{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/213/2130192.htm","path":"chr/ecf/213/2130192.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/213/2130192.htm","text":"1. If the head had not been right,\u2014haply the members had murmured:\u2014for when because of a perverse head\u2014the course of the members is put astray,\u2014they are wont to lay the blame on the head. R. Blessed be He who chose thee the pride of our people!\n2. If now on one that is all goodly,\u2014on it we lay our hatred;\u2014how much more if we were hateful!\u2014Yea even God though He is kind,\u2014bitter men complain against Him.\n3. Be like the head O ye members!\u2014Get repose in his purity\u2014and pleasantness in his tranquillity;\u2014in his sanctity renown,\u2014and in his wisdom learning!\n4. Get discernment in his mildness,\u2014and chastity in his gravity,\u2014and bounty in his poverty!\u2014As he is fully and altogether fair,\u2014let us be altogether fair with him!\np. 184 5. See ye how meted and weighed\u2014are his words and his actions!\u2014Take heed how even his steps\u2014keep the measure of peace!\u2014With all his might he holds the bridle of all himself.\n6. He was master over his youth;\u2014he bound it in the yoke of chastity:\u2014his members were not enticed by lust;\u2014for they were kept under the rod:\u2014his will he had in subjection.\n7. For he was ready beforehand for his degree,\u2014as he was ready beforehand in his conversation,\u2014as he laid his foundations securely.\u2014He became Head in his youth,\u2014when they made him preacher to the people.\n8. Excellent was he among preachers,\u2014learned was he among scholars,\u2014and understanding was he among the wise:\u2014chaste was he among his brethren,\u2014and grave among his familiar friends.\n9. In two abodes was he\u2014a solitary recluse from his early days;\u2014for he was holy within his body,\u2014and solitary within his dwelling;\u2014openly and secretly was he chaste.\n10. But although we my brethren\u2014have put astray those measures,\u2014and we have lost that savour,\u2014and have become teachers to ourselves,\u2014unto the perfection that called us.\n11. Yet that measure of Truth\u2014preserves itself in its vessel:\u2014Truth chose it because she saw it chose her;\u2014she has preserved in it her fragrance and savour,\u2014from the beginning to the end.\n12. The Head both chaste and grave,\u2014that was not wrathful nor hard,\u2014nor transgressed even as we did,\u2014set and kept his own measures,\u2014and cast a bridle on his thoughts.\n13. He gave example in his person,\u2014that as he kept the measure of his time,\u2014so was it meet that we should know our time.\u2014We have become strangers to our time,\u2014for we have been witless in the time of discernment.\n14. In the beginning the blast of the wind\u2014in its might chastens the fruit;\u2014then in the meantime the might of the sun:\u2014but when its mightiness is passed,\u2014its end gathers his sweetness.\n15. But we\u2014they that were first chastened us;\u2014and also they that came next rebuked us;\u2014and they that were last added sweetness to us:\u2014then when the time of tasting us arrives,\u2014great was our savourlessness.\n16. For we came to maturity,\u2014that we might wean the children from wantonness,\u2014and lead them to gravity:\u2014but our old age stood in need\u2014that we should be rebuked as youths.\n17. Accordingly he in kindness endured, nor did he make use of force,\u2014that he might increase honour to our old age:\u2014and even if it knew not its degree,\u2014let him be magnified who knew its time!\n18. And if one say that for the multitude,\u2014force and the rod should govern it;\u2014even as for the thief fear,\u2014and for the spoiler threatening,\u2014and for fools open shaming.\n19. Yet if with the head as first,\u2014the members had hasted to move as second,\u2014they would have drawn that which was third,\u2014and the whole body from the end\u2014would have followed after them.\n20. They that were second despised those that were first,\u2014and that were third those that were second:\u2014the degrees were set at naught one by another.\u2014While these within despised one another,\u2014they were trodden down likewise by those without.","title":"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 XV.","type":"page"}