{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/213/2130245.htm","path":"chr/ecf/213/2130245.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/213/2130245.htm","text":"(Resp.\u2014Blessed be thy Birth that gladdens all creatures!)\n1. The first year wherein, our Saviour was born,\u2014is source of blessing, and ground of life;\u2014for by it are borne,\u2014manifold triumphs, the sum of all help:\u2014as the first day of \u201cthe beginning,\u201d\u2014the great pillar of all creatures,\u2014bears the building of Creation;\u2014so the year of the Firstborn bears help for man.\n2. In the second year, of our Saviour\u2019s Birth,\u2014the Magi exult, the Pharisees mourn:\u2014treasures are opened,\u2014kings are hastening, and infants are slain.\u2014For in it are offered in Bethlehem,\u2014oblations precious and terrible;\u2014for while love made offering of gold,\u2014hatred offered infants by the sword.\n3. The day of the All-Lightening, exults in His birth;\u2014a pillar of radiance, which drives away, by its beams\u2014the works of darkness. After the type of that day, wherein light was created,\u2014and sundered the darkness that spread\u2014over the fair beauty of Creation;\u2014the radiance of our Saviour\u2019s birth\u2014came in to sunder the darkness that was on the heart.\n4. The first day the source and the beginning,\u2014orders the roots, to make all things grow.\u2014Our Saviour\u2019s day\u2014is praised far above it, a tree planted in the world.\u2014For His Death is as the root in the earth; His Resurrection as the head in heaven; on all sides His words reach as boughs; likewise His Body as fruit for the eaters.\n5. Let the second day, sing praise to the Birth\u2014of the second Son, and His voice which first\u2014commanded the firmament and it was made,\u2014divided the waters that were above, and gathered the seas that were under.\u2014He Who divided waters from waters, divided Himself from the Watchers and came down to man.\u2014For the waters which at His command were gathered.\u2014He cleft the fountain of life and gave drink.\n6. Let the third day weave with divers hymns\u2014the crown of psalms and with one voice present it\u2014for His Birth who gave growth\u2014of buds and flowers, on the third day.\u2014But now He the All-giver of growth,\u2014has come down and become the All-holy Flower; from the thirsting earth has sprang forth and gone up,\u2014that he may decorate and crown the conquerors.\n7. Let the fourth day praise, first among the four,\u2014His Birth Who created as the fourth day\u2014the two lightgivers,\u2014which fools worship, and are sightless and blind.\u2014The Lord of Lightgivers has come down,\u2014and from the womb has shone on us as the Sun.\u2014His splendours have opened the eyes of the blind:\u2014His rays have given light to the wandering.\n8. Let the fifth day laud Him Who created\u2014on the fifth day creeping things and Dragons\u2014of whose kind is the serpent.\u2014He deceived with guile our mother, a maid void of counsel.\u2014The deceiver who had mocked the maid,\u2014by the Dove was exposed as false,\u2014which from a virgin bosom sprang, and came forth\u2014the Wise that trod down the crafty.\n9. Let the sixth day laud Him who created\u2014on Vesper-day Adam, whom Satan envied; as a feigned friend\u2014cheered him in offering poison in his food.\u2014The medicine of life reached them both,\u2014put on a body and came near to both.\u2014The mortal tasted Him and lived through Him;\u2014the devourer who ate Him was left void.\n10. Let the seventh day hallow the Holy One,\u2014Who halloweth the Sabbath, and gave rest to all that live.\u2014The Blessed One Who wearied not\u2014has care for mankind, p. 262 and has care for the beasts.\u2014When Freedom fell under the yoke,\u2014He came to the Birth and became bond to make it free:\u2014He was smitten on the face by servants in the judgment hall;\u2014He broke the yoke that was on the free, as Lord.\n11. Let the eighth day, which circumcised the Hebrews,\u2014praise Him Who commanded his namesake Joshua\u2014to circumcise with a flint\u2014the people circumcised in body, while the heart was profane within.\u2014Lo! as the eighth day, as a Babe,\u2014to circumcision He came Who circumcises all.\u2014Though the sign of Abraham is on His Flesh,\u2014the blind daughter of Sion had defiled it.\n12. Let the tenth day sing, praises in its turn.\u2014For God the first letter of Jesus (goodly name!), is ten in numbering.\u2014He Who is as a lamb, turns back the numbers.\u2014For when the number goes up to ten, it is turned back to begin again from one. O great mystery of that which is in Jesus, Whose might turns all creation back again!\n13. The All-Purifier Firstborn in the day of His purifying,\u2014purified the purification of the firstborn and was offered 508 in the Temple:\u2014the Lord of offering needed offerings,\u2014to make offering of birds.\u2014In His Birth were fulfilled the types,\u2014in His purification and circumcision the allegories.\u2014He came and paid over debts in His coming down;\u2014in His Resurrection He went up and sent down treasures.\nSc., in the Presentation, St. Luke ii. 22.","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 XIX.","type":"page"}