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Hymns on Faith

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

2. Rhythm the Second

Blessed be he that hath fixed him up the delicate¹ mirror of truth, and hath seen therein Thy Generation, which is too great for any tongues! Blessed be he that hath been brought near to the knowledge of truth, and hath learnt by it that God cannot be searched out by any man! Blessed he who hath been, Lord, a sailor² of Truth in this generation, whose faith also hath not lost its savour among the savourless that pry into Thee! Blessed he that hath surrounded his hearing with the wall of silence, and through it have never broken the questionings of the wise that have fought with Thee! Blessed he that hath let the wings of the Spirit grow³ secretly on him, and because there was questioning upon earth, hath left it and gone up to Heaven! Blessed he again that hath been a sailor for his Faith, and from the storms of controversy hath fled into the port of Silence! Blessed also be he that hath felt that the language of his mouth was weak⁴, and the womb of it cannot suffice for that unutterable Generation! Blessed he that hath withheld his tongue from relating the Procreation⁵, which is not allowed him [to speak of]! Blessed he that hath punished⁶ himself for ought that he has pried into thereof! Blessed he that hath tuned his harp⁷ with Psalms which David sung, with plain things that are not to be questioned, and obscure that are not to be searched into! Blessed he that hath made him a measure of truth every day, and hath weighed therein all his questionings that he may not raise superfluous questions! Blessed he that hath made Him a just measure, which is meted with that of the Prophets and Apostles⁸, the measure that Righteousness hath made! Blessed he that weigheth his searching by the edification of his hearers, and it is not too light, lest it should be wanting, nor too heavy, lest it be sunk! Blessed he that hath not passed over the boundary in his haste, and also he whose delay laboureth for peace, and findeth it! Blessed be he that seeks laboriously for that which he is competent to find! Blessed he that does not distract himself with investigating the Incomprehensible! Blessed he whose tongue hath been to Thee, Lord, as of a harp, and who sings with it sounds able to heal those that hear them!

Blessed be he, Lord, that hath gained the Truth which sustaineth the weak, whose verity also is as a staff to the feeble-minded! Blessed he whose doctrine is good leaven, so that he thereby communicates a right taste to the foolish who is unleavened! Blessed he that cleanseth his disputation⁹ as a mirror for them that are lacking in faith, that they may by it clear off their spots! Blessed he whose speech is as a medicine of life, and he quickeneth the spiritually dead that lift themselves up against Him that quickeneth all! Blessed he that is dumb what time Thy Generation is pried into! Blessed he that becometh a trumpet what time Thy Generation is proclaimed¹⁰!

Blessed he that knoweth, Lord, that the power of searching after Thee is hard to obtain¹¹! Blessed he that knoweth how sweet is the taste of speaking Thy praise! Blessed be he, Lord, that giveth not his mouth to be a conduit for the foolish questionings that well forth from glozing disputers! Blessed he, Lord, whose tongue is a pure vessel, and he speaketh therewith the Truth that floweth down from Prophets and Apostles! Blessed he that hath not tasted the gall of wisdom of the Greeks¹²! Blessed he that hath not let slip the simplicity of the Apostles!

Notes

This is like the well-known sentiment of St. Austin de Trinitate vii. §. 7. “God is conceived in the mind more truly than He is spoken of, exists more truly than He is conceived in the mind.” So Epiphan. lxx. 8. “We have no other use of the voice than what God hath given us in measure, even though we conceive more excellently of God. Yet it is not as much as the mind hath, that the mouth can utter, seeing it is precluded by the measure, and by bodily organs is confined.”
lxx. §. 1.
xx. §. 3. §. 4.
lvii. §. 4.
Procreation. [Syriac] is used of the Generation of the Son from the Father, xxviii. §. 8. xxxvii. §. 3. fin. contr. Scrut. i. §. 13. fin. its ordinary use is of a genealogy.
Vol. ii. p. 440, b. he states the theory of penance which he here commends, thus: “He that sheweth mercy to all, through our suffering sheweth mercy to us.”
S. whose harp sings
Vol. ii. p. 494. cited above p. 106. So St. Epiphanius often speaks of the faith of the Church as that of the Prophets and Apostles, e. g. i. pp. 728. 735. 752. 932, b. see also Athan. D. N. S. §. 5. p. 8. O. T.
St. E. here evidently assumes that there is a lawful use (see Petav. D. T. Prol. iii.) of disputation, as he does elsewhere, though his general tone like that of other Fathers is to disparage it, in (an implied) comparison with faith. See note g.
xx. §. 2.
Cyril. Alex. Pref. to Dial. i. de Trin. “Hard in very deed to come at, are matters relating to God even for those who are the best practised and most ready at the perception of mysteries, and to see the things above every intellect in a glass and in an enigma... coarse to a degree is the language of man, and for following along with the fineness of the thoughts inadequate. Wherefore great is one’s fear in speaking the things of God, and a very wise plan is it upon these subjects to prefer being silent, still for those who are set to teach, not a course free from danger.”
St. E. means here to condemn the disputatious and wrangling spirit of the Greeks, and the adoption of views, meritorious enough in Pagans, by Christians who had the true light. This appears both from the context here, from his speaking vol. ii. pp. 444. 468. d. of Bardesanes as adopting their error of supposing the world created from eternal elements, and from the praise he bestows ii. p. 317. on the Orators, Sophists, Grammarians, Physicians, Astronomers, and Philosophers of the Greeks, some of whom he mentions by name. Of Aristotle, the chief, though innocent, source of disputatiousness, he says, ‘Exalted was Aristotle in knowledge above them all, and he surpassed in knowledge all before and after him. He compassed the whole of logic in concise language, and of philosophy he made one body perfect and entire. Of him is accomplished that which is written of Solomon the wise, that among those before and those after him there was none that was wise as he was.’ This is important to notice, (1.) because it qualifies any censure passed upon reasoning on religious matters by St. E.; and (2.) because it shews that it is not absurd to quote from Greek authors in illustration of the theories of the soul, whether it were from translations or originals that he derived his knowledge of them. Of ‘disputation in measure’ he says, c. Scrut. i. §. 16. that it is ‘a medicine of life.’