Epistle to Polycarp (Long Version)

If you love the good disciples, you don't deserve any thanks for that; instead, strive with meekness to win over the more troublesome ones. Not every kind of wound can be healed with the same remedy. Calm violent attacks [of disease] with gentle treatments. In all things, be “wise as a serpent, and harmless always as a dove.” You are composed of both soul and body, both fleshly and spiritual, so that you may correct the evils that present themselves visibly before you; and for those that are not seen, pray that they should be revealed to you, so that you lack nothing and may abound in every gift. The times urge you to pray. Just as the wind helps the pilot of a ship, and harbors provide safety to a storm-tossed vessel, so does prayer help you, in order to reach God. Be disciplined like an athlete of God, whose goal is immortality and eternal life, which you are also convinced of. In all things, may my soul be for yours, and my bonds also, which you have loved.