Demonstrations · Part 14

15. In wisdom Thou hast made it, O my Lord, that it has laid bare our lust.--That the foolish should come to nought, and should not be encouraged,--Truth has withheld the crown.

16. On the tottering walls, whereon Thou hast given me victory,--the unthankful repay Thee, with sacrifice and libation, which provoke Thee openly.

17. If it were at that time, sacrifices had been offered;--there had been room even, for delusion to suppose,--that in these I was delivered.

18. Through the multitude of deliverances, Thou hast rebuked two things:--the delusion of graven images, and the teaching of magicians;--for in Thee, O my Lord, have I been delivered!

Hymn X.

1. My children have been slain; and my daughters that are without me,--their walls are overthrown, their children scattered,--and their holy places trodden down. R., Blessed is Thy chastisement!

2. The fowlers have taken, my doves out of my strongholds,--which quitted their nests, and fled to the caves;--in the net have they taken them.

3. After the manner of wax, that melts before the fire,--thus melted and dissolved, the bodies, of my sons before the heat--and the drought of my strongholds.

4. And instead of streams, of milk that used to flow,--for my sons and my little ones, milk fails the sucklings, and water the weaned children.

5. The suckling falls, from its mother and gasps,--because it cannot suck, nor can she give suck:--they breathe out their spirit and die.

6. How is it possible, that Thy grace can refrain--the welling of its stream, when it is not possible to restrain--the abundance of its flow?

7. And why has Thy grace, shut up its mercies,--and withheld its streams, from the people that cry,--for one to moisten their tongue?

8. And there was a pit, between them and their brethren;--like the rich man who cried, and there was none to answer,--to moisten his tongue.

9. And as into the midst of fire, the wretched ones were cast;--and heat in the midst of thirst, the fire was blowing,--and kindling upon them.

10. Their carcases were melted, and dissolved by the heat;--they that had thirsted gave in turn the earth to drink,--of the reek of their bodies.

11. And the fort that with thirst, had killed, its dwellers,--it drank in its turn of the flux from the corpses,--that were melted by thirst.

12. Who has seen a people--that were burning with thirst,--while there surrounded them a wall of water and they could not--moisten their tongue!

13. Surely with the judgment of Sodom, were my beloved judged,--and my children smitten, with the torment of Sodom;--though that was but for one day.

14. The torment of fire, though it be for one hour, O my Lord,--in lingering thirst, is a lingering death, and a subtle punishment.

15. After my sorrows, O my Lord, and my bitter sufferings,--this is the best comfort, wherewith Thou hast comforted me,--that Thou hast multiplied my afflictions.

16. The medicine that I hoped, it is sorrow decreed;--the binding up that I looked for, it is bitter calamity,--that it seeks to work for me.

17. And whereas I hoped to escape, from the midst of the storm;--worse for me is the storm in it, even in the harbour,--than that in the sea.

18. Whereas I thought in my folly, that I should anchor and escape--from the midst of the Gulf; my sins have cast me back--again into the midst of it.

19. Look, O my Lord, on my limbs, how the swords are thick in me,--and have left their mark on my arms; and the scars of the spears,--are planted in my sides!

20. Tears in mine eyes, and in my ears ill rumours,--wailing in my mouth, and mourning in my heart!--Add no more, O my Lord, to me!

Hymn XI.

1. Thy chastening is, as a mother of our infancy:--her rebuke is merciful, in that Thou hast restrained,--the children from folly, and they have been made wise! R., Glory be to thy justice!

2. Let us search out Thy justice; for who is sufficient--to measure its help? since by it the wanton--are oftentimes made chaste.--

3. Oftentimes Thy hand, O my Lord, has made the sick whole,--for it is the healer in secret of their diseases,--and the fount of their life.

4. Exceeding gently, the finger of Thy justice,--in love and compassion, touches the wounds--of him that is to be healed.

5. Exceeding mild and merciful, is her cutting to him that is wise:--her sharp remedy, in its mighty love,--consumes the corrupt part.

6. Exceeding welcome her wrath, to him that is discerning;--but her remedies are hated, of the fool who has delight--in the trouble of his limbs.

7. Exceeding eager is she, to bind the cut she has made;--when she has smitten she pities, that from between these two--she may breed healing.

8. Exceeding welcome her wrath, and her anger pleasant,--and sweet her bitterness, sweetening bitter things--that they may be made pleasant.

9. A cause of negligence is Thy indulgence to the careless;--a cause of profit, is Thy rod among the slothful--so that they become as traffickers.

10. The cause of our affliction, it is Thy justice;--the cause of our carelessness, it is Thy graciousness,--for our understanding has turned foolish.

11. Pharaoh hardened himself, because of Thy graciousness;--for when the plagues were stayed, his cruelties waxed strong,--and he lied to his promises.

12. Justice requited him, because he lied greatly against her,--even Grace her freeborn sister; yea she restrained him again--that he should not again provoke.

13. Rebuke, O my Lord, my guide, for it has been false as Egypt --my prayers testify, that I am not as she,--for Thy door have I not forsaken.

14. Let Thy cross, O my Lord, which stands, in my breaches that are open,--repair again the breaches that are hidden; for instead of those without,--those within have cleft me asunder!