Businesse
Tears and Sighs
The soul is called to abandon idleness and sin, and to respond with tears of repentance and sighs of compunction, for lesser pains avert greater ones.
Can you be idle? Can you play, foolish soul who sinned today? Rivers run, and every spring knows its home and makes its way there: do you have tears, or don't you? If, poor soul, you have no tears, I wish you had no faults or fears! Whoever has these forbears those ills.1 Winds keep working — that's their plot, whether the season is cold or hot. Do you have sighs, or don't you? If you don't have any sighs or groans, I wish you didn't have any flesh and bones!2 Smaller pains help you escape greater ones.3
The Savior's Life and Death
The soul is confronted with Christ's incarnation and death, which were undertaken for its sake, and is asked whether it will remain idle in response to such love.
But if you're still idle, foolish soul—who died for you?✦ Who left his Father's throne to take on your flesh and bone—did he have life, or none at all? If he had not lived for you, You would have died most wretchedly; And two deaths would have been your fee.4 He went so far in planning your good that he forgot himself. Did he die, or did he not? If he hadn't died for you, you'd have lived in misery.✦ Two such lives are worse than ten deaths.5
Worldly Loss and Spiritual Gain
The soul is challenged to consider that sin is a greater loss than any worldly treasure, and that only inward kneeling can make one aware of sin and the Savior.
And is there even a breath of space between his sins and the Saviour's death? Whoever loses gold, even if it's only dross, tells everyone he meets about his cross. Whoever sins—has he no loss? Whoever finds a silver vein keeps thinking about it, again and again: Doesn't your Saviour's death bring any gain? Anyone who never kneels in their heart feels neither sin nor Saviour.
Read the original English
CAnst be idle? canst thou play, Foolish soul who sinn’d to day?
Rivers run, and springs each one Know their home, and get them gone: Hast thou tears, or hast thou none?
If, poore soul, thou hast no tears, Would thou hadst no faults or fears! Who hath these, those ill forbears.
Windes still work: it is their plot, Be the season cold, or hot: Hast thou sighs, or hast thou not?
If thou hast no sighs or grones, Would thou hadst no flesh and bones! Lesser pains scape greater ones.
But if yet thou idle be, Foolish soul, Who di'd for thee?
Who did leave his Fathers throne, To assume thy flesh and bone, Had he life, or had he none?
If he had not liv'd for thee, Thou hadst di'd most wretchedly; And two deaths had been thy fee.
He so farre thy good did plot, That his own self he forgot. Did he die, or did he not?
If he had not di'd for thee, Thou hadst liv'd in miserie. Two lives worse then ten deaths be.
And hath any space of breath 'Twixt his sinnes and Saviours death?
He that loseth gold, though drosse, Tells to all he meets, his crosse: He that sinnes, hath he no losse?
He that findes a silver vein, Thinks on it, and thinks again: Brings thy Saviours death no gain?
Who in heart not ever kneels, Neither sinne nor Saviour feels.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Rom.5.8;1Cor.15.3;Gal.2.20 — But God demonstrates his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 1Cor.15.3 — For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. Gal.2.20 — I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
- ↩Rom.5.6-Rom.5.8;1Cor.15.3 — For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Rom.5.7 — For rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though for a good person someone might perhaps even dare to die. Rom.5.8 — But God demonstrates his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 1Cor.15.3 — For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.
Notes
- 1 ↩Dense Early Modern line: 'these' most naturally points back to tears (or to faults/fears from the previous line); 'forbears those ill' means refrains from / holds off those evils. Rendering keeps Herbert's compact deictic force rather than over-specifying the antecedents.
- 2 ↩Source 'Would thou hadst' is an optative wish ('would that you had'); rendered as a clear contemporary wish rather than archaic inversion.
- 3 ↩Source 'scape' = escape; the compressed proverbial sense is that lesser pains keep greater ones off, not that the lesser pains themselves flee.
- 4 ↩"Fee" keeps Herbert's legal/commercial sense of wages or payment due: without Christ's life for the sinner, the due would have been a double death (body and soul / temporal and eternal).
- 5 ↩Early modern 'then' = 'than'. 'Two lives' continues the previous line's misery of an unredeemed life: living that way twice over would be worse than dying ten times.
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