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Hymns on Faith

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

4. The Pearl, Rhythm the Fourth

The thief gained the faith which gained him, and brought1 him up and placed him in paradise. He saw in the Cross a tree of life; that was the fruit, he was the eater in Adam’s stead. The fool, who goeth astray, grazes the faith, as it were an2 eye, by all manner of questions. The probing of the finger blindeth the eye, and much more doth that prying blind the faith. For even the diver prieth not into his pearl. In it do all merchants rejoice without prying into whence it came; even the king who is crowned therewith does not explore it.

Because Balaam3 was foolish, a foolish beast in the ass spoke with him, because he despised God Who spoke with him. Thee too let the pearl reprove in the ass’s stead. The people that had a heart of stone, by a Stone He set at nought, for4 lo, a stone heareth words. Witness its work that hath reproved them; and you, ye deaf ones, let the pearl reprove to-day. With the swallow and the crow did He put men to5 shame; with the ox, yea with the ass, did He put them to6 shame; let the pearl reprove now, ye birds and things on earth and things below.

Not as the moon doth thy light fill or wane; the Sun whose light is greater than all, lo! of Him it is that a type is shadowed out in thy little compass. Oh, type of the Son, one spark of Whom is greater than the sun! the pearl itself is full, for its light is full; neither is there any artist who can steal7 from it8, for its wall is its own beauty, yea, its guard also! It lacketh not, since it is entirely perfect, and if a man would break thee to take a part from thee, thou art like the faith which with the heretics perishes, seeing they have broken it in pieces and spoiled it: for is it any better than this to have the faith scrutinized? the faith is an entire nature that may not be corrupted9. The spoiler getteth himself mischief by it: the heretic brings ruin on himself thereby. He that chaseth the light from his pupils blindeth himself. Fire and air are divided when intersected. Light alone of all creatures10 as its Creator, is not divided; it is not barren, for that it also begetteth without losing thereby.

And if a man thinketh that thou art framed [by art] he erreth greatly; thy nature proclaims that thou, as all stones, art not the framing11 of art; and so art a type of the Generation which no making framed. Thy stone fleeth from a comparison12 with the stone of the Son. For thy own generation is from the midst of the deep13, that of the Son of thy Creator is from the highest height; He is not like thee, in that He is like His Father. And as the story is, two wombs14 bare thee also. Thou camest down from on high a fluid nature; thou camest up from the sea a solid body. By means of thy second birth thou didst shew thy loveliness to the children of men. Hands fixed15 thee, when thou wert embodied, into thy receptacles; for thou art in the crown as upon a cross, and in a coronet as in a victory; thou art upon the ears, as if to fill up what was lacking1617; thou extendest over all.

Notes

  1. Luke 23, 42.
  2. See Zech. 2, 8.
  3. adv. Scrut. xli. §. 3.
  4. Mat. 21, 42.
  5. Jer. 8, 7.
  6. Is. 1.
  7. p. 92.
  8. Compare St. Clement. Strom. v. §. 29. p. 663. Potter. ‘The Philosophy of the Greeks is like the lamp with cotton wick which men kindle from the sun, stealing the light with artist’s skill.’ κλέπτοντες ἐντεχνῶς τὸ φῶς.
  9. See adv. Scrut. i. n. b.
  10. See adv. Scrut. xlii. and lxxv.
  11. p. 89. ref. 4.
  12. adv. Scrut. xlii. §. 5.
  13. p. 86, note h.
  14. p. 43, n. i. 86, n. h.
  15. p. 91, note o.
  16. i. e. to fill them with wisdom.
  17. S. as if a filling

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