{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/213/2130193.htm","path":"chr/ecf/213/2130193.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/213/2130193.htm","text":"p. 185 Hymn XVI.\n1. Herein is a mirror to be blamed,\u2014if its clearness is darkened\u2014because there are spots on its substance;\u2014for the foulness that is on it becomes\u2014a covering before them that look on it. R. Blessed be He Who polished our mirror!\n2. For that comeliness is not adorned in it,\u2014and blemishes are not brought to view in it,\u2014it is altogether a damage to comely things;\u2014seeing that their comeliness gain not\u2014adornments as their profit.\n3. Blemishes are not rooted out by it,\u2014likewise adornments are not multiplied by it.\u2014A blemish that remains is as a loss;\u2014that there is no adornment is a defect:\u2014loss is met together with defect.\n4. If our mirror be darkness,\u2014it is altogether joy to the hateful;\u2014because their blemishes are not reproved:\u2014but if polished and shining,\u2014it is our freedom that is adorned.\n5. Twofold is the loss in defect,\u2014for the hateful and for the goodly;\u2014in that the goodly gain no crown,\u2014and likewise the hateful get no adorning:\u2014the mirror divides the loss.\n6. Never does the mirror drive\u2014by compulsion him that looks therein:\u2014so likewise grace which followed\u2014upon the righteousness of the Law,\u2014does not possess the compulsion of the Law.\n7. Righteousness was unto childhood,\u2014its adorner of compulsion;\u2014for when mankind was in childhood,\u2014she adorned it by compulsion,\u2014while she robbed it not of its freedom.\n8. Righteousness used blandishment,\u2014and the rod to deal with childhood;\u2014when she smote it she roused it; her rod restrained frowardness, her blandishment softened the minds.\n9. [If one turn from the Gospel,] wherewith we are adorned to-day, my brethren,\u2014to another gospel he is a child:\u2014in a time of greatness of understanding,\u2014he is become without understanding.\n10. For in the degree of full age,\u2014he has gone down to childhood;\u2014and he loves the law of bondmen,\u2014which when he is confident smites him,\u2014and when he rejoices buffets him.\n11. Whatsoever ornament is compulsion,\u2014is not true but is borrowed.\u2014This is a great thing in God\u2019s eyes,\u2014that a man should be adorned by himself:\u2014therefore took He away compulsion.\n12. For even as of His prudence\u2014in its own time He employed compulsion,\u2014so likewise of His prudence,\u2014He took it away at a time\u2014when gentleness was desired in its stead.\n13. For as it is befitting to Youth,\u2014that it should be made to haste under the rod;\u2014so is it very hateful that under the rod\u2014Wisdom should be brought to serve,\u2014that compulsion should be lord over her.\n14. Behold therefore how likewise\u2014God has ordered my successions\u2014in the pastors I have had,\u2014and in the teachers He has given me,\u2014and in the fathers He has reckoned unto me!\n15. For weighed out according to their times\u2014were the helps of their qualities;\u2014namely in him in whom it was needful, fear; and in whom it was profitable, heartening; and in whom it was becoming, meekness.\np. 186 16. By measure He made my steps advance:\u2014to my childhood He assigned terror; likewise to my youth, fear;\u2014to my age of wisdom and prudence,\u2014He assigned and gave meekness.\n17. In the frowardness of the degree of childhood,\u2014my instructor was a fear to me:\u2014his rod restrained me from wantonness,\u2014and from mischief the terror of him,\u2014and from indulgence the fear of him.\n18. Another father He gave to my youth:\u2014what there was in me of childishness,\u2014that was there in him of hardness; what there was in me of maturity,\u2014that was in him as meekness.\n19. When I rose from the degrees\u2014of childhood and of youth,\u2014there passed away the terror that was first,\u2014there passed away the fear that was second;\u2014He gave me a kind pastor.\n20. Lo! for my full age his food;\u2014and for my wisdom his interpretations;\u2014and for my peace his meekness;\u2014and for my repose his kindness;\u2014and for my chastity his gravity!\n21. Blessed is He who as in a balance\u2014weighed out and gave me fathers:\u2014for according to my times were my helps;\u2014and according to my sicknesses my medicines;\u2014and according to my comelinesses my adornments!\n22. We then are they that have disturbed\u2014the succession and fair order;\u2014for in a time of mildness\u2014lo! we crave for hardness,\u2014that Thou should rebuke us as though we were children!","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 XVI.","type":"page"}