.271 Having fulfilled what is written, in the day on which you fast you will taste nothing but bread and water; and having reckoned up the price of the dishes of that day which you intended to have eaten, you will give it to a widow, or an orphan, or to some person in want, and thus you will exhibit humility of mind, so that he who has received be- nefit from your humility may fill his own soul, and pray for you to the Lord. If you observe 35 fasting, as I have commanded you, your sacrifice will be acceptable to God, and this fasting will be written down; and the service thus performed is noble, and sacred, and acceptable to the Lord. These things, therefore, shall you thus observe with your children, and all your house, and in observing them you will be blessed; and as many as hear these words and ob- serve them shall be blessed; and whatsoever they ask of the Lord they shall receive.” Chap. IV. I prayed him much that he would explain to me the similitude of the field, and of the master of the vineyard, and of the slave who staked the vineyard, and of the stakes, and of the weeds that were plucked out of the vineyard, and of the son, and of the friends who were fellow-councillors, for I knew that all these things were a kind of parable. And he answered me, and said, “You are exceedingly persistent272 with your questions. You ought not,” he 269 [Thus he does not object to the “station,” if kept with evangelical acts of devotion and penitence. Isa. lviii. 5–8.] 270 Pseudo-Athanasius gives this paragraph as follows: “First of all be on your guard to fast from every evil word and evil report, and purify your heart from every defilement and revenge, and base covetousness. And on the day on which you fast, be content with bread, and herbs, and water, giving thanks to God. And having cal- culated the amount of the cost of the meal which you intended to have eaten on that day, give it to a widow, or an orphan, or to some one in want, so that, having clearly filled his own soul, he shall pray to the Lord on your behalf. If you therefore perform your fasting as I enjoined you, your sacrifice will be acceptable before the Lord, and inscribed in the heavens in the day of the requital of the good things that have been prepared for the right- eous.” 271 [Note this detailed account of primitive fasting (2 Cor. vi. 5, ix. 27, xi. 27). Amid all the apostle’s sufferings and dying daily, he adds fastings to involuntary hunger and thirst.] 272 Literally, “self-willed.” (αὐθάδης). 70 Similitude Fifth. Of True Fasting and Its Reward: Also of Purity of Bo…