石頭的呼喊
斯同
在英國泰晤士河南岸,坐落着王室的溫莎城堡。邊緣上,卻是貧窮的平民,還溷聚着不少痞賴。斯同(John Samuel Stone, 1839-1900)牛津大學畢業的青年,在這裏的聖公會,開始他的事奉。斯同在校時酷愛運動,還是划船隊長。他性向勇武,一度有志於軍伍,到底還是奉獻作基督的精兵。
有一天,走在街上,斯同聽到婦女呼救,原來是三名惡少,試圖凌辱單獨的少女。他不假思索,奮勇上前;一出拳將首名少年擊倒在地,另一人被抓住立即求饒,其同黨則乘機奔逃。這一義舉,贏得當地人的敬愛,也顯出其嫉惡如仇,見義勇為,不計自身安危的性格。
科倫蘇主教
他牧養的教會,會眾多是簡樸的信徒,也不能超然出世;只是他們的教育水準不高。因此,斯同把使徒信經十二則,作成詩歌,詞彙簡單,而韻律嚴正,以便於記憶。這也是當年的米蘭主教安波羅修,在敵擋亞流派皇后時所作的,與“寓教於娛”原則相同,成為信條聖詩(Lyra Fidelium)系列。其九“教會唯一的根基”(The Church’s One Foundation),由查理衛斯理之孫Samuel Sebastian Wesley譜曲(作曲者取Johann Sebastian Bach之名,由於其景仰此著名聖樂世家。)含七節。(附一)詩集於1866年出版。
1867年,英國聖公會坎特伯里大主教(Charles Longley, 1794-1868)在其Lambeth Palace召集聚會“for brotherly counsel & encouragement”,大主教為宅邸主人並第一主教;斯同既無意廁身政治,也淡泊名利,並非主教團成員,但在此次聚會中,以同唱這青年詩人“教會唯一的根基”詩歌開始,實表明對作者認可的意義。至今仍然彷彿可感受其激揚的屬靈氣氛。會議通過解除科倫蘇主教職位。以後,Lambeth聚會發展為聖公會團契。
1870年,斯同移任聖保羅海格斯屯(St. Paul’s Haggerston),教區在倫敦市郊,那時是工廠和貧民區。斯同不僅擅於登壇說教,也不是石頭心,體會人的疾苦;每見女工們在早晨麇集紡織廠前,等候工廠開門,同情他們遠來不易,於清晨六時半即敞開教堂的門,請他們進來,有短講勉勵及禱告,讓他們在美輪美奐的教堂內,休息,讀經或自己作些女紅,享受主翅膀下的真正溫暖,開工時間到再去作工。斯同還有許多這類關懷貧苦,服務群眾的事,深獲群眾的歡迎,而贏得“窮人牧師”(The Poor man’s Pastor)的稱號。這多麼像耶穌的事奉,傳福音給貧窮的人!
今天世道淪喪,愈趨愈下,魔鬼見自己的時候不多,變本加厲,努力引誘擄掠人的靈魂。教會則無動於衷,淡漠處之。在信仰上,職業宗教家,以逢迎富貴,奔競豪門為能事;復自求多福,甘願作啞巴狗。更可憐的,是本身不明白真理;亞里斯多德(Aristotle)說:“通國皆瞎子,獨眼也稱王。”可是有些領袖,也在瞎子之列,卻自稱有三隻眼睛,智慧通天;或他的親信極其精明,足以獨當大任,用不着其餘的人操心。如此就很難辦事了。
詩篇之中有十一篇“訓誨詩”,題首記明大衛者有7:32, 52, 53, 54, 55, 78, 142;“可拉後裔”3:42, 44, 45;記“可拉後裔”並“希幔”者88。雖然詩篇多具有訓誨的功能,這些冠名訓誨的詩篇,似乎勉勵受眾建立信仰與生活的聯繫。
斯同不僅寫了聖詩,也寫抒情詩,有的還語含諷刺,其中包括傳奇,牧野,敘述,紀事,記念,幽默,和十四行詩等,非常廣泛。不過,總是蘊涵屬靈的意義,是以不同的形式,把福音帶到教堂的牆外。例如:“理性雛雞的獨白”(附二),可以達到勃朗寧“獨白”的水平,而兼有隋弗特的韻味。
今天的信徒,還沒有都淪落到背道離經的地步,只是對於聖工的淡漠,特別在品質上缺乏興趣,也包括忽略信仰與文工。緬懷斯同的詩作,看現代教會音樂,幾乎盡以發表人的情緒,嚴重忽略教導與敬畏,是多麼不同,效果也可以想見。
今天斯同的聲音在哪裏?
附一:
教會唯一的根基
The Church’s One Foundation
教會唯一的根基
耶穌基督為主。
本是祂的新創造
藉水和道而出。
主從天降臨尋她
作聖潔的新婦;
為她得生而受死
流血使她得贖。
The Church’s one foundation
Is Jesus Christ her Lord,
She is His new creation
By water and the Word.
From heaven He came and sought her
To be His holy bride;
With His own blood He bought her
And for her life He died.
教會蒙召自萬邦,
主內成為一身;
同蒙救恩的憑證,
一主一生一信;
唯一聖名同尊崇,
同一聖糧同享,
持守同一的盼望,
賴主諸般厚恩。
She is from every nation,
Yet one o’er all the earth;
Her charter of salvation,
One Lord, one faith, one birth;
One holy Name she blesses,
Partakes one holy food,
And to one hope she presses,
With every grace endued.
教會永不能毀壞,
親愛的主護持,
引導供應並眷愛,
同在直到末期:
雖不乏人恨教會,
圈中虛假之子,
教會永遠會得勝
克服叛徒仇敵。
The Church shall never perish!
Her dear Lord to defend,
To guide, sustain, and cherish,
Is with her to the end:
Though there be those who hate her,
And false sons in her pale,
Against both foe or traitor
She ever shall prevail.
受世人嚴酷迫害,
成為嘲笑戲景;
異端侵害她健康,
復有宗派分爭:
守望聖徒呼求問:
“何時才到天明?”
一夜哀哭快過去,
早晨歡樂歌聲。
Though with a scornful wonder
Men see her sore oppressed,
By schisms rent asunder,
By heresies distressed:
Yet saints their watch are keeping,
Their cry goes up, “How long?”
And soon the night of weeping
Shall be the morn of song!
受盡勞苦和患難,
復有紛擾爭戰,
等候喜樂的團圓
永遠享受平安;
直到榮耀的遠景
渴望成為眼見,
教會偉大的勝利
就是安息無限。
‘Mid toil and tribulation,
And tumult of her war,
She waits the consummation
Of peace forevermore;
Till, with the vision glorious,
Her longing eyes are blest,
And the great Church victorious
Shall be the Church at rest.
她在地上實聯合
與三一神合一,
她的安息已贏得
奧祕甜美團契,
與她所有的兒女
靠賴主的能力
引渡過死亡權勢,
安息伊甸美地。
Yet she on earth hath union
With God the Three in One,
And mystic sweet communion
With those whose rest is won,
With all her sons and daughters
Who, by the Master’s hand
Led through the deathly waters,
Repose in Eden land.
喜樂聖潔眾信徒!
求主賜恩扶助
我們也微弱卑下
在天與你同住;
越過高山的邉限
甘美蒙恩新婦
在活泉湧流原野
永遠和主安居!
O happy ones and holy!
Lord, give us grace that we
Like them, the meek and lowly,
On high may dwell with Thee:
There, past the border mountains,
Where in sweet vales the Bride
With Thee by living fountains
Forever shall abide!
附二:
理性雛雞的獨白
圖中一位初孵出的雛雞對着它脫除的破蛋殼沉思
頂希奇!
頂古怪,—雖然是頂好的改變!
幽暗的囚室,你已經消失!
我受拘禁的思想得到更廣闊的視野,
並且,就像我的雙腳,自由了;
不再那麼可憐的受限制:
現在自由的抓刨又尋索,探查並窺視,
去弄出那些隱祕。
作為一隻自由思想的雛雞能否活在懷疑?
無疑的,現在我就是:
重壓在我心頭這個問題,
我可不是那種虛飾或規避:
我不會盲目,我不能無視!
現在,我來探知;
首先,我要曉得怎地進到那裏?
然後,我何在前時?
還有,我何不早些出離?
我得意!
就這三個謎(還多的是)
足夠叫我頭腦困疲!
不過,讓我再思。
我怎知道我曾在內裏?
現在,我反思,那是,我仍然保持,
在我自傲的底層,低於我的理智
想到我曾經託身
在那麼鄙陋悲慘的居室
如那老舊的蛋皮!
當然我不能!我怎會臥棲,
身體長喙和羽毛,腿距並兩翼,
並我深心的華美心志,
在那裏?
自從我宣告,任何我不能明白的,我絕不相信。
我是一隻雞,不會受你騙被你欺。
似是難以置信的,
我為一個思想陷入極深的失意。
我從哪裏來?啊,哪裏,到底?
這是一團謎,極難作解釋。
我有了!甚麽,當然地,
萬物都模鑄藉某種凝聚的能力
從太空中某處來的原子,
偶然的遇合在一起:—
如今,在此!
就如喙長在我臉上同樣清晰。
我聽到的是甚麽聲息?
我老母對我咯咯叫!她的老脾氣,
我稱那麼的偏執又無知;
時髦的智慧算為落伍被棄!
我不能尊敬任何老的東西。
聽她說:“我親愛的,你是個小傻瓜,
可憐,你確實如此!
在哪背上有塊蛋壳皮!”
多麼武斷!在我的背上,絕無其事!
我不相信它存在那裏;
因為我不能眼見;我在此宣示,
她所有哄騙出自愛惜,
我總不肯相信,除非親視確知!
The Soliloquy of a Rationalistic Chicken
On the Picture of a Newly Hatched Chicken Contemplating
the Fragments of Its Native Shell
MOST strange!
Most queer,—although most excellent a change!
Shades of the prison-house, ye disappear!
My fettered thoughts have won a wider range,
And, like my legs, are free;
No longer huddled up so pitiably:
Free now to pry and probe, and peep and peer,
And make these mysteries out.
Shall a free-thinking chicken live in doubt?
For now in doubt undoubtedly I am:
This problem’s very heavy on my mind,
And I'm not one to either shirk or sham:
I won't be blinded, and I won't be blind!
Now, let me see;
First, I would know how did I get in there?
Then, where was I of yore?
Besides, why didn't I get out before?
Bless me!
Here are three puzzles (out of plenty more)
Enough to give me pip upon the brain!
But let me think again.
How do I know I ever was inside?
Now I reflect, it is, I do maintain,
Less than my reason, and beneath my pride
To think that I could dwell
In such a paltry miserable cell
As that old shell.
Of course I couldn't! How could I have lain,
Body and beak and feathers, legs and wings,
And my deep heart's sublime imaginings,
In there?
I meet the notion with profound disdain;
It's quite incredible; since I declare
(And I'm a chicken that you can't deceive)
What I can't understand I won't believe.
Where did I come from, then? Ah! where, indeed?
This is a riddle monstrous hard to read.
I have it! Why, of course,
All things are moulded by some plastic force
Out of some atoms somewhere up in space,
Fortuitously concurrent anyhow:—
There, now!
That's plain as is the beak upon my face.
What's that I hear?
My mother cackling at me! Just her way,
So prejudiced and ignorant I say;
So far behind the wisdom of the day!
What's old I can't revere.
Hark at her. “You're a little fool, my dear,
That's quite as plain, alack!
As is the piece of shell upon your back!”
How bigoted! upon my back, indeed!
I don't believe it's there;
For I can't see it; and I do declare,
For all her fond deceivin',
What I can't see I never will believe in!
(同載於聖經網 aboutbible.net 之“天上人間”)