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

1. O feeble ones, why weep ye, over your dead:&#160; who in death are at rest from sorrows and sins?&#8212;2. R., Glory to Him Who endured all, for the sake of all men:&#160; yea tasted death for the sake of all, to bring all to life&#8212;3. I reveal unto you, that even Satan, though much content:&#160; at your weeping, yet laughs much, at your mourning.&#8212;4. In mockery he winks at me and nods to me, as a jester:&#160; &#8220;Come let us laugh at sinners, for lo! they are mad.&#8221;&#8212;5. Truly they have given up remembrance of that fire, which I have hidden for them:&#160; and lo! the fools are drunken with weeping, for their departed.&#8212;6. Instead of weeping as though, without provision:&#160; I had plundered and sent forth their dead, lo! they are mad.&#8212;7. The souls of the evil are to be afflicted, till the judgment day:&#160; and these weep over the graves, like to madmen.&#8212;8. They care not for their own sins, that haply to-morrow:&#160; they must go in shame of face, to join their dead.&#8212;9. And thus shall all be put to shame alike, family by family:&#160; in Sheol the wretches shall repent without avail.&#8212;10. Leave the drunken and the madman, until that day:&#160; wherein each shall shake off his wine wherewith he was maddened.&#8212;11. I will go to gather them, like children:&#160; that they may play the wanton and the madman, until they perish.&#8212;12. Lo! I have revealed to you the mystery, the secret of my comrade:&#160; go forth therefore, depart, amend, in repentance.&#8212;13. Leave me, I too will depart, I will see to my affairs:&#160; that with open face I may give my account to my Lord.&#8212;14. I know that the wind as it blew, has borne away my words:&#160; for ye are the same whom I, ofttimes have proved.&#8212;15. I remember Jeremiah how he, compared boldness:&#160; to the Indian who changes not his skin, though it is of freedom.&#8212;16. For this too belongs to it, even to freedom:&#160; that it binds itself by the will, as though by nature.&#8212;17. For so powerful is the will, in them that are free:&#160; that it may be likened to nature, through its workings.