DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14563#0130
RIVER SAINTS AND COrTIC HERMITS.
99
The convent has attached to it a fine piece of ground on
the opposite side of the river — the gift of the Pasha — and
from this and the charity of travellers, its inmates supply
their physical wants; while from their eyrie nest, about
which the eagle hovers, overlooking the desert upon one
side, and on the other the river and the plain, they have
prayers read five times a day for the growth and comfort
01 their souls. To an imaginative, and possibly to some
phases of a contemplative mind, this may appear to be an
inviting form of religious life. But there is nothing in the
New Testament to warrant such a life. When the Saviour
gave himself to retirement and prayer in the mountains, he
Was leading an out-door life, and he took the night for this
purpose, in order that he might be strengthened for the
labors of the" day among the multitude. He did not
renounce his labors for the sake of solitude, but sought soli-
tude as a brief refreshment from, and preparation for, the
work that his Father had given him to do. Christianity is
made for active service in an active world; and while the
life of the Christian, in its inmost springs and sources, is
hid with Christ in God, and is fed by unceasing communion
with its source, it is not a life hidden from the view of men
m mountain caves and monastic cells. Even prayer
becomes an empty form, when the observance of this as a
speciality would separate one from all the duties of social
life, and from all practical sympathy with humanity.
99
The convent has attached to it a fine piece of ground on
the opposite side of the river — the gift of the Pasha — and
from this and the charity of travellers, its inmates supply
their physical wants; while from their eyrie nest, about
which the eagle hovers, overlooking the desert upon one
side, and on the other the river and the plain, they have
prayers read five times a day for the growth and comfort
01 their souls. To an imaginative, and possibly to some
phases of a contemplative mind, this may appear to be an
inviting form of religious life. But there is nothing in the
New Testament to warrant such a life. When the Saviour
gave himself to retirement and prayer in the mountains, he
Was leading an out-door life, and he took the night for this
purpose, in order that he might be strengthened for the
labors of the" day among the multitude. He did not
renounce his labors for the sake of solitude, but sought soli-
tude as a brief refreshment from, and preparation for, the
work that his Father had given him to do. Christianity is
made for active service in an active world; and while the
life of the Christian, in its inmost springs and sources, is
hid with Christ in God, and is fed by unceasing communion
with its source, it is not a life hidden from the view of men
m mountain caves and monastic cells. Even prayer
becomes an empty form, when the observance of this as a
speciality would separate one from all the duties of social
life, and from all practical sympathy with humanity.