Abba Orsisius said, “If a raw brick is put in the foundation near a river, it will not last even one day. But a baked brick becomes like stone. So a person who has a carnal mindset and has not been fired, like Joseph, by the fear of God is dissolved when he is placed in authority. For those who live among people meet many temptations.
“It is good for a person who knows his own measure to avoid the burden of office. Those who are firm in faith remain unmoved. If anyone wants to speak of holy Joseph, he will say that he was no earthly man. How many temptations he endured, and in what kind of land, where there was not even a trace of godliness! Yet the God of his fathers was with him and delivered him from every affliction. Now he is with his fathers in the kingdom of heaven. Let us therefore know our measure and struggle, for we can scarcely escape the judgment of God.”
Abba Orsisius said, “I think that if a person does not guard his heart carefully, he forgets and neglects everything he has heard. Then the enemy finds room in him and overthrows him.
“Consider a lamp prepared and burning. If it is neglected and does not receive oil, little by little it goes out, and darkness gains strength against it. A mouse may come to the lamp, seeking to eat the wick. Before the oil has gone out, it cannot do so. But when it sees that the lamp has neither light nor the heat of fire, then, trying to pull out the wick, it overturns the lamp. If the lamp is earthen, it breaks; but if it is bronze, the master of the house sets it up again.
“So it is with the soul. If it becomes negligent, the Holy Spirit gradually withdraws until its warmth is completely extinguished. Then the enemy devours the soul’s zeal, and wickedness destroys the body. But if a person’s disposition toward God is still good and he has merely been drawn into negligence, the merciful God puts His fear in him and the remembrance of punishments. He prepares him to be vigilant and to guard himself carefully from then on, until the time of His visitation.”