Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume XIII/Ephraim the Syrian and Aphrahat/Hymns For the Feast of the Epiphany/Hymn X

(.&#8212;Glory to Him Who came and restored it!)

1.&#160; Adam sinned and earned all sorrows;&#8212;likewise the world after His example, all guilt.&#8212;And instead of considering how it should be restored,&#8212;considered how its fall should be pleasant for it.&#8212;Glory to Him Who came and restored it!

2.&#160; This cause summoned Him that is pure,&#8212;that He should come and be baptized, even He with the defiled,&#8212;Heaven for His glory was rent asunder.&#8212;That the purifier of all might be baptized with all,&#8212;He came down and sanctified the water for our baptism.

3.&#160; For that cause for which He entered into the womb,&#8212;for the same cause He went down into the river.&#8212;For that cause for which He entered into the grave,&#8212;for the same cause He makes us enter into His chamber.&#8212;He perfected mankind for every cause.

4.&#160; His Conception is the store of our blessings;&#8212;His Birth is the treasury of our joys;&#8212;His Baptism is the cause of our pardon;&#8212;His Death is the cause of our life.&#8212;Death He alone has overcome in His Resurrection.

5.&#160; At His Birth a star of light shone in the air;&#8212;when He was baptized light flashed from the water;&#8212;at His Death the sun was darkened in the firmament;&#8212;at His Passion the luminaries set along with Him;&#8212;at His Epiphany the luminaries arose with Him.

6.&#160; Revealed was His Glory because of His Majesty;&#8212;revealed was His Passion because of His Manhood;&#8212;revealed was His Love because of His Graciousness;&#8212;revealed was His Judgment because of His Justice.&#8212;He has poured forth His attributes, on them that were His.

7.&#160; That whoso has looked on His Glory and despised Him,&#8212;may look again on His Glory and worship Him;&#8212;and whoso has scorned to taste of His Graciousness,&#8212;may fear lest he be made to feel His justice;&#8212;He has poured forth His helps on His worshippers.

8.&#160; Lo! the East in the morning was made light!&#8212;lo! the South at noonday was made dark!&#8212;The West again in turn at eventide was made light.&#8212;The three quarters represent the one Birth;&#8212;His Death and His Life they declare.

9.&#160; His Birth flowed on and was joined to His Baptism;&#8212;and His Baptism again flowed on even to His Death;&#8212;His Death led and reached to His Resurrection,&#8212;a fourfold bridge unto His Kingdom; and lo! His sheep pass over in His footsteps.

10.&#160; And like as, save by the door of birth,&#8212;none can enter into creation;&#8212;so, save by the door of resurrection,&#8212;none can enter into the Kingdom,&#8212;and whoso has cut off his bridge, has brought to nought his hope.

11.&#160; He put on His armour and conquered and was crowned;&#8212;He left His armour on earth and ascended,&#8212;that if any man desires the crown,&#8212;he may resort to the armour and win by it&#8212;the crown of victory which he yearns after.

12.&#160; He fulfilled righteousness on earth, and ascended.&#8212;But if He, the All-cleanser, was baptized,&#8212;What man is there that shall not be baptized?&#8212;for grace has come to baptism&#8212;to wash away the foulness of our wound.

13.&#160; The compulsion of God is an all-prevailing force;&#8212;[but that is not pleasing to Him which is of compulsion,] &#8212;as that which is of discerning will.&#8212;Therefore in our fruits He calls us&#8212;who live not as under compulsion, by persuasion.

14.&#160; Good is He, for lo! He labours in these two things;&#8212;He wills not to constrain our freedom&#8212;nor again does He suffer us to abuse it.&#8212;For had he constrained it, He had taken away its power;&#8212;and had He let it go, He had deprived it of help.

15.&#160; He knows that if He constrains He deprives us;&#8212;He knows that if He casts off He destroys us;&#8212;He knows that if He teaches He wins us.&#8212;He has not constrained and He has not cast off, as the Evil One does:&#8212;He has taught, chastened, and won us, as being the good God.

16.&#160; He knows that His treasuries abound:&#8212;the keys of His treasuries He has put into our hands.&#8212;He has made the Cross our treasurer&#8212;to open for us the gates of Paradise,&#8212;as Adam opened the gate of Gehenna.