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Translated by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson.
Clement of Alexandria in Print
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This Part: 134 Pages
Page 109
Religion in Ordinary Life.
But it is said we do not all philosophize. Do we not all, then, follow after life? What sayest thou? How hast thou believed? How, pray, dost thou love God and thy neighbour, if thou dost not philosophize? And how dost thou love thyself, if thou dost not love life? It is said, I have not learned letters; but if thou hast not learned to read, thou canst not excuse thyself in the case of hearing, for it is not taught. And faith is the possession not of the wise according to the world, but of those according to God; and it is taught without letters; and its handbook, at once rude and divine, is called love--a spiritual book. It is in your power to listen to divine wisdom, ay, and to frame your life in accordance with it. Nay, you are not prohibited from conducting affairs in the world decorously according to God. Let not him who sells or buys aught name two prices for what he buys or sells; but stating the net price, and studying to speak the truth, if he get not his price, he gets the truth, and is rich in the possession of rectitude. But, above all, let an oath on account of what is sold be far from you; and let swearing, too, on account of other things be banished.
And in this way those who frequent the market-place and the shop philosophize. "For thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain." [1721]
But those who act contrary to these things--the avaricious, the liars, the hypocrites, those who make merchandise of the truth--the Lord cast out of His Father's court, [1722] not willing that the holy house of God should be the house of unrighteous traffic either in words or in material things.
[1721] Ex. xx. 7.
[1722] In allusion to the cleansing of the temple (John ii. 13-17; Matt. xxi. 12, 13; Luke xix. 45, 46).
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