Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Ser. II, Vol. XIII:
Selections from the Hymns and Homilies of Ephraim the Syrian and from the Demonstrations of Aphrahat the Persian Sage.: Hymn I

p. 293

The Pearl,

Seven Hymns on the Faith.

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Hymn I.

1.  On a certain day a pearl did I take up, my brethren; I saw in it mysteries pertaining to the Kingdom; semblances and types of the Majesty; it became a fountain, and I drank out of it mysteries of the Son.

I put it, my brethren, upon the palm of my hand, that I might examine it:  I went to look at it on one side, and it proved faces on all sides.  I found out that the Son was incomprehensible, since He is wholly Light.

In its brightness I beheld the Bright One Who cannot be clouded, and in its pureness a great mystery, even the Body of our Lord which is well-refined:  in its undividedness I saw the Truth which is undivided.

It was so that I saw there its pure conception,—the Church, and the Son within her.  The cloud was the likeness of her that bare Him, and her type the heaven, since there shone forth from her His gracious Shining.

I saw therein His trophies, and His victories, and His crowns.  I saw His helpful and overflowing graces, and His hidden things with His revealed things.

2.  It was greater to me than the ark, for I was astonied thereat:  I saw therein folds without shadow to them because it was a daughter of light, types vocal without tongues, utterances of mysteries without lips, a silent harp that without voice gave out melodies.

The trumpet falters and the thunder mutters; be not thou daring then; leave things hidden, take things revealed.  Thou hast seen in the clear sky a second shower; the clefts of thine ears, as from the clouds, they are filled with interpretations.

And as that manna which alone filled the people, in the place of pleasant meats, with its pleasantnesses, so does this pearl fill me in the place of books, and the reading thereof, and the explanations thereof.

And when I asked if there were yet other mysteries, it had no mouth for me that I might hear from, neither any ears wherewith it might hear me.  O thou thing without senses, whence I have gained new senses!

3.  It answered me and said, “The daughter of the sea am I, the illimitable sea!  And from that sea whence I came up it is that there is a mighty treasury of mysteries in my bosom!  Search thou out the sea, but search not out the Lord of the sea!

“I have seen the divers who came down after me, when astonied, so that from the midst of the sea they returned to the dry ground; for a few moments they sustained it not.  Who would linger and be searching on into the depths of the Godhead?

“The waves of the Son are full of blessings, and with mischiefs too.  Have ye not seen, then, the waves of the sea, which if a ship should struggle with them would break her to pieces, and if she yield herself to them, and rebel not against them, then she is preserved?  In the sea all the Egyptians were choked, though they scrutinised p. 294 it not, and, without prying, the Hebrews too were overcome upon the dry land, and how shall ye be kept alive?  And the men of Sodom were licked up by the fire, and how shall ye prevail?

“At these uproars the fish in the sea were moved, 519 and Leviathan also.  Have ye then a heart of stone that ye read these things and run into these errors?  O great fear that justice also should be so long silent!” 520

4.  “Searching is mingled with thanksgiving, and whether of the two will prevail?  The incense of praise riseth along with the fume of disputation from the tongue, and unto which shall we hearken?  Prayer and prying [come] from one mouth, 521 and which shall we listen to?

“For three days was Jonah a neighbour [of mine] in the sea:  the living things that were in the sea were affrighted, [saying,] “Who shall flee from God?  Jonah fled, and ye are obstinate at your scrutiny of Him!”

Footnotes

Hos. 4:3, Zeph. 1:3.

Eccles. viii. 11.

James iii. 10.