Clement of Alexandria: STROMATA (MISCELLANIES), Part IV, Complete

Translated by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson.

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Page 35

Menander, the comic poet, writes in these very words:--

"If one by offering sacrifice, a crowd

Of bulls or kids, O Pamphilus, by Zeus.

Or such like things; by making works of art,

Garments of gold or purple, images

Of ivory or emerald, deems by these

God can be made propitious, he does err,

And has an empty mind. For the man must prove

A man of worth, who neither maids deflowers,

Nor an adulterer is, nor steals, nor kills

For love of worldly wealth, O Pamphilus.

Nay, covet not a needle's thread. For God

Thee sees, being near beside thee." . . . [3147]

"I am a God at hand," it is said by Jeremiah, [3148] "and not a God afar off. Shall a man do aught in secret places, and I shall not see him?"

[3147] This passage, with four more lines, is quoted by Justin Martyr [De Monarchia, vol. i. p. 291, this series], and ascribed by him to Philemon.

[3148] Jer. xxiii. 23, 24.

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