PRELUDE.

Return! return! O straying Soul!
So far from Home, lost in a wilderness;
Where cunning deceit follows on your heels,
And weaves a net of luxury and fair appearance:
Just as in the forest a Fowler Vogelaar: a bird-catcher. In 17th-century spiritual art, the fowler was a common symbol for the Devil or worldly temptation laying traps for the innocent soul. goes wandering,
Lurking for the little Dove, deceptively whistling and flattering,
To pull the cunning Net over her head;
O poor Soul! so are you also led astray.
From hour to hour you come closer to misery;
What has so bewitched your understanding,
That you do not think of God, your dear Father,
And Paradise, your true Fatherland?
Do you belong here at home in this miserable life?
Consider well, whether you do not find yourself
To be an exile, driven from estate and land:
Open your eyes, and be no longer blind.
How mad you are, to run into destruction!
Your Bridegroom, the fairest who lives,
Calls you to him, with both his arms open:
It does not please him haagd hem niet: it does not please or suit Him; He takes no delight in your straying. that you thus wander and drift:
He loved you, and chose you for his Bride:
He bought your freedom; but not with worldly goods:
A higher price was destined for your salvation:
He gave for you, so generously, his own blood.
Is that a small thing? Can this not draw your will?
Can this love, in your chilled Heart,
Waken no flame, nor spark of mutual love?
What pain did he not suffer for your sake!
One who might have such a Lover, and Bridegroom, yes, King,
Would they so wretchedly and wickedly
Go wandering in eternity without a crowning,
As a Slave-woman? Slaavin: referring to the soul being enslaved to sin or worldly desires, rather than reigning as a "bride" in heaven. That pity were too great.
Yet it is time to return once more.
Be not dismayed, if someone speaks to you: