The Loud Call
Author: Luiken, Jan, 1649-1712
Image Title: The Loud Call
Scripture Reference:
- 1 John 5 (further images / scripture text)
Description: A woman, sitting on the World, blows on a bassoon, around which a ribbon is slung with the words Help, Help, Help. In the background left are two men. The Dutch artist and poet Jan Luiken (1649-1712), whose initials are at the lower right, was responsible for drawing and etching this emblem and for the poem that accompanies it (below). The attendant scripture text is 1 John 5:14-15.
Poem:
He who sits on the Earth,
And wishes nevertheless that his sound,
Shall be heard as far as Heaven,
Sends it out through a Narrow passage,
Not to the right and the left, to all sides
In idle things of this time,
To graze in the vast sky,
Thereby becoming faint and scattered:
But if he would wring it from his heart,
Through the Narrow passage of God’s Holy Word,
Around all Godly things,
Then his voice will be heard by God.
Then he is like the one,
Who trumpets through a narrow Tube,
And carries his call far away,
Though the paths are narrow.
Sound, not born this way,
(Although God hears and sees everything,)
That He hears only in his anger,
But in his love he hears it not.
Constrain then so your open mouths,
Oh Men! who dwell on Earth,
So that thou found wise, and well,
Will indeed be crowned in Heaven.
(Translation by Josephine V. Brown, with editorial assistance from William G. Stryker)
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