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 thy prayer will be left before the altar, and that he (the Angel of God) will neither receive, nor raise it from the earth, whose office it is : for he examines, whether thy gift be polluted. If thy prayer be pure, he raises and offers it in the sight of God. Should he find thee saying in thy prayer, Forgive me, for I forgive: thus will he say, First forgive thy debtor, and then I will raise thy prayer to God, whose debtor thou art.”—Serm. iv. p. 72.

St. EPHREM OF EDESSA, G.C.-" I entreat you, O holy Martyrs, who have suffered so much for the Lord, that you would intercede for us with him, that he bestow his grace on us." — Encom. in SS. Mart. T. iii. p. 251.—“We fly to thy patronage, Holy Mother of God; protect and guard us under the wings of thy mercy and kindness.—Most merciful God, through the intercession of the most blessed Virgin Mary, and of all the Angels, and of all the Saints, show pity to thy creature.”

--Serm. de Laud. B. Mar. Virg. T. iii. p. 576. “ I pray to the Saints; but that their prayers for me will be heard, I doubt. For the Prophet Ezechiel has said, (xiv. 20.) that neither Noah, nor Job, nor Daniel, though they pray, shall obtain. I implore all the Prophets: but I may be rejected, I fear, like those impious Israelites, of whom the Lord said to Jeremiah, (vii. 16.) pray not for this people."--In Repreh. et Confess. sui ipsius. T. i. p. 129.

St. GREGORY OF NAZIANZUM, G. C.-In his funeral Oration on his friend St. Basil, he says: “And now he, in-