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Hymns on Faith

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

15. Rhythm the Fifteenth

Let him that is a man care for the things of a man: let him who is mortal muse upon what is commanded¹; and again, let him that is a sinner seek medicine fit for his wound. Let the discerning with silence venerate Thy Godhead: let the learned in stillness be amazed at Thy Majesty: let the wise with wholesome words proclaim to children the glory of Thy kingdom. Let not our soul go astray and raise doubts about our God. Let us mete our mind and measure also our imagination, and let us know our knowledge² how much too small and foolish it is, to search into Him, who knoweth all things.

Tell me how thou didst shadow out in thy mind that Generation which is at a mighty distance from thy scrutinizing? Thou fanciedst It was a little mountain, into the midst of which thou didst descend to explore it. In silence seal up thy mouth: let not thy tongue be rash. Know thyself a creature made, a child of clay, for a great gulph and boundless is between thee and the Son in the parts where thou searchest³ into Him. He that is weak hath no concern with difficulties; nor he that is feeble with perplexities: and let not him who is of the earth lift himself so proudly up, that his mouth should haste to fly up at his Maker. He that scrutinizeth is a limb that is broken: let it get itself⁴ healed, lest it hurt the whole body, and lest, because it is diseased, the Healer of all pains should cut it off and drive it away from His pasture.

Every one that questioneth, is a companion of him that is⁵ lost, and he that searcheth, is a fellow unto him that is gone astray. For never did one that is lost seek and find himself, like to the scrutinizer. Let him who is a member fix himself firmly upon Christ. Let not his blade be separated⁶ from his Root: for the Vintager cutteth off him whose fruit He hath perceived to be bitter.

Let us not blind the eyes of our imagination by disputation: for when our mind is darkened, it is no longer⁷ possible for it to seek with clear eye into the Father and into the Son and into the Holy Ghost⁸. Let no man unsheath his tongue as a sword⁹, neither let our mind be a bow against Heaven; nor yet let our evil questioning be a serpent sending forth bitterness into the hearers.

Notes

contr. Scr. i. §. 44.
R. ix. §. 6.
S. on the side of searching
1 Cor. 12, 26.
ab. R. xi. §. 4.
John 15, 6.
2 Cor. 4, 3. 4.
See Aristot. Eth. Nic. vi. §. 13. Did. de Trin. iii. 1. Greg. Naz. Or. 33. p. 530, c. “For one not pure to meddle with what is pure, were haply no wise safe, as neither is it for an impaired vision to deal with the sun’s ray.” See Petav. Theol. D. Prol. ix. §. 5 and 6.
R. xxxvii. §. 4.