The Hymns of Prudentius Part 16

The rolling wheels of Time had pa.s.sed O'er their millennial journey vast, Before in judgment clad He came Unto the world long steeped in shame.

The purblind souls of mortals cra.s.s Had trusted G.o.ds of stone and bra.s.s, To things of nought their worship paid And senseless blocks of wood obeyed.

And thus employed, they fell below The sway of man's perfidious foe: Plunged in the smoky sheer abyss They sank bereft of their true bliss.

But that sore plight of ruined man Christ's pity could not lightly scan: Nor let G.o.d's building n.o.bly wrought Ingloriously be brought to nought.

He wrapped Him in our fleshly guise, That from the tomb He might arise, And man released from death's grim snare Home to His Father's bosom bear.

This is the day of Thy dear birth, The bridal of the heaven and earth, When the Creator breathed on Thee The breath of pure humanity.

Ah! glorious Maid, dost thou not guess What guerdon thy chaste soul shall bless, How by thy ripening pangs is bought An honour greater than all thought?

O what a load of joy untold Thy womb inviolate doth hold!

Of thee a golden age is born, The brightness of the earth's new morn!

Hearken! doth not the infant's wail The universal springtide hail?

For now the world re-born lays by Its gloomy, frost-bound apathy.

Methinks in all her rustic bowers The earth is spread with cl.u.s.tering flowers: Odours of nard and nectar sweet E'en o'er the sands of Syrtes fleet.

All places rough and deserts wild Have felt from far Thy coming, Child: Rocks to Thy gentle empire bow And verdure clothes the mountain brow.

Sweet honey from the boulder leaps: The sere and leafless oak-bough weeps A strange rich attar: tamarisks too Of balsam pure distil the dew.

Blessed for ever, cradle dear, The lowly stall, the cavern drear!

Men to this shrine, Eternal King, With dumb brutes adoration bring.

The ox and a.s.s in homage low Obedient to their Maker bow: Bows too the unlearn'd heartless crowd Whose minds the sensual feast doth cloud.

Though, by the faithful Spirit impelled, Shepherds and brutes, unreasoning held, Yea, folk that did in darkness dwell Discern their G.o.d in His poor cell:

Yet children of the sacred race Blindly abhor the Incarnate grace: By philtres you might deem them lulled Or by some bacchic phrenzy dulled.

Why headlong thus to ruin stride?

If aught of soundness in you bide, Behold in Him the Lord divine Of all your patriarchal line.

Mark you the dim-lit cave, the Maid, The humble nurse, the cradle laid, The helpless infancy forlorn: Yet thus the Gentiles' King was born!

Ah sinner, thou shalt one day see This Child in dreadful majesty, See Him in glorious clouds descend, While thou thy guilty heart shalt rend.

Vain all thy tears, when loud shall sound The trump, when flames shall scorch the ground, When from its hinge the cloven world Is loosed, in horrid tumult hurled.

Then throned on high, the Judge of all Shall mortals to their reckoning call: To these shall grant the prize of light, To those Gehenna's gloomy night.

Then, Israel, shalt thou learn at length The Cross hath, as the lightning, strength: Doomed by thy wrath, He now is Lord, Whom Death once grasped but soon restored.

XII. HYMNUS EPIPHANIAE

Quic.u.mque Christum quaeritis, oculos in altum tollite, illic licebit visere signum perennis gloriae.

Haec stella, quae solis rotam 5 vincit decore ac lumine, venisse terris nuntiat c.u.m carne terrestri Deum.

Non illa servit noctibus secuta lunam menstruam, 10 sed sola caelum possidens cursum dierum temperat.

Arctoa quamvis sidera in se retortis motibus obire nolint, attamen 15 plerumque sub nimbis latent.

Hoc sidus aeternum manet, haec stella nunquam mergitur, nec nubis occursu abdita ob.u.mbrat obductam facem. 20

Tristis cometa intercidat, et si quod astrum Sirio fervet vapore, iam Dei sub luce destructum cadat.

En Persici ex orbis sinu, 25 sol unde sumit ianuam, cernunt periti interpretes regale vexillum Magi.

Quod ut refulsit, ceteri cessere signorum globi, 30 nec pulcher est ausus suam conferre formam Lucifer.

Quis iste tantus, inquiunt, regnator astris inperans, quem sic tremunt caelestia, 35 cui lux et aethra inserviunt.

Inl.u.s.tre quiddam cernimus, quod nesciat finem pati, sublime, celsum, interminum, antiquius caelo et chao. 40

Hic ille rex est gentium populique rex Iudaici, promissus Abrahae patri eiusque in aevum semini.

Aequanda nam stellis sua 45 cognovit olim germina primus sator credentium, nati inmolator unici.

Iam flos subit Davidicus radice Iesse editus, 50 sceptrique per virgam virens rerum cac.u.men occupat.

Exin sequuntur perciti fixis in altum vultibus, qua stella sulc.u.m traxerat 55 claramque signabat viam.

Sed verticem pueri supra signum pependit inminens, p.r.o.naque submissum face caput sacratum prodidit. 60

Videre quod postquam Magi, eoa promunt munera, stratique votis offerunt tus, myrrham, et aurum regium.

Agnosce clara insignia 65 virtutis ac regni tui, puer o, cui trinam Pater praedestinavit indolem.

Regem Deumque adnuntiant thesaurus et fragrans odor 70 turis Sabaei, ac myrrheus pulvis sepulcrum praedocet.

Hoc est sepulcrum, quo Deus, dum corpus extingui sinit atque id sepultum suscitat, 75 mortis refregit carcerem.

O sola magnarum urbium maior Bethlem, cui contigit ducem salutis caelitus incorporatum gignere. 80

Altrice te summo Patri haeres creatur unicus, h.o.m.o ex tonantis spiritu idemque sub membris Deus.

Hunc et prophetis testibus 85 isdemque signatoribus, testator et sator iubet adire regnum et cernere:

Regnum, quod ambit omnia diva et marina et terrea 90 a solis ortu ad exitum et tartara et caelum supra.