XIX.

On the Death of a Presbyter.

(CANON XLIX., tom. vi., p. 303.)

"Oн my fellow ministers,"
Keep me in remembrance,
In the midst of the sanctuary;
For death hath separated me,
From your communion,

Which was a spiritual one."

Let it not be grievous to thee,

Oh our beloved brother,

That death hath removed thee from us;

For with the holy ones,

Thy soul shall be a companion,'

In the Day of the Resurrection.

From thy early youth

Thou, lord, didst take upon thee,

'The yoke of thy Master;

And He will make thee happy,

In the pavilion of light,

Which cannot be destroyed.

A spiritual talent,

The good servant

Receives from his Lord;

And he also pressed forward

To the reward of Victory,

In the Kingdom on High!

THE above is tetrasyllabic, in strophes of six verses.

a "My fellow ministers."

children of

my ministry. Although this phrase is not found in the Lexicons, the translation given is established by the kindred expressions, children of the city for fellow citizens, children of an inheritance for fellow heirs, &c. It may be seen in Cureton's text of the Festal Letters of Athanasius, page 1, lines 7 and 14.

¿ “A companion.”—literally a dweller, an inhabitant, if as pointed in the printed text, this is the participle pael, feminine, of 50 habitavit. But is a coenobite, from a monastery,

and from the way in which Ephraem's style is tinged with monastic ideas, it is probable is also a cœnobite: “Thy soul shall be a cœnobite with the holy;" i.e., shall have a common dwelling with them.

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Lord."-mor.—This word, like the Greek kúpios, is used by the Syrians as a title of respect. It is given especially to persons in high ecclesiastical stations, whether living or dead, and its use here may probably indicate that the hymn is for a departed Bishop, and not a Presbyter; but this is not certain. On this word, Michaelis, in Castell, has this observation, “ mor, non nisi orthodoxorum nominibus præponant; hereticis, quantumvis etiam sint clari et illustres, denegent;” a fate similar to that which our word Reverend sometimes meets with.

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d "As each one hath profited.”—All the leading words in this strophe are the same as those employed in the passage referred to Matt. xxv. 14.

e "The reward of Victory."-In no Lexicon is this rendering given to although Schaaf quotes it in 1 Cor. ix. 24, one obtaineth the prize." Equally clear is this meaning in Phil. iii. 14, "that I may receive the prize."

f"Which Paul uttered.”—See Phil. iii. 14.

XX.

Necessity for Preparation for Death.

(CANON LX., tom. vi., p. 326.)

PITY me, oh Father! in Thy tender mercy,
And at Thy tribunal let Thy love be with me;
And make me to rise up from the dust,

In the day when Thy standard" shall be revealed.
Oh Father! whose loving-kindness formed me,
And who at the first fashioned our image;
Let Thy nod raise our bodies again,
In the day when the world is destroyed.

At the appearing of Jesus our King,
The buried of all ages shall stand up;
His living voice shall call loudly,
And awaken every sleeper;

What terror shall be to all men,

When the thrones are set in order!
How will the wicked be confounded,

And all be turned into hell !c

The Day of Judgment is at hand
And all faults shall be disclosed;
Who then can be pure in Thy sight,
In the hour when the books are opened!

For there are no penitents,
Nor offerers of supplications;
For that is the day of doom

In which no word nor speech is uttered!

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THIS very solemn production is hexasyllabic; a metre rarely used by Ephraem Syrus. Asseman says that he employed it, (Bib. Or., i., p. 61;) but Hahn had not met with an instance of it. He says, (Bardesanes, p. 45,) Hexasyllaborum versuum exemplum hucusque apud Ephraemum nondum reperi, præter fragmentum Hymni Bardesanitici." But the present is an undoubted instance of the metre. (See also Hymn XXI.) The strophes consist of eight verses, and the structure of the hymn is very perfect.

a "Thy standard.”—

signum, vexillum. It occurs in Matt. xxiv. 30, "Then shall be seen the sign of the Son of Man." (See Homily IV., note a.)

"Fashioned our image."-An evident allusion to Gen. i. 27. On that passage Ephraem says, By the power and dominion

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which he received over the earth, and all that it contains, man is the image of God, who rules over all above and all below." An enallage of person is used in this verse, “O Father who fashioned,” instead of "didst fashion." This, and a similar change of other persons and numbers is of common occurrence. Michaelis thus states the case:-" Syri alloquentes in secundâ personâ, post interveniens vel participium vel pronomen relativum, sermonem aliquando ex secundâ in tertiam deflectuntur."

с "Hell."- Va Sheol. The place of lost souls, more frequently designated as Gehennah.