Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume XIII/Ephraim the Syrian and Aphrahat/The Pearl/Hymn V

1.&#160; O gift that camest up without price with the diver!&#160; Thou laidest hold upon this visible light, that without price rises for the children of men:&#160; a parable of the hidden One that without price gives the hidden Dayspring!

And the painter too paints a likeness of thee with colours.&#160; Yet by thee is faith painted in types and emblems for colours, and in the place of the image by thee and thy colours is thy Creator painted.

O thou frankincense without smell, who breathest types from out of thee! thou art not to be eaten, yet thou givest a sweet smell unto them that hear thee! thou art not to be drunk, yet by thy story, a fountain of types art thou made unto the ears!

2.&#160; It is thou which art great in thy littleness, O pearl!&#160; Small is thy measure and little thy compass with thy weight; but great is thy glory:&#160; to that crown alone in which thou art placed, there is none like.

And who hath not perceived of thy littleness, how great it is; if one despises thee and throws thee away, he would blame himself for his clownishness, for when he saw thee in a king&#8217;s crown he would be attracted to thee.

3.&#160; Men stripped their clothes off and dived and drew thee out, pearl!&#160; It was not kings that put thee before men, but those naked ones who were a type of the poor and the fishers and the Galileans.

For clothed bodies were not able to come to thee; they came that were stript as children; they plunged their bodies and came down to thee; and thou didst much desire them, and thou didst aid them who thus loved thee.

Glad tidings did they give for thee:&#160; their tongues before their bosoms did the poor [fishers] open, and produced and showed the new riches among the merchants:&#160; upon the wrists of men they put thee as a medicine of life.

4.&#160; The naked ones in a type saw thy rising again by the sea-shore; and by the side of the lake they, the Apostles of a truth, saw the rising again of the Son of thy Creator.&#160; By thee and by thy Lord the sea and the lake were beautified.

The diver came up from the sea and put on his clothing; and from the lake too Simon Peter came up swimming and put on his coat; clad as with coats, with the love of both of you, were these two.

5.&#160; And since I have wandered in thee, pearl, I will gather up my mind, and by having contemplated thee, would become like thee, in that thou art all gathered up into thyself; and as thou in all times art one, one let me become by thee!

Pearls have I gathered together that I might make a crown for the Son in the place of stains which are in my members.&#160; Receive my offering, not that Thou art shortcoming; it is because of mine own shortcoming that I have offered it to Thee.&#160; Whiten my stains!

This crown is all spiritual pearls, which instead of gold are set in love, and instead of ouches in faith; and instead of hands, let praise offer it up to the Highest!