{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p class=\"p-left\">And you know not that, of all truths, this is the truest, that the good\r\nand godly shall obtain the good reward, inasmuch as they held goodness\r\nin high esteem; while, on the other hand, the wicked shall receive meet\r\npunishment. For the author of evil, torment has been prepared; and so\r\nthe prophet Zecharias threatens him: “He that hath chosen Jerusalem\r\nrebuke thee; lo, is not this a brand plucked from the fire?”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_115\" id=\"FNanchor_115\">[115]</a>\r\nWhat an infatuated desire, then, for voluntary death is this, rooted\r\nin men’s minds! Why do they flee to this fatal brand, with which they\r\nshall be burned, when it is within their power to live nobly according\r\nto God, and not according to custom? For God bestows life freely; but\r\nevil custom, after our departure from this world, brings on the sinner\r\nunavailing remorse with punishment. <i>By sad experience, even a child\r\nknows</i> how superstition destroys and piety saves. Let any of you\r\nlook at those who minister before the idols, their hair matted, their\r\npersons disgraced with filthy and tattered clothes; who never come near\r\na bath, and let their nails grow to an extraordinary length, like wild\r\nbeasts; many of them castrated, who show the idol’s temples to be in\r\nreality graves or prisons. These appear to me to bewail the gods, not\r\nto worship them, and their sufferings to be worthy of pity rather than\r\npiety. And seeing these things, do you still continue blind, and will\r\nyou not look up to the Ruler of all, the Lord of the universe? And will\r\nyou not escape from those dungeons, and flee to the mercy that comes\r\ndown from heaven? For God, of His great love to man, comes to the help\r\nof man, as the mother-bird flies to one of her young that has fallen\r\nout of the nest; and if a serpent open its mouth to swallow the little\r\nbird, “the mother flutters round, uttering cries of grief over her dear\r\nprogeny;”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_116\" id=\"FNanchor_116\">[116]</a> and God the Father seeks His creature, and heals his\r\ntransgression, and pursues the serpent, and recovers the young one, and\r\nincites it to fly up to the nest.</p>","headings":["THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA.","EXHORTATION TO THE HEATHEN.","CHAPTER X. ANSWER TO THE OBJECTION OF THE HEATHEN, THAT IT WAS NOT RIGHT TO ABANDON THE CUSTOMS OF THEIR FATHERS."],"marker_anchor":"FNanchor_115","paragraph_id":"pg71937-paragraph-199"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"a719baa85e65f62e6b4c8f10412d820156ffe793e47d8b1150ebd18a55ee09a5","edition_title":"The writings of Clement of Alexandria, Vol. 1 (of 2)","edition_translators":["William Wilson"],"edition_year":1867,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"ZEC","chapter":3,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"Zech. iii. 2","verse":2,"verse_end":2}],"headings":[],"id":"pg71937-Footnote_115","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Project Gutenberg metadata: Public domain in the USA. Existing 1867 English translation; translator died 1875. Electronic transcription subject to Project Gutenberg reuse terms.","source_anchor":"Footnote_115","source_ebook":71937,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a class=\"label pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_115\" id=\"Footnote_115\">[115]</a> Zech. iii. 2.</p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"8e5c5bc39922dbad2626ac7651c2eb2e3d94cdcbd721f781e9792143ebb1cd03","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/71937/pg71937-images.html#Footnote_115","text_sha256":"b94eda2ab6ba6582ab7718cb823dc979e844480545fc0faa57508dbe1356e94c","verified":false,"work_id":null}