XXVIII. Bymn for the Lord's Day. (PARENESIS XLI., tom. vi., p. 499.) GLORY be to the GOOD Who hath honoured and exalted In the four regions of the world; In which were set in order, The heavens and the earth. On this our Lord arose, From the midst of the sepulchre, With power and might, And the strength of a giant ; And on it the holy Church, Adorns herself With illustrious priests Who minister to her. On this day will appear, The Lord, at the end of all things, Riding on a chariot, Of burning flame; As was once its state, At the beginning of all things. And concerning rewards.d And they shall collect together The dust of Adam," In the twinkling of an eye. From all regions, They shall come to judgment, And to a strict scrutiny; And to render a reckoning, And He will call the righteous Into the Kingdom, But send the wicked Into the midst of Gehennah ! The wicked in their actions, Will then resemble, An eye which is blind, They approach, they knock, And He shall say to them, For I know not Who ye are !" In that hour, When all tribes of men, Shall stand in need Of the forgiveness of sins; That Thy mercy may abound This world quickly Shall pass away, And its beauty be destroyed With all that is in it. Awake my beloved! And pray and intreat, A place for repentance : Before the Angel of Death Shall overtake us And we are removed From the present world : Let us be steadfast Every morning.— To thee be glory O Thou great in mercy! To the Father and to the Son And to the Holy Ghost, Let us offer up praise At all seasons! THAT this hymn was intended to be used on the Lord's day is plain from the first strophe. The metre is tetrasyllabic. It will be seen that the strophes are most unequally divided, without any principle being apparent as the foundation of the arrangement. The division of the printed copy has been followed in preference to any conjectural emendation. Even if the whole hymn were divided into strophes of eight lines, like the two first, the difficulty would be increased, since the sense would then be more violated than an artificial harmony of the parts now is. a "In the beginning."-The Syriac text of Genesis is here alluded to, for the word employed there and here, is not the usual expression for beginning. Thus in strophe 5, Lia the more common term, is used. b"Without form and void."-An exact copy of the words of Gen. i. 2, both in the Hebrew and the Peschito. Unless we imagine that Ephraem could read Hebrew, the Syriac version then in use was the same in this passage as our present copies. "At the beginning of all things."-From the very different genius of the two languages, it is impossible, without an offensive boldness, to translate from the Syriac into English, unless supplemental words are occasionally introduced, as in this instance. In the original there is an uniform number of syllables in each verse, and while it is not practicable to imitate this in a translation, it is thought more advisable to come somewhat near it by filling up of ellipses, than by retaining the extreme terseness of the Syriac. d" And concerning rewards.”—The word rendered rewards is so, the common meanings of which are, actio, factum, facinus, opus, res gesta, not one of which conveys the idea of reward, nor do the Lexicons hint at such a meaning. The text, however, seems to require such a contrast to vindicta, penal ties. So the Latin translator thought, who has, "ut parem improbis poenam, justis autem præmium et coronam reddant immarescibilem." Until the sense of reward is confirmed by other instances, the fourth conjugation, pretium constituit, he fixed a price, may be quoted. Arabic e سعر "The dust of Adam."-Meaning the whole human race; Adam |