ODE 17.

A peculiar change of personality, scarcely realized until the return from it in the last verse .

1 I was crowned by my God: my crown is living:
2 And I was justified in my Lord: my incorruptible salvation is He.
3 I was loosed from vanity, and I was not condemned:
4 The choking bonds were cut off by her hands: I received the face and the fashion of a new person: and I walked in it and was saved;
5 And the thought of truth led me on. And I walked after it and did not wander:
6 And all that have seen me were amazed: and I was regarded by them as a strange person:
7 And He who knew and brought me up is the Most High in all His perfection. And He glorified me by His kindness, and raised my thoughts to the height of His truth.
8 And from thence He gave me the way of His precepts and I opened the doors that were closed,
9 And brake in pieces the bars of iron; but my iron melted and dissolved before me;
10 Nothing appeared closed to me: because I was the door of everything.
11 And I went over all my bondmen to loose them; that I might not leave any man bound or binding:
12 And I imparted my knowledge without grudging: and my prayer was in my love:
13 And I sowed my fruits in hearts, and transformed them into myself: and they received my blessing and lived;
14 And they were gathered to me and were saved; because they were to me as my own members and I was their head. Glory to thee our head, the Lord Messiah. Hallelujah.