Budge_Ethiopic_Alexander

A CHRISTIAN ROMANCE. 44
God that neither he nor his army would be blotted
out, entered boldly into the Sea of Darkness.'
Who then shall be able to terrify him that trusteth Alexander
in God Almighty, and who doeth His will, and panjons °7n
who preserveth the purity of his virginity together '^'"^^'"y-
with compassion for the poor, and [the giving of]
alms and oblations? Elijah in his virginity, and in
his labours of fasting, and in his ascetic life, was
like unto John [the Baptist,] and Alexander in his
sovereignty, and in his alms and oblations, and in
his humility was like unto Honorius;'' [p. 262] and
these four were pure in virginity, and had never
polluted their bodies.
CHAPTER I.
Hear these words, O all ye who are unable to Address to
abstain from your wives, and all ye who defile ammgmen^
your bodies with women other than your wives,
and all ye who scoff insolently at virginity ! When
God Almighty created our father Adam, He gave
him one wife. He did not give him two or three,
but He gave him one only; and He said unto
them, "Increase and multiply, and fill the earth."''
And similarly He commandeth all His children to
marry one wife only.
O thou who dost curse our father Adam, and
' See above, p. 281.
^ I. e., the Emperor Flavius Augustus Honorius, born
A. D. 384, died A. D. 423.
^ Compare Genesis i. 28.
KKK