{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>In contradistinction, therefore, to the older people, the new people\r\nare called young, having learned the new blessings; and we have the\r\nexuberance of life’s morning prime in this youth which knows no old\r\nage, in which we are always growing to maturity in intelligence, are\r\nalways young, always mild, always new: for those must necessarily\r\nbe new, who have become partakers of the new Word. And that\r\nwhich participates in eternity is wont to be assimilated to the\r\nincorruptible: so that to us appertains the designation of the age of\r\nchildhood, a lifelong spring-time, because the truth that is in us,\r\nand our habits saturated with the truth, cannot be touched by old age;\r\nbut Wisdom is ever blooming, ever remains consistent and the same,\r\nand never changes. “Their children,” it is said, “shall be borne upon\r\ntheir shoulders, and fondled on their knees; as one whom his mother\r\ncomforteth, so also shall I comfort you.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_199\" id=\"FNanchor_199\">[199]</a> The mother draws the\r\nchildren to herself; and we seek our mother the church. Whatever is\r\nfeeble and tender, as needing help on account of its feebleness, is\r\nkindly looked on, and is sweet and pleasant, anger changing into help\r\nin the case of such: for thus horses’ colts, and the little calves\r\nof cows, and the lion’s whelp, and the stag’s fawn, and the child of\r\nman, are looked upon with pleasure by their fathers and mothers. Thus\r\nalso the Father of the universe cherishes affection towards those who\r\nhave fled to Him; and having begotten them again by His Spirit to the\r\nadoption of children, knows them as gentle, and loves those alone,\r\nand aids and fights for them; and therefore He bestows on them the\r\nname of child. The word Isaac I also connect with child. Isaac means\r\nlaughter. He was seen sporting with his wife and helpmeet Rebecca by\r\nthe prying king.<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_200\" id=\"FNanchor_200\">[200]</a> The king, whose name was Abimelech, appears\r\nto me to represent a supramundane wisdom contemplating the mystery\r\nof sport. They interpret Rebecca to mean endurance. O wise sport,\r\nlaughter also assisted by endurance, and the king as spectator! The\r\nspirit of those that are children in Christ, whose lives are ordered\r\nin endurance, rejoice. And this is the divine sport. “Such a sport, of\r\nhis own,<span class=\"pagenum\" id=\"Page_129\">[129]</span> Jove sports,” says Heraclitus. For what other employment is\r\nseemly for a wise and perfect man, than to sport and be glad in the\r\nendurance of what is good, and, in the administration of what is good,\r\nholding festival with God? That which is signified by the prophet may\r\nbe interpreted differently,—namely, of our rejoicing for salvation, as\r\nIsaac. He also, delivered from death, laughed, sporting and rejoicing\r\nwith his spouse, who was the type of the Helper of our salvation, the\r\nchurch, to whom the stable name of endurance is given; for this cause\r\nsurely, because she alone remains to all generations, rejoicing ever,\r\nsubsisting as she does by the endurance of us believers, who are the\r\nmembers of Christ. And the witness of those that have endured to the\r\nend, and the rejoicing on their account, is the mystic sport, and the\r\nsalvation accompanied with decorous solace which brings us aid.</p>","headings":["THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA.","THE INSTRUCTOR.","BOOK I.","CHAPTER V. ALL WHO WALK ACCORDING TO TRUTH ARE CHILDREN OF GOD."],"marker_anchor":"FNanchor_200","paragraph_id":"pg71937-paragraph-247"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"72b4e1ebb4aeb1804de66191abb73fc16a0d747303c04b1e109145dfd261240a","edition_title":"The writings of Clement of Alexandria, Vol. 1 (of 2)","edition_translators":["William Wilson"],"edition_year":1867,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"GEN","chapter":26,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"Gen. xxvi. 8","verse":8,"verse_end":8}],"headings":[],"id":"pg71937-Footnote_200","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_200","source_ebook":71937,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a class=\"label pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_200\" id=\"Footnote_200\">[200]</a> Gen. xxvi. 8.</p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"8e5c5bc39922dbad2626ac7651c2eb2e3d94cdcbd721f781e9792143ebb1cd03","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/71937/pg71937-images.html#Footnote_200","text_sha256":"844066489afccb450dc139911e5d6c607e59e1f8a3b31130a4b49b2eb30c6fd0","verified":false,"work_id":null}