For it is not my desire that ye should please men, but God, even as also ye do please Him. For neither shall I ever hereafter have such an opportunity of attaining to God ; nor will ye, if ye shall now be silent, ever be en- titled to 5 the honour of a better work. For if ye are silent concerning me, I shall become God's ; but if ye show your love to my flesh, I shall again have to run my race. Pray, then, do not seek to confer any greater favour upon me than that I be sacrificed to God, while the altar is still prepared ; that, being gathered together in love, ye may sing praise to the Father, through Christ Jesus, that God has deemed me, the bishop of Syria, worthy to be sent for^ from the east unto the west, and to become a martyr 7 in behalf of His own precious ^ suf- ferings, so as to pass from the world to God, that I may rise again unto Him.