4 OUR HYMNS !
work. This large work is to vindicate the claims of the Scrip tures, and to teach Clement s philosophy as he built it on Christianity. Many quotations are given from the ancients, and along with much Christian truth there are traces of philosophic mysticism and Gnostic error. Eusebius also speaks of Clement s " Eight books of Institutions " as giving important information about the authorship, and other particulars, of several of the books of Scripture.
" Shepherd of tender youth." No. 975.
This is a very free rendering of the hymn, handed down as the production of Clement. The original is a catalogue of epithets applied to Christ. That this rendering is not close to the original may be seen by comparing the translation of a recent author, who gives the first lines thus :
" Mouth of babes who cannot speak, Wing of nestlings who cannot fly, Sure guide of babes."
It is to be regretted that in our rendering we have departed from the archaic simplicity of the original.
Some forms of expression and thought in this hymn, especially in verse three, may be explained by the author s career as a philosopher, and by his Gnosticising tendencies. He mentions it in his works to the praise of the Gnostics, that they praised God both in their hearts and in frequent songs. But the hymn is chiefly to be valued as the poetic tribute of one who, dis appointed elsewhere, found the " all " in Christ. The recent author, quoted above, truly says of this hymn " Through all the images here so quaintly interwoven, like a stained window, of which the eye loses the design in the complication of colours, we may surely trace, as in quaint old letters on a scroll winding through all the mosaic of tints, " Christ all in all." The literary connection of this hymn is with Clement s " Paedagogus" the guide or trainer of children. The warm sentiments of the prose essay find a suitable expression in this out-gush of Christian song.
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