ounces of dry bread [daily] when he was doing work, and he would recite from beginning to end fifty prayers during the day; but the more he dried up his body, the more he was vexed and consumed by dreams. And again he went to one of the old men, and said unto him, “What shall I do? For thoughts of lust which arise from [my] former habits attack me;” and the old man said unto him, “These lead thee into error because thou hast not turned away thy heart from the similitudes of them, but give thy heart to watching and careful prayer, and thou wilt be free from them.” Now when he had heard this direction he went to his cell, and made a covenant with God that he would neither sleep during the whole night nor bend his knees, and he dwelt in his cell for seven years, and remained standing the whole of each night with his eyes open, and he never closed his eyelids. And after this he set himself other ascetic labours, for he would go out during the nights and visit the cells of the old men, and take their water-skins and fill them with water, because they lived a long way from the water, that is to say, some two miles, some four miles, and others five miles. One night he went to fill the [water skins with] water, according to his wont, and as soon as he had bent down over the spring, a devil smote him a blow across his loins as with a stick, and then departed leaving him half dead, and Moses understood who had done this thing to him. And on the following day one of the brethren came to fill [the water skins with] water, and he saw the blessed man lying there, and he drew nigh to him and asked him, “What hath happened unto thee?” And when Moses had told him the story, the brother went and informed Rabbâ Isidore, the priest of the church of Scete, who sent brethren immediately and they took him up and brought him to the church; and he was ill for a long time, and he never thoroughly recovered from his illness, and he never again enjoyed the health of body which he had possessed formerly.
And Abbâ Isidore said unto him, “Rest thyself, O Moses, and fret not thyself against the devils, and seek not to make attacks upon them; there is moderation in everything, even in the works of ascetic life.” Then Moses said unto him, “I believe in God, in Whom I have placed my hope, that being armed against the devils I must not cease [to wage war with them] until they depart from me.” And Abbâ Isidore said unto him, “In the Name of Jesus Christ, from this time forward the devils shall cease from thee. Draw nigh then, and participate in the Holy Mysteries, and thou shalt be free from all impurity both of the flesh and of the spirit, for thou must not boast within thyself, and say, ‘I have overcome the
