Demonstrations · Part 4

And houses be yielded to the king;

Our goods and our gold let us leave;

So we part not from our faith!

Edessa is full of chastity,

Full of prudence and understanding.

She is clad in discernment of soul;

Faith is the girdle of her loins;

Truth her armour all-prevailing;

Love her crown, all-exalting.

Christ bless them that dwell in her,

Edessa, whose name is His glory,

And the name of her champion her beauty!

City that is lady over her fellows,

City that is the shadow

Of the Jerusalem in heaven!"

After all was thus restored to peace and orthodoxy, Ephraim withdrew to his retreat on the Mount, which he is not recorded to have again quitted, save on one occasion, to be presently related.

10. Penitent sent to Ephraim by Basil: Basil's Death.--The death of Basil (at the end of 378) is said by our author to have caused great grief to Ephraim, and to have been lamented by him in hymns. But (as will be shown below) this is hardly possible, even if the latest date for Ephraim's death be accepted.

Another miraculous incident connected with Ephraim's biography, belongs to the year of Basil's death. A woman of high rank, but of evil life, in Cæsarea, being moved to penitence, wrote on a paper a full confession of her sins, and gave it to Basil, who at her entreaty laid it with prayer before the Lord. Her repentance and his intercession prevailed so far, that the record of all her guilt disappeared from the paper, save of one sin, more heinous than the rest. Disappointed thus of her hope of full pardon, she had recourse again to Basil, supplicating that this sin too might be wiped out. He encouraged her to persevere in prayer, and advised her to repair to the Mount of Edessa, to Ephraim, and through him obtain her desire. To Ephraim accordingly she made her way, and cried to him, saying, "Have pity on me, thou holy one of God." When he heard Basil's advice and her petition, he disavowed all such power to prevail with God as Basil had ascribed to him, and advised her rather to hasten back and obtain her Archbishop's farther intercession. She returned accordingly to Cæsarea; but, as it seemed, too late: Basil had died before her arrival, and she met his corpse as it was carried to burial. In despair, she prostrated herself in the dust, proclaimed her story to all that stood by, and upbraided the dead saint, "Woe is me, servant of God! why didst thou send me far away that I should return too late and meet thee borne to the grave! The Lord judge betwixt me and thee, who hast sent me to another, when thyself couldst have absolved me!" One of the attendant clergy, desiring to learn what was the sin for which pardon was so hard to win, took from her the paper she held, and opening found it blank. The last and deadliest of her list had vanished like the rest: and "thus, by the prayers of Basil and of Ephraim, and by the woman's faith and perseverance, her sins were all of them blotted out."

After this occurrence, the History places the following narrative of Ephraim's last intervention in earthly concerns. It is related likewise by Palladius (Ephraim's younger contemporary) and by Sozomen.

11. Exertions in Relief of Famine.--In a season of severe famine, he ascertained that grain was being hoarded in the stores of certain persons who gave nothing to the starving poor. When he rebuked their inhumanity, they excused themselves on the plea that none was to be found of such probity as to guarantee fairness and honesty in the distribution of relief. Ephraim at once offered his services, and was accepted as their agent throughout the famine season, to dispense large sums as the treasurer and steward of their bounty. Among other things, he provided three hundred letters, partly for removing the sick to stations where they were duly tended, partly for carrying the dead for interment. A body of helpers worked with him in administering relief, and their care extended not merely through the city, but to the country and villages adjacent. The year of dearth ended, a year of plenty ensued; Ephraim retired to his cell,--this time to leave it no more. He died a month after the close of the charitable labours. Of them his biographer, following for once the better instinct which recognizes higher worth in services of love than in ascetic practices or in miraculous pretensions, writes thus:--"God gave him this occasion that therein he might win the crown in the close of his life."

12. His Testament.--In his Testament, which professes to have been composed in immediate anticipation of his end, he laid on his disciples a solemn charge that his body should be buried humbly, covered with no garment save his tunic (cothênô). Gregory of Nyssa adds that a rich friend who, though informed of his prohibition, had provided beforehand for this purpose a costly robe, was punished by the possession of an evil spirit, which tormented him until, on his confession, the dying saint relieved him, casting out the demon by prayer and laying on of hands.

From the extant Syriac of this document (which is metrical), the following have been selected as the most striking verses:

"I Ephraim am at point to die: and I write my testament;

That I may leave for all men a memorial: of whatsoever is mine,

That though it be [but] for my words: they that know me may remember me.

Woe is me, for my times are ended: and the length of my years is fulfilled;

The spinning for me is shortened: the thread is nigh unto cutting;

The oil fails in the lamp: my days are spent, yea, mine hours;

The hireling has finished his year: and the sojourner has fulfilled his season.

Around me are the summoners: on this side and that are they that lead me away.

I cry aloud, [but] none hears me: and I complain, [but] none delivers.

"Woe to thee, Ephraim, for the judgment: when thou shalt stand before the Son's judgment-seat,

And around thee they that know thee: on the right hand and the left,

Lo! there shalt thou be confounded: woe to him who is put to shame there!

Jesu, do Thou judge Ephraim: nor give his judgment to another;

For whoso has God for his Judge: he finds mercy in judgment;

For I have heard from the wise: yea, I have heard from men of knowledge,

That whoso sees the face of the King: though he has offended, he shall not die.

* * * * * * * * * * *

"By him who came down on Mount Sinai: and by him who spake on the rock,