Library › St Ephrem the Syrian › Hymns on Faith

Hymns on Faith

St Ephrem the Syrian, tr. Morris, 1847; selections

13. Rhythm the Thirteenth

I WOULD keep my faith from the deceit¹ which hath burst up here, and which, while it confesseth the Father, denieth the Only-Begotten: and since the investigators have flown up to all the high things, in the Fort of Truth I would keep my faith. I came near to the Father, and He denoteth Himself by His Paternity²: I came near to the Son, and He hath blended³ Him in His Sonship: as hath the Holy Spirit also His holiness: in Him then do I also conclude the⁴ all-hallowing mystery! All faith which is not signed⁵ is error. Let us prepare ourselves for tribulation if it come, whether our spirit suffer, or our soul depart, or our body be burned⁶. Who shall overcome us? This is that which is written, neither height, nor depth, nor sword, shall be able to cut off our faith.⁷ Who shall cut off the glory-rays that cannot be cut off from the Sun of Truth. Upon the Three Names⁸ our baptism hangeth. In the Three Mysteries our faith overcometh. The Three Names our Lord gave to His Twelve, that in them we might find a refuge. The soul that is not sealed is like a⁹ wandering sheep: and that which is sealed in one name is also to be rejected, and that whose seal, being inadmissible, is stolen, it also strayeth. Blessed be He that hath sealed us for Himself! The doctrine is a treasury of the faith: the¹⁰ voice is the key, and the tongue as it were the treasurer. Never hath the faith ceased to set forth and yield truth unto the hearers¹¹. To silence are the trumpet and the faith strangers. Never did the trumpet mutter low in the secret chamber, and the faith also did never steal away and mutter the truth low in secret or in a hidden place¹².

Who ever saw [before] a tree which produced only a single fruit with this fruit singly upon it continually? Faith it is which hath Truth singly hung upon it: for Truth is one. Let not my tongue be silent or be bridled for the faith, let it ascend from my lips, Lord, as an offering unto Thee. Lo! from branches speaking or silent my tongue hath gathered it for¹³ Thee!

Notes

This is a word frequent with St. E. for heresy: see vol. ii. p. 490, d. 533, b. and comp. below, R. xxxvii. §. 3. Deceitfulness is a characteristic of all heresies, inasmuch as they come from the father of lies; but it is particularly noticed by St. Epiphanius, p. 923, b. Didym. de Trin. ii. 3. p. 131. St. Greg. Nyss. 470, b. &c. and St. Basil, p. 209, a. of the Anomœans.
S. sealeth His Paternity on Himself
See on R. l. fin.
S. have I bound up in Him
By ‘signed’ I believe he means which has the seal of the Trinity given at Baptism: see xviii. §. 2. and ab. note h. p. 87. The Anomœans innovated upon the form used at Baptism, as we see presently.
See xviii. § 2.
Rom. 8, 35. 39.
R. xxviii. §. 7.
Prov. 18, 10.
Col. 2, 3.
See R. xx.
This sentiment occurs again, R. xx. §. 2. The faith means probably the written form of it, the Creed which is a beacon to all—as fides is used in Latin and πίστις in Greek for a form of words.
See p. 79, § 21.