The Hymns of Prudentius Part 10

For him the hairy skins of beasts Furnished a raiment rude and wild, As forth into the lonely waste He fared, an unbefriended child, Who dwelt apart, lest he should be By evil city-life defiled.

There, vowed to abstinence, he grew To manhood, and with stern disdain He turned from meat and drink, until He saw night's shadow fall again; And locusts and the wild bees' store Sufficed his vigour to sustain.

The first was he to testify Of that new life which man might win; In Jordan's consecrating stream He purged the stains of ancient sin, And, as he made the body clean, The radiant Spirit entered in.

Forth from the holy tide they came Reborn, from guilt's pollution free, As bright from out the cleansing fire Flows the rough gold, or as we see The glittering silver, purged of dross, Flash into polished purity.

Now let us tell, from Holy Writ, Of olden fasts the fairest crown; How G.o.d in pity stayed His hand, And spared a doomed and guilty town, In clemency the flames withheld And laid His vengeful lightnings down.

A mighty race of ancient time Waxed arrogant in boastful pride; Debauched were they, and borne along On foul corruption's loathsome tide, Till in their stiff-necked self-conceit They e'en the G.o.d of Heaven denied.

At last Eternal Mercy turns To righteous judgment, swift and dire; He shakes the clouds; the mighty sword Flames in His hand, and in His ire He wields the roaring hurricane 'Mid murky gloom and flas.h.i.+ng fire.

Yet in His clemency He grants To penitence a brief delay, That they might burst the bonds of l.u.s.t And put their vanities away; His sentence given, He waits awhile And stays the hand upraised to slay.

To warn them of the wrath to come The Avenger in His mercy sent Jonah the seer; but,--though he knew The threatening Judge would fain relent Nor wished to strike,--towards Tars.h.i.+sh town The prophet's furtive course was bent.

As up the galley's side he climbed, They loosed the dripping rope, and pa.s.sed The harbour bar: then on them burst The sudden fury of the blast; And when their peril's cause they sought, The lot was on the recreant cast.

The man whose guilt the urn declares Alone must die, the rest to save; Hurled headlong from the deck, he falls And sinks beneath the engulfing wave, Then, seized by monstrous jaws, is plunged Into a vast and living grave.

At last the monster hurls him forth, As the third night had rolled away; Before its roar the billows break And lash the cliffs with briny spray; Unhurt the wondering prophet stands And hails the unexpected day.

Thus turned again to duty's path To Nineveh he swiftly came, Their l.u.s.ts rebuked and boldly preached G.o.d's judgment on their sin and shame; "Believe!" he cried, "the Judge draws nigh Whose wrath shall wrap your streets in flame."

Thence to the lofty mount withdrew, Where he might watch the smoke-cloud lower O'er blasted homes and ruined halls, And rest beneath the shady bower Upspringing in swift luxury Of twining tendril, leaf and flower.

But when the guilty burghers heard The impending doom, a dull despair Possessed their souls; proud senators, Poor craftsmen, throng the highways fair; Pale youth with tottering age unites, And women's wailing rends the air.

A public fast they now decree, If they may thus Christ's anger stay: No food they touch: each haughty dame Puts silken robes and gems away, In sable garbed, and ashes casts Upon her tresses' disarray.

In dark and squalid vesture clad The Fathers go: the mourning crowd Dons rough attire: in s.h.a.ggy skins Enwrapped, fair maids their faces shroud With dusky veils, and boyish heads E'en to the very dust are bowed.

The King tears off his jewelled brooch And rends the robe of Coan hue; Bright emeralds and l.u.s.trous pearls Are flung aside, and ashes strew The royal head, discrowned and bent, As low he kneels G.o.d's grace to sue.

None thought to drink, none thought to eat; All from the table turned aside, And in their cradles wet with tears Starved babes in bitter anguish cried, For e'en the foster-mother stern To little lips the breast denied.

The very flocks are closely penned By careful hands, lest they should gain Sweet water from the babbling stream Or wandering crop the dewy plain; And bleating sheep and lowing kine Within their barren stalls complain.

Moved by such penitence, full soon G.o.d's grace repealed the stern decree And curbed His righteous wrath; for aye, When man repents, His clemency Is swift to pardon and to hear His children weeping bitterly.

Yet wherefore of that bygone race Should we anew the story tell?

For Christ's pure soul by fasting long The clogging bonds of flesh did quell; He Whom the prophet's voice foretold As G.o.d WITH US, Emmanuel.

Man's body--frail by nature's law And bound by pleasure's easy chain-- He freed by virtue's strong restraint, And gave it liberty again: He broke the bonds of flesh, and l.u.s.t Was driven from his old domain.

Deep in the inhospitable wild For forty days He dwelt alone Nor tasted food, till, thus prepared, All human weakness overthrown By fasting's power, His mortal frame Rejoiced the spirit's sway to own.

The Adversary, marvelling To see this creature of a day Endure such toil, spent all his guile To learn if G.o.d in human clay Had come indeed; but soon rebuked Behind His back fled shamed away.

Therefore let each with all his might Follow the way the Master taught, The law of consecrated life Which Christ unto His servants brought; Till, with the l.u.s.ts of flesh subdued, The spirit reigns o'er act and thought.

'Tis this our jealous foe abhors, 'Tis this the Lord of earth and sky Approves; by this the soul is made Thy holy altar, G.o.d Most High: Faith stirs within the slumbering heart And sin's corroding power must fly.

Swifter than water quenches fire, Swifter than suns.h.i.+ne melts the snow, Crushed out by soul-restoring fast Vanish the sins that rankly grow, If hand in hand with Abstinence Sweet Charity doth ever go.

This too is Virtue's n.o.ble task, To clothe the naked, and to feed The dest.i.tute, with kindly care To visit sufferers in their need; For king and beggar each must bear The lot by changeless Fate decreed.

Happy the man whose good right hand Seeks but G.o.d's praise, and flings his gold Broadcast, nor lets his left hand know The gracious deed; for wealth untold Shall crown him through eternal years With usury an hundredfold.

VIII. HYMNUS POST IEIUNIUM

Christe servorum regimen tuorum, mollibus qui nos moderans habenis leniter frenas facilique septos lege coerces:

ipse c.u.m portans onus inpeditum 5 corporis duros tuleris labores, maior exemplis famulos remisso dogmate palpas.

Nona submissum rotat hora solem partibus vixdum tribus evolutis, 10 quarta devexo superest in axe portio lucis.

Nos brevis voti dape vindicata solvimus festum fruimurque mensis adfatim plenis, quibus inbuatur 15 p.r.o.na voluptas.

Tantus aeterni favor est magistri, doctor indulgens ita nos amico lactat hortatu, levis obsequela ut mulceat artus. 20

Addit et, ne quis velit invenusto sordidus cultu lacerare frontem, sed decus vultus capitisque pexum comat honorem.

Terge ieiunans, ait, omne corpus, 25 neve subducto faciem rubore luteus tinguat color aut notetur pallor in ore.

Rectius laeto tegimus pudore, quidquid ad cultum Patris exhibemus: 30 cernit occultum Deus et latentem munere donat.

Ille ovem morbo residem gregique perditam sano male dissipantem vellus adfixis vepribus per hirtae 35 devia silvae.

Inpiger pastor revocat lupisque gestat exclusis humeros gravatus, inde purgatam revehens aprico reddit ovili: 40

Reddit et pratis viridique campo, vibrat inpexis ubi nulla lappis spina, nec germen sudibus perarmat carduus horrens:

Sed frequens palmis nemus et reflexa 45 vernat herbarum coma, tum perennis gurgitem vivis vitreum fluentis laurus ob.u.mbrat.

Hisce pro donis tibi, fide pastor, servitus quaenam poterit rependi? 50 nulla conpensant pretium salutis vota precantum.

Quamlibet spreto sine more pastu sponte confectos tenuemus artus, teque contemptis epulis rogemus 55 nocte dieque;

Vincitur semper minor obsequentum cura, nec munus genitoris aequat, frangit et cratem luteam laboris grandior usus. 60