Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VIII/Pseudo-Clementine Literature/The Clementine Homilies/Homily XII/Chapter 4

Chapter IV.&#8212;Clement&#8217;s Joy.

When, therefore, they had gone, I, Clement, rejoiced greatly that he had ordered me to remain with himself.&#160; Then I answered and said, &#8220;I thank God that you have not sent me away as you have done the others, as I should have died of grief.&#8221;&#160; But he said, &#8220;But what?&#160; If there shall ever be any necessity that you be sent away for the sake of teaching, would you, on account of being separated for a little while from me, and that for an advantageous purpose, would you die for that?&#160; Would you not rather impress upon yourself the duty of bearing the things that are arranged for you through necessity, and cheerfully submit?&#160; And do you not know that friends are present with one another in their memories, although they are separated bodily; whereas some, being bodily present, wander from their friends in their souls, by reason of want of memory?&#8221;