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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Barlaam and Ioasaph by St. John of Damascus: neglected and held cheap, whom the man never approached, but
rather shunned and fled in horror, is the company of good deeds,
-- faith, hope, charity, alms, kindliness, and the whole band of
virtues, that can go before us, when we quit the body, and may
plead with the Lord on our behalf, and deliver us from our
enemies and dread creditors, who urge that strict rendering of
account in the air, and try bitterly to get the mastery of us.
This is the grateful and true friend, who beareth in mind those
small kindnesses that we have shown him and repayeth the whole
with interest."
XIV.
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