The persons and ministries of John the Baptist and Jesus himself, both rich in the practice of activities designed to strengthen the spirit, were held constantly before [early Christians].
So, wherever early Christian looked they saw examples of the practice of solitude, fasting, prayer, private study, communal study, worship, and sacrificial service and giving to mention only some of the more obvious disciplines for spiritual life.
These early Christians really did arrange their lives very differently from their non-Christian neighbors, as well as from the vast majority of those of us called Christians today. We are speaking of their overall style of life, not just what they did under pressure, which frequently was also astonishingly different.
This is an excerpt from a book The Spirit of the Disciplines by Dallas Willard. If you would like to buy this book please click here.