87

O Jesus! scatter all our dreams,

And burst these chains of Night and Sin, Dissolve the guilt of all the past,

And shed new sunshine all within.

PRUDENTIUS, A.D. 348-424.

AGAINST SATAN.

HEL

ELP Lord! and bid begone,
That dark and savage one,
Man's deadliest foe and bane;

Satan! Why trouble me?
Guiltless of wrong to thee,
Murderer! begone amain!

Plunge in that deep of thine,
Fill it with thine own swine;

Matt. viii. 32.

For thou hast learned the way;

Those depths, as thou dost go,
Will hail thee from below;

So haste thee quick away!

From me, at least, take flight,

Lest with the Cross I smite

Thy head, and break thy spell:

All things thrill with the shock

Of its almighty stroke,

Which shakes both earth and hell.

GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS, A.D. 330, 389,

Composed within six years of his death.

H H

LXXXVIII

ΚΑΤΑ ΤΟΥ ΠΟΝΗΡΟΥ.

Resistite Diabolo et fugiet a vobis.

ἮΑΘΕΣ μὲν ἤλθες ὦ κάκιστ', ἀλλ' ἐσχέθης.
Ὡς καπνὸν εἶδον, ᾐσθόμην καὶ τοῦ πυρός.
Οσμὴ δριμεῖα, τοῦ δράκοντος ἔμφασις,
Σταυρὸν δ' ἐφίστημ', ὃς φύλαξ ζωῆς ἐμῆς,
Ὁς πάντα κόσμον συνδέων, Θεῷ φέρει·
Τοῦτον φοβηθεὶς, εἶκε μὴ πάλιν φανείς.
Καλεῖ μὲ ἄχραντον ἡ χάρις παραστάτην.
Πόσον πιέζεις δὴ με τοῖς κακοῖς; πόσον;
Ἐμοὶ θεὸς τέθνηκε, κ' αὖθις ἔγρετο.
Αἰδοῦ τὸ λουτρόν· εἶξον, ὦ βροτοκτόνε.

Ὡς ἡδονῇ με πρῶτον ἔκλεψας πικρά,

Οὕτω κακῶς με σήμερον κτεῖναι θέλεις.

*Απελθ', ἄπελθε· τῆς παλῆς γὰρ ᾐσθόμην,

Κἂν σῶμ ̓ ἔχῃς μου, τόν γε νοῦν οὐ πείσομαι.

GREGORIUS NAZIANZENUS, A.D. 383.

Opera Parisiis, 1840, Vol. ii. p. 956.

88

Resist the Devil and he will flee from you.

O! thou comest, Prince of Darkness!
Yet thou comest curb'd and bound:
From thy nether fires uprising,

I can scent thy smoke around,
By thy Dragon breath infected,
Looming from the dark profound.

'Fiend! the cross I raise against thee,
'Tis my life-guard and my sword,
'Tis the power this world that bindeth
To the sceptre of its Lord.

At this signal, cowering, trembling,
To thy darksome realm descend!
God hath called me, and installed me
As His servant and His friend.

'Wherefore then shouldst thou oppress me?
All thy labour is in vain,
Know'st thou, that Jehovah-Jesus

Died for me, and rose to reign?
Murderer! dread the engulphing waters,
Where thy herd ran down amain.

'Once thy poisoned cup of pleasure,
Thou didst mix for me of old;
And again the deadly poison,

To my lips thou fain wouldst hold.
Get thee hence! back from thy presence,
All within me shrinks and turns.
Though my feeble flesh thou troublest,
Yet thy touch my spirit spurns.'

GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS, A.D. 383.

89

COCKCROW.

Morning Hymn.

ETERNAL God, who built the sky,
Benignly ruling night and day!
By bidding light or darkness fly,
Thou dost our weariness allay.

The herald bird now hails the morn:

Lo! he has watched the live-long night, And like some wayside lamp forlorn, Mark'd here the midnight, there the light.

Waked by His voice, the star of morn
Begins to clear the darkling sky;
Fiends prowling hear that piping horn,
And scared, in troops adown they fly.

The land-bound sailor hears the call,

And sees the very waves grow tame.
Simon, the Rock, raised from his fall,
Dissolves in tears of grief and shame.

Up sleeper, then! and ope thine eyes,
Eager to seize the rising day;
The shrill reprover bids thee rise,

And chides thy drowsy dull delay.

His voice brings hope, and quiets fear,
Brings health where pining sickness lies;
It sheathes the midnight robber's spear;
It calls the fallen saints to rise.