For the cause of the tardiness of thy receiving is some trial, or some transgression which thou knowest not of.  Do thou then {78} not cease to offer the request of thy soul, and thou shalt receive it.  But if thou grow faint in asking, accuse thyself, and not the Giver.  For double-heartedness is a daughter of the devil, and works much mischief towards the servants of God.  Do thou, therefore, take to thyself the faith that is strong.”

In the twelfth section of the ninth Similitude, in the third book, in the midst of much to the same import, and of much, too, which is strange and altogether unworthy of the pen from which the previous quotation proceeded, he thus writes, as the Latin records his words, the Greek of this passage having been lost.

“These all are messengers to be reverenced for their dignity.  By these, therefore, as it were by a wall, the Lord is girded round.  But the gate is the Son of God, who is the only way to God.  For no one shall enter in to God except by his Son.” [Book iii.  Simil. 2.]

On the subject of prayer, I cannot refrain from referring you to a beautiful similitude, illustrative of the powerful and beneficial effects of the intercession of Christians for each other.  The author compares a rich man, abounding in deeds of charity, to a vine full of fruit supported by an elm.  The elm seems not to bear fruit at all; but by supporting the vine, which, without that support, would bear no fruit to perfection, it may be said to bear fruit itself.  So the poor man, who has nothing to give in return for the rich man’s fruits of charity, beyond the support which his prayers and praises ascending to God in his behalf will obtain, confers a far more substantial benefit on the rich man than the most liberal outpouring of alms from the rich can confer on the poor. [Ibid.] Yet the writer, who {79} had formed such strong notions of the benefits mutually obtained by the prayers of Christians for each other, says not a word about the intercession of saints and angels, nor of our invoking them.  He will not suffer us to be deterred by any consciousness of our own transgressions from approaching God Himself, directly and immediately ourselves; but He bids us draw near ourselves to the throne and mercy seat of our heavenly Father.

* * * * *

St. Clement, bishop of Rome.

It is impossible to read the testimony borne by Eusebius, and other most ancient writers, to the character and circumstances of Clement, without feeling a deep interest in whatever production of his pen may have escaped the ravages of time.  “Third from the Apostles,” says Eusebius, “Clement obtained the bishopric of Rome; one who had seen the Apostles and conversed with them, and had still the sound of their preaching in his ears, and their tradition before his eyes;—­and not he alone, for many others[26] at that time were still living, who had been taught by the Apostles.  In the time of this Clement, no small schism having arisen among the brethren in Corinth, the Church in Rome sent a most important letter to the Corinthians, urging them to return to peace, renewing {80} their faith, and [reminding them of] the tradition which had been so lately received from the Apostles.” [Euseb.  Eccl.  Hist. v. c. 6.]