Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume IX/The Epistles of Clement/The Second Epistle of Clement/Chapter 2

Chapter II.&#8212;The Church, Formerly Barren, is Now Fruitful.

&#8220;Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not; for she that is desolate hath many more children than she that hath an husband.&#8221; &#160; In that He said, &#8220;Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not,&#8221; He referred to us, for our church was barren before that children were given to her.&#160; But when He said, &#8220;Cry out, thou that travailest not,&#8221; He means this, that we should sincerely offer up our prayers to God, and should not, like women in travail, show signs of weakness. &#160; And in that He said, &#8220;For she that is desolate hath many more children than she that hath an husband,&#8221; [He means] that our people seemed to be outcast from God, but now, through believing, have become more numerous than those who are reckoned to possess God. &#160; And another Scripture saith, &#8220;I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.&#8221; &#160; This means that those who are perishing must be saved.&#160; For it is indeed a great and admirable thing to establish not the things which are standing, but those that are falling.&#160; Thus also did Christ desire to save the things which were perishing, and has saved many by coming and calling us when hastening to destruction.