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Hymns on Faith

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

23. Rhythm the Twenty-third

Speak on, harp, for silence is thine enemy; speak then whatsoever is to be spoken, for whatsoever we have no right to speak, if it be spoken, to the righteous it will be blasphemy. Unto the unbelievers is he nigh akin that dares to pry; on the very edge¹ of death the rash standeth, in that he hath left the faith in his disputations to go down and search into the Ocean² of hidden things.

Marvel not, my child, at what I tell thee. Take them, and compare³ them together discerningly. For the one denieth His Divinity, and the other searcheth how to depreciate God. The Lord of all is greater than all, as is His surname. They see by His Name that Lord of all who is greater than all. Who is there whose knowledge is great enough to feel after and mete out the Sea of all wisdom?

Cleanse the harp of thy soul from strife⁴! Let it not sing in thyself from thine own⁵, for self-will is death. Let not proud boasting speak in thee strains of mockery, for it is wholly mischief to thee. Tune then such strings as have become discordant by disputation: draw in the strains which go astray in vain searchings. Be first, my son, in the presence⁶ of the Divinity, and then shalt thou sing the praise of God, for then art thou a living harp and a reasonable. Liberty⁷ indeed thou hast in thy strings, and in thy words also, thou harp that from thy soul and from thy will singest unto thy God. Set thy soul then in tune, and sing without discord. Purify thy strains and sing unto us, but not of hidden things. Be a disciple to all the things revealed, speak fair things which are free of danger; weigh out then thy words, sounds which may not be blamed; weigh also and sing strains that⁸ cannot be reproved, and let thy song be, my son, comfort to the servants of thy Lord, and then shall thy Lord reward thee!

Do not, therefore, sing things hurtful to mankind, neither divide, by thy disputation, brethren at unity together: put not a sword, which this questioning is, among the simple that believe in sincerity. Sing not then unto God perversely in the stead of praise⁹, lest thou forget and sing iniquity. Sing like David to David’s Son, and¹⁰ call Him Lord and Son as David did! Do not dishonour¹¹ Father and Son at once! Neither again sing thou to the Father the reproach of His Son, lest thou sing to the Son too the dishonour of His Father, denying that He begat Him. That the Father is first, is without all controversy: that the Son is second, is without all doubt: as that the Name of the Spirit is third: so that thou shouldest not pervert the order¹² of the Names.

Make ye then disciples¹³, and baptize in the Three Names, that is, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. For the Name of the Son could not have come before the Name of the Father, that there might not be confusion¹⁴. But how and why this is so, is encompassed in¹⁵ silence. Far off from that silence, without it, be thou speaking of His praise. Let not thy tongue be a bridge for sounds, which letteth all words pass across it. Praise do thou send up to Him, as the tithing of thy strains! A waive-sheaf of words offer unto Him from thine imagination, hymns also as first-fruits, and send up clustered hymns thy tongue hath culled.

Notes

S. degree
p. 144, n. g.
S. take their comparisons
p. 177.
In R. xxii. to xxiii. adv. Hæres. Vol. ii. p. 485. St. E. dwells at length upon the tendency of heretics to originate doctrines and to call men after their own names. As the infinite variety producible out of the composition of a few notes occurs to him here, so the alphabet does there, as a “body perfect in its members from which we may not take away or add a letter;” and this he considers not only Marcion and the like to do, but virtually Arians and others who do not add to Scripture or take from it professedly. Of course St. E. insists upon the necessity of adhering to the Church’s teaching, see ii. pp. 489 and 493. and the decrees of its councils, p. 488. (below, p. 197, n. d.) while he admits such an infinite combination of texts in subordination to these. Vide on Athan. p. 233, a.
Eccles. 5, 1.
p. 122, n. k.
Tit. 2, 8.
This seems to allude to the Syriac version of ὀρθόδοξος, viz. [Syriac]: as if they took the δόξα in the sense of glory. The word ὀρθοδοξεῖν, however, occurs in Aristotle Eth. N. and ἑτεροδοξεῖν in Plato Theæt. §. 116.
Mat. 22, 45.
John 5, 23.
R. xl. §. 2.
R. xli. §. 4.
See contr. Scrut. ii. §. 8. The order of the Names of Each Person indicates the order of Procession. Vid. Petav. de Trin. vii. 6. §. 3. … See on R. xl. §. 2.
S. within