Terrible is the tribunal!

Terrible is the Judge, and that season!
Blessed is he whom Thy favour

Shall protect, oh Lord!

THIS interesting hymn is heptasyllabic and tetrasyllabic in alternate verses. The strophes, as divided in the printed text, contain ten verses each, except the two last, the former of which is deficient, and the latter redundant in the number of verses. There is either much confusion in the arrangement of these portions, or the harmony has to be elicited by rules as yet undiscovered.

a “My provision for my journey."-io 101 a viaticum, occurs in Gen. xlii. 25; in the English version, “provision for the way." (See Hymn XXIV.)

"A ship which cannot sink."-An evident allusion to 1 Peter iii. 21, "The like figure whereunto, even baptism, doth now save us," the ark being the type, baptism the antitype. It is true that the Textus Receptus by ♣ åvτítvπov, makes water the type, but the reading adopted by Tischendorf, è ȧvτíτUπov, allows the interpreter to refer to the ark as the emblem of baptism. The Peschito leaves the matter doubtful.

"In the day of the resurrection."-This strophe gives a succinct description of the views of Ephraem as to the state of the soul after death, which are alluded to and amplified in many of the hymns. A journey has to be undertaken, and the course leads to a sea or lake of flame, which must be passed before the resurrection is attained to. By the body and blood of Christ the fiery waves would be innocuous, and by the ship of baptism, the soul would safely pass the terrible abyss. (Compare Hymns XIII. and XXI.)

XVI.

On the Death of a Monk.

(CANON XVII., tom. vi., p. 262.)

His lips have sung

The psalms of the Spirit :"

Pardon his offences,

And let him shout aloud in Thy kingdom :"Glory be to Him who had mercy on me!"

He bore in early youth

Thy pleasant yoke :

Break off and cast from him

The fetters of sin ;

And make him happy in Thy tabernacle!

He voluntarily denied himself

The pleasures of a temporal home;"
And desired earnestly the dwelling
Prepared for the perfect :—

Unite him with the perfect ones!

He laboured to reconcile

Brethren who were angry with each other,

And brought them together

For good, in Thy habitation :

Let his dwelling-place be in Eden.

He ministered to his fellow-servants,

d

As Thou didst command him ;a

And made himself to be

The last of all men :—

Let him sit down at Thy table!

He confessed Thee, oh Lord,
Before the children of men ;

Confess him also

Before Thy Father:

According as Thou hast promised.

Do good to him in Thy loving-kindness,

And forgive his trespasses;

Thou who alone art good,

And the pardoner of offences :-
Forgive his trespasses!

Infirmities oppressed him
In the time of his old age;
Do Thou renew his youth

In the Eden of pleasures :

Give him life in Thy tabernacle !

And as even in old age

And bodily infirmity,

He was constantly devoted

To the service of Thy house :

Let him praise Thee with the upright!

THIS hymn is very exact in its composition. It is pentasyllabic, in strophes of five verses, the last being antiphonal. The syntactical construction is a little altered in the translation to avoid the use of the pronoun Him at the beginning of each strophe.

a "The psalms of the Spirit."-This sentence admits of two interpretations. It may mean the inspired Psalms, referring to those in the Old Testament; or it may signify spiritual songs generally, productions of a spiritual character, embodying the feelings of the heart. The expression ojo is in the Peschito version of Ephesians v. 19, for the ᾠδαῖς πνευματικαῖς of the Textus Receptus. Tischendorf omits πvevμatikaîs in his edition of 1841, but restores it in that of 1849.

"The pleasures of a temporal home."-The Syriac is more definite in its allusion to celibacy. Benedict translates :-" Cælibem, et quique a nuptiali hujus temporis thalamo abstinuit."

"For good, in Thy habitation.”—The desirableness of inspecting and comparing MSS. is illustrated in this verse. As it is divided in the printed copy the passage would read—

He laboured to reconcile

Brethren who were angry with each other

And brought them together

For good:

In Thy habitation let his dwelling-place be in Eden.

Besides the awkwardness of the sentiment of the last verse which this arrangement produces, it gives three syllables to the fourth verse and seven to the fifth, instead of five to each. Probably the soos in the fourth verse means the monastery or convent to which the deceased monk belonged:—he brought the brethren to a state of peace for good in Thy convent. This makes a good sense, and restores the harmony of the text, interrupted by the printed pointing. That 5005 means a monastery is undoubted. See Bernstein's Lexicon in loc., and Michaelis's note in Castell. Benedict evades the difficulty.

d"As Thou didst command him."-The reference is to Luke xxii. 26:-"Let him that is chief among you be as he that serveth," compared with verse 30:-" That ye may sit at my table," &c.

e "As Thou hast promised."-See Matt. x. 32. As Ephraem distinctly employs the sentiment of this text, it is worth examination whether he quotes the Syriac version accurately or from memory. The principal words of the sentence are found to correspond very closely with the Peschito, except that rendered Father. In the Peschito it is the word always used to designate the Father; in Ephraem it is genitor, the begetter ; which is only once found in the New Testament, 1 John v. 1; and is there applied to the Father only by a logical process :-"every one that loveth Him that begat." The way in which Ephraem was constantly occupied with doctrinal controversies, sufficiently explains his use of the rarer formula.

f"Forgive his trespasses."-The repetition of this prayer in one strophe, is a strong proof that the last line of this hymn is antiphonal.

9 “Do Thou renew his youth.”—Literally, make his old age young again.