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

1.&#160; Herein is a mirror to be blamed,&#8212;if its clearness is darkened&#8212;because there are spots on its substance;&#8212;for the foulness that is on it becomes&#8212;a covering before them that look on it.&#160; R.&#160; Blessed be He Who polished our mirror!

2.&#160; For that comeliness is not adorned in it,&#8212;and blemishes are not brought to view in it,&#8212;it is altogether a damage to comely things;&#8212;seeing that their comeliness gain not&#8212;adornments as their profit.

3.&#160; Blemishes are not rooted out by it,&#8212;likewise adornments are not multiplied by it.&#8212;A blemish that remains is as a loss;&#8212;that there is no adornment is a defect:&#8212;loss is met together with defect.

4.&#160; If our mirror be darkness,&#8212;it is altogether joy to the hateful;&#8212;because their blemishes are not reproved:&#8212;but if polished and shining,&#8212;it is our freedom that is adorned.

5.&#160; Twofold is the loss in defect,&#8212;for the hateful and for the goodly;&#8212;in that the goodly gain no crown,&#8212;and likewise the hateful get no adorning:&#8212;the mirror divides the loss.

6.&#160; Never does the mirror drive&#8212;by compulsion him that looks therein:&#8212;so likewise grace which followed&#8212;upon the righteousness of the Law,&#8212;does not possess the compulsion of the Law.

7.&#160; Righteousness was unto childhood,&#8212;its adorner of compulsion;&#8212;for when mankind was in childhood,&#8212;she adorned it by compulsion,&#8212;while she robbed it not of its freedom.

8.&#160; Righteousness used blandishment,&#8212;and the rod to deal with childhood;&#8212;when she smote it she roused it; her rod restrained frowardness, her blandishment softened the minds.

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9.&#160; [If one turn from the Gospel,] wherewith we are adorned to-day, my brethren,&#8212;to another gospel he is a child:&#8212;in a time of greatness of understanding,&#8212;he is become without understanding.

10.&#160; For in the degree of full age,&#8212;he has gone down to childhood;&#8212;and he loves the law of bondmen,&#8212;which when he is confident smites him,&#8212;and when he rejoices buffets him.

11.&#160; Whatsoever ornament is compulsion,&#8212;is not true but is borrowed.&#8212;This is a great thing in God&#8217;s eyes,&#8212;that a man should be adorned by himself:&#8212;therefore took He away compulsion.

12.&#160; For even as of His prudence&#8212;in its own time He employed compulsion,&#8212;so likewise of His prudence,&#8212;He took it away at a time&#8212;when gentleness was desired in its stead.

13.&#160; For as it is befitting to Youth,&#8212;that it should be made to haste under the rod;&#8212;so is it very hateful that under the rod&#8212;Wisdom should be brought to serve,&#8212;that compulsion should be lord over her.

14.&#160; Behold therefore how likewise&#8212;God has ordered my successions&#8212;in the pastors I have had,&#8212;and in the teachers He has given me,&#8212;and in the fathers He has reckoned unto me!

15.&#160; For weighed out according to their times&#8212;were the helps of their qualities;&#8212;namely in him in whom it was needful, fear; and in whom it was profitable, heartening; and in whom it was becoming, meekness.

16.&#160; By measure He made my steps advance:&#8212;to my childhood He assigned terror; likewise to my youth, fear;&#8212;to my age of wisdom and prudence,&#8212;He assigned and gave meekness.

17.&#160; In the frowardness of the degree of childhood,&#8212;my instructor was a fear to me:&#8212;his rod restrained me from wantonness,&#8212;and from mischief the terror of him,&#8212;and from indulgence the fear of him.

18.&#160; Another father He gave to my youth:&#8212;what there was in me of childishness,&#8212;that was there in him of hardness; what there was in me of maturity,&#8212;that was in him as meekness.

19.&#160; When I rose from the degrees&#8212;of childhood and of youth,&#8212;there passed away the terror that was first,&#8212;there passed away the fear that was second;&#8212;He gave me a kind pastor.

20.&#160; Lo! for my full age his food;&#8212;and for my wisdom his interpretations;&#8212;and for my peace his meekness;&#8212;and for my repose his kindness;&#8212;and for my chastity his gravity!

21.&#160; Blessed is He who as in a balance&#8212;weighed out and gave me fathers:&#8212;for according to my times were my helps;&#8212;and according to my sicknesses my medicines;&#8212;and according to my comelinesses my adornments!

22.&#160; We then are they that have disturbed&#8212;the succession and fair order;&#8212;for in a time of mildness&#8212;lo! we crave for hardness,&#8212;that Thou should rebuke us as though we were children!