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Hymns on Faith

St Ephrem the Syrian, tr. Morris, 1847; selections

10. Rhythm the Tenth

Thou, Lord, hast caused it to be written, Open thy mouth,¹ and I shall fill it. Lo! the mouth of Thy servant is open to Thee, with his mind! Do Thou fill it, Lord, with Thy Gift, that according to Thy will I may sing Thy praise. For speaking of Thee every man hath his own proper measure²; to the lowest measure I would approach as being bold. Within the silence³ is Thy Generation sealed up, and what mouth is it that dareth to meddle therewith? Though Thy Nature is One, the explanations⁴ thereof are manifold. Lofty discourses are there, and intermediate, and lowly on the part of the lowly⁵. Deem me worthy as it were of the crumbs, that I may gather up the droppings of Thy wisdom⁶.

Thy visible Generation⁷ is laid up with Thy Father. Angels are astonied at Thy smaller riches. A small drop, O Lord, of Thy history⁸ becomes with those below a flood of interpretations; for if John, even, that great one, cried [saying], ‘I am not worthy, O Lord, to [unloose] the⁹ latchets of Thy shoes,’ I will flee as that sinful woman to¹⁰ the shadow of Thy garments, that I may begin from thence; and as she who was affrighted, yet took heart, because she was¹¹ made whole; heal my fright at the danger, and let me take heart in Thee, may I be also moved from Thy garment to Thy Body, that according to my power I may speak of Thee.

Thy garment, Lord, is a fountain of medicines. In Thy visible vesture there dwelleth an hidden power. A little spittle from Thy mouth became also a great miracle of light¹² in the midst of its clay. In Thy Bread is hidden the Spirit that cannot be eaten; in Thy Wine there dwelleth the Fire that cannot be drunk. The Spirit in Thy Bread and the Fire in Thy Cup are distinct miracles, which our lips receive.

When the Lord came down to the earth unto mortal men, He created them a new Creation, as in the Angels He¹³ mingled Fire and the Spirit, that they might be of Fire and Spirit in a hidden manner. The Seraph did not bring the living coal¹⁴ near with his fingers; it did but come close up to Isaiah’s mouth; he did not himself lay hold of it or eat it;¹⁵ but unto us the Lord hath given both of them¹⁶.

To the Angels which are spiritual Abraham brought bodily food, and they ate¹⁷. A new miracle it is, that our mighty¹⁸ Lord giveth to bodily creatures Fire and the Spirit, as food and drink. Fire came down upon sinners in wrath, and¹⁹ consumed them. The Fire of the Merciful in bread cometh²⁰ down and abideth²¹. Instead of that fire which devoured men, ye eat a Fire in bread and are quickened. As fire came down on the sacrifice of Elijah and consumed it, the Fire of Mercy²² hath become to us a Living Sacrifice²³. Fire ate up the oblations, and we, O Lord, have eaten Thy Fire in Thy Oblation.

Who hath ever taken hold of the Spirit²⁴ in his fists? Come²⁵ and see, O Solomon, what the Lord of thy father hath done. For Fire and Spirit against its nature He hath mingled, and hath poured them into the fists of His disciples. He asked, ‘Who hath bound the waters in a garment?’ Lo! the Fountain²⁶ in a garment, the lap of Mary! From the Cup of Life the distilling of life in the midst of the garment do Thine handmaids take²⁷!

Oh, Might hidden in the veil of the sanctuary, that Might which the mind never conceives, It hath His love brought down: and It hath descended and brooded over the veil of the altar of propitiation. Lo! Fire and Spirit in the bosom²⁸ of her that bare Thee! Lo! Fire and Spirit in that river wherein Thou wert baptized, Fire and Spirit in our baptism²⁹! In the Bread and the Cup is Fire and the Holy Ghost, Thy Bread³⁰ killeth the greedy one who had made us his bread³¹; Thy cup destroyeth death which swallowed us up³². We have eaten Thee, O Lord, yea, we have drunken Thee, not that we shall make Thee fail, but that we might have life in Thee³³.

The latchet of Thy shoe was a thing fearful to the dis³⁴cerning; the hem of Thy garment was fearful to the³⁵ understanding: our generation is foolish in scrutinizing Thee. Oh, Feast which is drunken with new Wine! Wonder is there in Thy footsteps that went upon the waters; the³⁶ great sea didst Thou make obedient beneath Thy feet; to a³⁷ little stream³⁸ Thy head made itself obedient, in that it condescended to be baptized therein. The stream³⁹ was like John who baptized therein. Both of them in littleness mutually shadow out each other. To the little stream and the weak servant the Lord of them both made Himself obedient.

See my folds be filled, Lord, with the dropping of Thy⁴⁰ blessings; and as no room is now remaining, as in my borders I am full, O stay Thy Gift, and, as a store, O keep it in Thy treasury for Thee to give it us again!

Notes

Ps. 81, 10.
S. there are degrees of all measures to all men
R. iv. §. 1.
This word seems intended to express the same as the ἐπίνοια of the Greeks, i. e. our conception of God as opposed to what He really is. This conception of Him may be compounded of the several ideas of goodness, holiness, wisdom, and the other positive attributes, as well as the negative ones. The following illustration of this may be given from vol. ii. p. 507. f. “Let us enter the lists and question, and have questions asked us: for one of two things must be established, either they are minded to find themselves with no God, (that which is in fact the case,) or else another God, a stranger, have they, who is clear from, and does not, as being a stranger, fall under the words and names descriptive of our nature. If then He borrowed and put on the figures of the natives, it were fitting that He should be found fault with by those infidels, because like a spy He hath fraudulently changed His dress to deceive the free. But if it be becoming for a stranger to clothe himself with semblances borrowed and not his own, how much more is it so for the Creator to clothe Himself with the beauty of His creatures?” i.e. to display Himself under those attributes which adorn them.
p. 152, n. b.
S. wisdoms.
note e, p. 115.
Syr. [Syriac]. The printed lexicons give ‘excusatio,’ ‘causatio:’ the word occurs xlv. fin. lxv. §. 3. in neither of which places does this sense suit. Bar Bahlul Mss. Bodl. gives [Arabic] a ‘likeness’ whether in the mind or outward, or ‘history,’ ‘narration.’
John 1, 27. §. 8.
Mat. 9, 20.
Mat. 9, 21. Luke 8, 47.
John 9, 6.
2 Cor. 5, 17.
Above, p. 81. he calls the Angels Empyreals, as in vol. ii. p. 330. f. 334. a. The word for ‘Spirit,’ as in Greek and Hebrew, is the same as that for ‘wind.’ The idea that Angels consist of Fire and Spirit is suggested by Ps. 104, 4. ‘He maketh His Angels spirits, and His Ministers a flaming fire,’ which of course does not (as Euseb. Præp. Ev. vii. 15. p. 326. d. notices) imply that they consist of material fire or wind, but only that the words are used of them, as fire and spirit are of God. St. Greg. Naz. Or. xxxiv. v. fin. p. 560. quoting the same text, says, “Angels are called fire and spirit, partly as being above our senses, and partly as ministering to our purification, (ὡς καθάρσιος,) though I am aware that these are names of the First Essence.”
Is. 6, 6.
See above, p. 30, n. k. contr. Scrut. i. §. 12. St. James of Sarug, A.D. 480, quoted in Assemanni’s Antirrh. adv. Kohl. p. 5. “The Seraph took not hold of it with his hand, that he might not be burned: neither did the prophet take it in his mouth, that he might not be consumed: the one did not seize hold of, the other did not eat the glorified (ember). It was because it was incorporeal, that it was not to be taken hold of, nor eaten, but after this Coal hath presented itself to sight in a Body, lo! it is eaten from the table of the Godhead. So on Ezek. x. v. 2. St. E. says, “These coals, and the man that is clothed in fine linen, that bringeth them and casteth them upon the people, are a type of the priest by whose mediatorship the living coals of the Life-producing Body of our Lord are given away. But see there is another Cherub that reacheth them forth, and placeth them in his fists! this is a type, to shew that it is not the priest who is able to make the Body, of the bread, but Another, to wit, the Holy Ghost: the priest, therefore, doth but lend his hands as a mediator, and his lips offer prayers with supplications, as a servant suing for mercy,”—which passage seems to Ass. to have been copied by St. Chrysost. Hom. lxxxiii. in Matt. p. 870. b. See p. 119, n. l.
Greg. Naz. Or. 34. p. 549. “Abraham, that great patriarch, was justified by faith, and offered a sacrifice strange and typical of the great One: yet he saw not God as God, but nourished Him as if man, and was commended for having reverenced as far as he did comprehend.”
Gen. 18, 8.
1 Cor. 12, 13.
2 Kings 1, 5.
p. 32. n. n.
1 Kings 18, 38.
In vol. i. p. 497. c. on the place he says, “Elijah, who in Mount Carmel, put a stop to the priests, the ministers of vanity, by the perfect sacrifice which he offered to the living God, gave unto us a lively semblance of the whole Burnt-offering which Emmanuel made upon Mount Golgotha, and by the Sacrifice of His own Own Self which was offered once for all, caused to pass away those sacrifices which Moses had appointed, and the fat offerings which the Gentiles offered to their shameful gods.” If in this place he applies to the Sacrifice in Calvary, what in the text he applies by implication to That of the Altar, we must remember that here, and p. 32, he looks upon the Sacrifice, whether in Calvary or on the Altar, as one, abiding, Sacrifice.
or wind
Prov. 30, 4.
xii. §. 3. p. 50. ref. 4.
See Zech. 9, 17. and p. 43. ref. 4. comp. R. xviii. §. 2.
p. 25. n. f.
p. 86. n. f.
see Ps. 14, 4.
See p. 34. p. 53. ref. 4. St. Austin in Ps. lxxiii. §. 16. speaking of that text, ‘Thou breakest the head of the dragon in pieces,’ says, “What did Moses do (with the calf, Ex. xxxii. 19.)? Cast it into the fire [says he] that first the form itself may be confused and lost: break it into small pieces that it may by degrees be consumed: cast it into water, give it the people to drink. What is this to signify, save that the worshippers of the Devil became the body of the Devil himself? (1 Cor. x. 21.) How do those who acknowledge Christ become the Body of Christ?.... It was said to Peter touching the Gentiles, ‘Kill and eat.’ What is the meaning of ‘Kill and eat?’ Kill that which they are (Rom. viii. 10, 13.) and make them that which thou art. In one place it is ‘Kill and eat,’ in another, ‘Break it small and drink.’ Either, however, is done in the same Sacrament. For it was necessary, yea without doubt it was, that the body which was the Devil’s, should by believing pass into the Body of Christ.”
So above, p. 10. he speaks of Christ as shewing mercy by His Body on His household’s bodies. See also p. 10. and p. 19, n. k. where the same doctrine of the influence of the Eucharist on the body as communicating a new principle of life is referred to. So in Paræn. xxix. he says, “Lo! of dust and ashes are the tribes and races of Adam made, and they wait for the Voice of the Raiser to raise in glory the departed bodies that have put on Thee, O Lord, in Baptism, and have eaten Thy Body and drunk Thy living Blood. Oh, may they rise, Lord, on the Right Hand, and with the Angels in Paradise have joy!”
St. Austin in Ps. cxxxi. §. 24. “Whence is it that the poor are to be satisfied? Of what kind is this satisfying, Oh my brethren? God Himself is the Bread: the Bread, that It might become milk for us, descended into the earth, and said to His own, I am the Living Bread, &c.” It may be added, that this passage again is a strong one against the Nestorians. For Nestorius argued, that in the Eucharist we partake not of God, but of Man, (see Cyril c. Nest. p. 108-9.b.) so making Catholics to be man-eaters: whereas the thing St. E. insists on in this R. is the amazing marvel of eating the Spirit.
Mark 1, 7.
Mat. 9, 20.
Ps. 77, 19.
Mat. 14, 26.
comp. Mat. 3, 13. with 2 Kings 5, 12. 14.
see John 3, 30.
Ezech. 47, 5.