Odes of Solomon

Harris1911 source page 179

THE ODES OF SOLOMON I 35 Ode 37. A colourless Psalm, something like one of the shorter and more elementary Psalms of the Hebrew Psalter. The writer has cried to God : his prayer has been heard : his heart has appealed, and an answer has come. His work has been followed by Divine blessing. ODE 38. ■■I went up to the light of truth as if into a chariot: ^and the Truth took me and led me : and carried me across pits and gulleys ; and from the rocks and the waves it preserved me: ^and it became to me a haven of Salvation : and set me on the arms of immortal life : *and it went with me and made me rest, and suffered me not to wander, because it was the Truth; ^and I ran no risk, because I walked with Him ; ^and I did not make an error in anything because I obeyed the Truth. "^For Error flees away from it, and meets it not : but the Truth proceeds in the right path, and ^whatever I did not know, it made clear to me, all the poisons of error, and the plagues of death which they think to be sweetness: ^and I saw the destroyer of destruction, when the bride who is corrupted is adorned ; and the bridegroom who corrupts and is corrupted ; ''°and I asked the Truth, ' Who are these ?'; and He said to me, This is the deceiver and the error: 2joh. 7 "and they are alike in the beloved and in his bride: and they lead astray and corrupt the '"whole"' world : ''^and they invite many to the banquet, ""^and give them to drink of the wine of their intoxication, and remove^ their wisdom and knowledge, and '"so they"" make them without intelligence ; ""^and then they leave them ; and then these go about like madmen corrupting : seeing that they are without heart, nor do they seek for it. ^^And I was made wise so as not to fall into the hands of the deceiver ; and I congratulated myself because the Truth went with me, ""^and I was established and lived and was redeemed, ^^and my foundations were laid on the hand of the Lord : because He established me. ^^For He set the root and watered it and fixed it and blessed it; and its fruits are for ever. ^^It struck deep and sprung up and spread out, and was full and enlarged; ^Oand the Lord alone was glorified in His planting and in His husbandry: by His care and by the blessing of His lips, 21 by the beautiful planting of His right hand- : and by the 1 lit, they vumit up. '^ Is. Ix. 21.