draw nigh to the hope which is in God; and thou shalt govern thyself in the desire of the fear of God, and those who are with thee, and those who are under thine authority, and moreover, unto him that feareth God thou wilt become king. For through these triumphs all those who have become friends of Christ shall hasten to be united unto Him, and they shall also look for the loosing of the soul from the body, for it is well known that daily [they will do this], even as it is written, “I am constrained by the good desire which I possess [to wish] to become free and to be with Christ” (Philippians 1:23). And exceedingly excellent is all that which is said, “Make ready thy works for [thy] going forth, and prepare thy field” (Proverbs 24:27). For he who remembereth death continually, [and keepeth in his mind the knowledge] that he must most certainly die, will neither be negligent of nor commit sin in respect of great matters, even according to what is said, “In all thy words remember thine end, and thou wilt never commit sin” (Ecclesiasticus 7:31). And beside all these things I will add this also, so that thou mayest not belittle the tradition of this our faulty history, and mayest not hold in contempt the simplicity and want of polish of the language [thereof]; for this matter appertaineth not to the divine doctrine (or teaching), that we should compose speech with wise skill, but we should strengthen the mind with sure and certain words of understanding, according to that which is said, “Open thy mouth with the word of truth, and judge every man in a sound manner” (Proverbs 31:9); and moreover “thou shalt not forget the narratives of the old men, because they also have them from their fathers” (Ecclesiasticus 8:9).
I therefore, O thou lover of doctrine, thou godly man, have lighted upon many things with the holy men, not through making use of ordinary thought, but by making journeys [among them] which have lasted thirty days, yea, even thirty days twice told. And [I say it], as before God, that in travels and journeyings I would have trodden the whole of the territory of the Greeks so that I might have the opportunity of conversing with each of the lovers of God, and I would have undertaken the labour of a journey such as this gratefully so that I might be able to traffic for a profit (or benefit) which I did not possess. For if that man who was far more excellent than I am, and perhaps far more excellent than the whole world, and who in his life and works, and in his knowledge, and in his wise opinions of the Spirit, and in his faith which was in Christ, surpassed many, I mean the blessed man Paul, who in order that he might see James, and Cephas (Peter), and John made a journey from Tarsus to Judæa, and it is well known that he
