The Shore: Stand Firm
Author: Luiken, Jan, 1649-1712
Image Title: The Shore: Stand Firm
Scripture Reference:
- Job 38 (further images / scripture text)
- Psalms 104 (further images / scripture text)
Description: A fisherman, sitting on a basket and a man standing next to him regard the waves rolling in from the sea that has a rocky coast-line on the right. Several boats sail near the coast. The Dutch artist and poet Jan Luiken (1649–1712) was responsible for drawing this emblem and composed the poem that accompanies it. The etching was executed by Jan Luiken or his son Casper Luiken (1672-1708), who had used this image in an earlier work, which may be found in the Digital Image Archive under the call number 1699Weig. The attendant scriptures are Job 38:11 and Psalm 104:9.
Motto: He who doesn’t fend off, will be conquered.
Poem:
No farther, said the high Coast;
And stops the raging of the waves,
Of the wild Sea, so restless,
Threatening awfully, with its dangers:
Thus the heavenly soul stops,
The World’s Sea, of great depths,
That Ebbs and Flows in flesh and blood,
And rests and foams with the froth of sins.
Vanity urges it on,
And the heart, exalted by the fear of God,
Makes it halt before its Boundary,
So the heart is not flooded.
If the border of any Country
Begins to retreat from flooding,
How active is the vigilant hand,
To protect his abode with dikes:
Likewise, with careful consideration;
So that the worthy country of Souls,
Would not go under in the Sea of sins,
Whose waves pounded it daily.
But where one shuffles and lets things go,
What disaster won’t be coming,
As the Eternal Ocean,
Is connected with the World’s rivers,
To put the Land that stood high,
Into a deep abyss.
(Translation by Josephine V. Brown, with editorial assistance from William G. Stryker)
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