Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume XIII/Ephraim the Syrian and Aphrahat/Nisibene Hymns/Hymn III

1.&#160; Fix thou our hearing, that it be not loosed and wander!&#160; For it is a-wandering if one enquire, who He is and what He is like.&#160; For how can we avail, to paint in us the likeness, of that Being which is like to the mind?&#160; Naught is there in it that is limited, in all of it He sees and hears; all of it as it were speaks; all of it is in all senses.

R., Praise to the One Being, that is to us unsearchable!

2.&#160; His aspect cannot be discerned, that it should be portrayed by our understanding:&#160; He hears without ears; He speaks without mouth; He works without hands, and He sees without eyes.&#160; Because our soul ceases not nor desists, in presence of Him Who is such; in His graciousness He put on the fashion of humankind and gathered us into His likeness.

3.&#160; Let us learn in what way that Being is spiritual and appeared as corporeal; and how it also is tranquil and appears as wrathful.&#160; These things were for our profit; that Being in our likeness was made like to us that we may be made like Him.&#160; One there is that is like Him, the Son Who proceeded from Him, Who is stamped with His likeness.

4.&#160; O Nisibis, hear these things, for, for thy sake these things were written and spoken.&#160; Both to thyself and to others, thou hast been in the world a cause of strife and of disputations.&#160; Mouths over thee, O thou that wast shut up, even over thee mouths sang; when thou didst triumph and wast enlarged, in thee mouths were opened, for lamentation and for thanksgiving.

5.&#160; The prayer of thy inhabitants, sufficed for thy deliverance; it was not that they were righteous, but that they were penitent:&#160; according as they were disgraced, so did they haste to submit to the rod.&#160; In transgressions and in triumphs they had like part.&#160; They whose crimes were great, so be their fruit great; they who triumphed in their sackcloth, have triumphed also in their crowns.

6.&#160; The day of thy deliverance, is king of all days.&#160; The Sabbath overthrew thy walls, it overthrew the ungrateful; the day of the Resurrection of the Son, raised again thy ruins; the day of Resurrection raised thee according to its name, it glorified its title.&#160; The Sabbath relaxed its watch; for the making of the breaches, it took blame to itself.

7.&#160; In Samaria hunger prevailed, but in thee fulness prevailed.&#160; In Samaria there broke in and came on her, abundance of a sudden; but in thee there roared and came in on thee a sea of a sudden.&#160; In her was eaten a child, and it saved her alive; in thee was eaten the body, living and all life-giving; of a sudden He delivered them, the Eaten delivered the eaters.

8.&#160; We know that the Blessed wills not the afflictions, that have been in all ages; though He has wrought them, it is our offences that are the cause of our troubles.&#160; No man can complain against our Creator; it is for Him to complain against us, who have sinned and constrained Him, to be wrathful though He wills it not, and to smite though He desires it not.

9.&#160; The Earth, the vine, and the olive, are in need of chastisement.&#160; When the olive is bruised, then its fruit smells sweet; when the vine is pruned, then its grapes are goodly; when the soil is ploughed its yield is goodly.&#160; When water is confined in channels, desert places drink of it; brass, silver and gold, when they are burnished shine.

10.&#160; If then it be that man, by chastening makes all things goodly; and if he who despises and rejects chastening, is hated and all rebels against him; then by that which he chastens, let him learn Him that chastens him; since whoso chastens does so that he may profit thereby.&#160; For whoso chastens his servants, does so that he may possess them; the good God chastens His servants that they may possess themselves.

11.&#160; Let thy afflictions be, books to admonish thee, for the thrice-besieged, suffice to become for thee, books to meditate therein, every hour on their histories.&#160; Because thou despisedst the two Testaments, wherein thou mightest read thy life, therefore He wrote for thee, three hard books wherein thou shouldst read thy chastisements.

12.&#160; Let us avert by that which has been, the thing that is yet to be; let us be taught by that which has come, to escape that which is coming; let us remember that which is past, to avoid that which is future.&#160; Because we had forgotten the first stroke, the second fell on us; because we forgot the second, the third bore heavy on us.&#160; Who will yet again forget!