Similitude Second.
As the Vine is Supported by the Elm, So is the Rich Man Helped by the Prayer of the Poor.
As I was walking in the field, and observing an elm and vine, and determining in my
own mind respecting them and their fruits, the Shepherd appears to me, and says, “What
is it that you are thinking about the elm and vine?” “I am considering,” I reply, “that they
become each other exceedingly well.” “These two trees,” he continues, “are intended as an
example for the servants of God.” “I would like to know,” said I, “the example which these
trees you say, are intended to teach.” “Do you see,” he says, “the elm and the vine?” “I see
them sir,” I replied. “This vine,” he continued, “produces fruit, and the elm is an unfruitful
tree; but unless the vine be trained upon the elm, it cannot bear much fruit when extended
at length upon the ground;251 and the fruit which it does bear is rotten, because the plant
is not suspended upon the elm. When, therefore, the vine is cast upon the elm, it yields fruit
both from itself and from the elm. You see, moreover, that the elm also produces much
fruit, not less than the vine, but even more; because,”252 he continued, “the vine, when
suspended upon the elm, yields much fruit, and good; but when thrown upon the ground,
what it produces is small and rotten. This similitude,253 therefore, is for the servants of
God—for the poor man and for the rich.” “How so, sir?” said I; “explain the matter to me.”
“Listen,” he said: “The rich man has much wealth, but is poor in matters relating to the Lord,
because he is distracted about his riches; and he offers very few confessions and intercessions
to the Lord, and those which he does offer are small and weak, and have no power above.
But when the rich man refreshes254 the poor, and assists him in his necessities, believing
that what he does to the poor man will be able to find its reward with God—because the
251 The Vatican reads: “Unless this vine be attached to the elm, and rest upon it, it cannot bear much fruit.
For, lying upon the ground, it produces bad fruit, because it is not suspended upon the elm.”
252 The Vatican here makes Hermas interrupt the Shepherd, and ask, “How greater than the vine?”
253 [Based on Jas. i. 9–11, 27, and ii. 1–9: introducing the heathen world to just ideas of human brotherhood,
and the mutual relations of the poor and the rich.]
254 The translation of the text is based on the Palatine. Lips. Reads: “When the rich man fills out upon the
poor.” Hilgenfeld amends this: “When the rich man recovers breath upon the poor.” Neither gives sense. The
Æthiopic has: “But if the rich man lean on the poor;” and the Greek of Hilgenfeld might mean: “When the rich
man recovers his breath by leaning on the poor.” The Vatican is quite different: “When, therefore, the rich man
helps the poor in those things which he needs, the poor man prays to the Lord for the rich man, and God bestows
all blessings upon the rich man, because the poor man is rich in prayer, and his prayer has great merit with God.
Then the rich man accordingly assists the poor man’s things, because he feels that he is fully heard (exaudiri)
by the Lord; and the more willingly and unhesitatingly does he give him every help, and takes care that he wants
for nothing. The poor man gives thanks to God for the rich man, because they do their duty in respect to the
Lord (a Domino).”
Similitude Second. As the Vine is Supported by the Elm, So is the Rich Man Helped by the Prayer of the Poor.
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Similitude Second. As the Vine is Supported by the Elm, So is the Rich…