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.
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