{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>To me, therefore, that Thracian Orpheus, that Theban, and that\r\nMethymnæan,—men, and yet unworthy of the name,—seem to have been\r\ndeceivers, who, under the pretence of poetry corrupting human life,\r\npossessed by a spirit of artful sorcery for purposes of destruction,\r\ncelebrating crimes in their orgies, and making human woes the materials\r\nof religious worship, were the first to entice men to idols; nay,\r\nto build up the stupidity of the nations with blocks of wood and\r\nstone,—that is, statues and images,—subjecting to the yoke of\r\nextremest bondage the truly noble freedom of those who lived as free\r\ncitizens under heaven, by their songs and incantations. But not such\r\nis my song, which has come to loose, and that speedily, the bitter\r\nbondage of tyrannizing demons; and leading us back to the mild and\r\nloving yoke of piety, recalls to heaven those that had been cast\r\nprostrate to the earth. It alone has tamed men, the most intractable\r\nof animals; the frivolous among them answering to the fowls of the\r\nair, deceivers to reptiles, the irascible to lions, the voluptuous to\r\nswine, the rapacious to wolves. The silly are stocks and stones, and\r\nstill more senseless than stones is a man who is steeped in ignorance.\r\nAs our witness, let us adduce the voice of prophecy accordant with\r\ntruth, and bewailing those who are crushed in ignorance and folly: “For\r\nGod is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham;”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_11\" id=\"FNanchor_11\">[11]</a> and\r\nHe, commiserating their great ignorance and hardness of heart who are\r\npetrified against the truth, has raised up a seed of piety, sensitive\r\nto virtue, of those stones—of the nations, that is, who trusted in\r\nstones. Again, therefore, some venomous and false hypocrites, who\r\nplotted against righteousness, He once called “a brood of vipers.”<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_12\" id=\"FNanchor_12\">[12]</a><span class=\"pagenum\" id=\"Page_20\">[20]</span>\r\nBut if one of those serpents even is willing to repent, and follows the\r\nWord, he becomes a man of God.</p>","headings":["THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA.","EXHORTATION TO THE HEATHEN.","CHAPTER I. EXHORTATION TO ABANDON THE IMPIOUS MYSTERIES OF IDOLATRY FOR THE ADORATION OF THE DIVINE WORD AND GOD THE FATHER."],"marker_anchor":"FNanchor_12","paragraph_id":"pg71937-paragraph-47"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"be756e53775c32ebb70fd57fce15d645b1c22a4b495f68c495ff8577b97d00a2","edition_title":"The writings of Clement of Alexandria, Vol. 1 (of 2)","edition_translators":["William Wilson"],"edition_year":1867,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"MAT","chapter":3,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"Matt. iii. 7","verse":7,"verse_end":7},{"book":"LUK","chapter":3,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"Luke iii. 7","verse":7,"verse_end":7}],"headings":[],"id":"pg71937-Footnote_12","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_12","source_ebook":71937,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a class=\"label pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_12\" id=\"Footnote_12\">[12]</a> Matt. iii. 7; Luke iii. 7.</p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"8e5c5bc39922dbad2626ac7651c2eb2e3d94cdcbd721f781e9792143ebb1cd03","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/71937/pg71937-images.html#Footnote_12","text_sha256":"edc7c1eea0ee625415646c422f3a959b3ddab8f2dbfeb9c317994442bdb1cc6b","verified":false,"work_id":null}