The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians

Give me back the gladness of thy salvation, strengthen me with thy governing spirit.

I will teach the wicked thy ways, and the ungodly shall be converted unto thee.

Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation.

My tongue shall rejoice in thy righteousness. O Lord, thou shalt open my mouth, and my lips shall tell of thy praise.

For if thou hadst desired sacrifice, I would have given it; in whole burnt offerings thou wilt not delight.

The sacrifice unto God is a broken spirit, a broken and a humbled heart God shall not despise.

The humility and obedient submission of so[*](Exhortation to peace) many men of such great fame, have rendered better not only us, but also the generations before us, who received his oracles in fear and truth.

Seeing then that we have received a share in many great and glorious deeds, let us hasten on to the goal of peace, which was given us from the beginning, and let us fix our gaze on the Father and Creator of the whole world and cleave to his splendid and excellent gifts of peace, and to his good deeds to us.

Let us contemplate him with our mind, let us gaze with the eyes of our soul on his long-suffering purpose, let us consider how free from wrath he is towards all his creatures.

The heavens moving at his appointment are[*](The peace and harmony of the Universe) subject to him in peace;

day and night follow the course allotted by him without hindering each other.

Sun and moon and the companies of the stars roll on, according to his direction, in harmony, in their appointed courses, and swerve not from them at all.

The earth teems according to his will at its proper seasons, and puts forth food in full abundance for men and beasts and all the living things that are on it, with no dissension, and changing

The unsearchable places of the abysses and the unfathomable realms of the lower world are controlled by the same ordinances.

The hollow of the boundless sea is gathered by his working into its allotted places, and does not pass the barriers placed around it, but does even as he enjoined on it;

for he said Thus far shalt thou come, and thy waves shall be broken within thee.

The ocean, which men cannot pass, and the worlds beyond it, are ruled by the same injunctions of the Master.