|
HOME | GREEK LANGUAGE | LIBRARIES | BLOG | HELP | SEARCH | FREEWARE | BOOKSTORE |
|
|
Translated by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson.
Clement of Alexandria in Print
|
This Part: 134 Pages
Page 12
Especially is a moderate softness in the bed suitable for manhood; for sleep ought not to be for the total enervation of the body, but for its relaxation. Wherefore I say that it ought not to be allowed to come on us for the sake of indulgence, but in order to rest from action. We must therefore sleep so as to be easily awaked. For it is said, "Let your loins be girt about, and your lamps burning; and ye yourselves like to men that watch for their lord, that when he returns from the marriage, and comes and knocks, they may straightway open to him. Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when He cometh, shall find watching." [1480] For there is no use of a sleeping man, as there is not of a dead man. Wherefore we ought often to rise by night and bless God. [1481] For blessed are they who watch for Him, and so make themselves like the angels, whom we call "watchers." But a man asleep is worth nothing, any more than if he were not alive.
But he who has the light watches, "and darkness seizes not on him," [1482] nor sleep, since darkness does not. He that is illuminated is therefore awake towards God; and such an one lives. "For what was made in Him was life." [1483] "Blessed is the man," says Wisdom, "who shall hear me, and the man who shall keep my ways, watching at my doors, daily observing the posts of my entrances." [1484] "Let us not then sleep, as do others, but let us watch," says the Scripture, "and be sober. For they that sleep, sleep in the night; and they that be drunken, are drunken in the night," that is, in the darkness of ignorance. "But let us who are of the day be sober. For ye are all children of the light, and children of the day; we are not of the night, nor of the darkness." [1485] But whoever of us is most solicitous for living the true life, and for entertaining noble sentiments, will keep awake for as long time as possible, reserving to himself only what in this respect is conducive to his own health; and that is not very usual.
[1480] Luke xii. 35-37. [Concerning "sleep," see p. 259, infra.]
[1481] [Holy men, on waking in the night, have always used ejaculations, even when unable to rise. Ps. cxix. 62; Acts xvi. 25.]
[1482] John i. 5.
[1483] John i. 3, 4.
[1484] Prov. viii. 34.
[1485] 1 Thess. v. 5-8.
|
Clement of Alexandria Home Page
Elpenor's Greek Forum : Post a question / Start a discussion |
Reference address : https://ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/fathers/clement-alexandria/paedagogus.asp?pg=12
