When he speaks of God, and
of the Christian in prayer, (for prayer he defines to be "communion or
intercourse with God,") his language becomes often exquisitely
beautiful, and sometimes sublime. It is impossible by a few detached
passages to convey an adequate estimate of the original; and yet a few
sentences may show that Clement is a man whose testimony should not be
slighted.
"Therefore, keeping the whole of our life as a feast every where, and on
every part persuaded that God is present, we praise him as we till our
lands; we sing hymns as we are sailing. The Christian is persuaded that
God hears every thing; not the voice only, but the thoughts.... Suppose
any one should say, that the voice does not reach God, revolving as it
does in the air below; yet the thoughts of the saints cut not only
through the air, but the whole world. And the divine power like the
light is beforehand in seeing through the soul.... He" (the Christian
whom he speaks of throughout as the man of divine knowledge) "prays for
things essentially good.
"Wherefore it best becomes those to pray who have an adequate knowledge
of God, and possess virtue in accordance with Him--who know what are
real goods, and what we should petition for, and when, and how in each
case. But it is the extreme of ignorance to ask {126} from those who are
not gods as though they were gods.
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