Abba Daniel, the disciple of Abba Arsenius, described how Arsenius told the following story as if it had happened to somebody else, though Daniel was convinced Arsenius was actually talking of himself:
A certain old man was sitting in his cell when a voice came to him, saying, “Come with me and I will show you the things people do.” And he got up and was led to a place where he was shown an Ethiopian cutting wood, and making a big pile of it, and trying to carry it away but being unable to. And instead of taking some wood out of the pile, he kept on cutting more and making the pile even bigger. And he went on doing this for a long time. Going on a little further he was shown a man standing by a lake, filling a jug with water and pouring it into a leaky cistern from which the water flowed back into the lake. “Come, I will show you something else,” said the voice.
Suddenly he saw a temple with two men on horseback outside it, each carrying one end of a long piece of timber. They were trying to get through the door of the temple but they couldn’t because they were carrying the timber crosswise, instead of going one behind the other so that the timber would go length-ways, and thus they remained outside the door of that temple. Asking who these men were he was told that they were those who carried burdens such as pride or unfair dealings. Because they were unwilling to humble themselves and amend their ways by walking humbly in the way of Christ they remained outside the kingdom of God.
The one cutting the wood was someone who had committed many sins and instead of repenting and lessening the burden went on adding iniquity to iniquity. The one filling the cistern with water was someone who although he did some good things always had a lot of evil things mixed in with it, and so lost the benefit of even the good things which he did. Wherefore it behooves all people to think seriously about the way they act, lest they be seen to labor in vain.
