Demonstrations · Part 6

Bring whatsoever ye have vowed: to lay along with your brother,

Bring and set it before me: whatsoever ye my brethren have vowed.

While I have yet a little memory: let me set on it a price;

And let there be bought pure vessels: and let there be hired workmen therewith,

And distribution be made among the poor: the needy and them that are in want.

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"Blessed is the city wherein ye dwell: Edessa, mother of the wise,

Which from the living mouth of the Son: was blessed by His Disciple.

This blessing shall abide in her: until the Holy One shall be revealed.

"Whoso withholds from me aught that he has vowed: shall die the death of Ananias,

Who sought to deceive the Apostles: and was stretched [dead] before their feet.

"Whoso carries before me a taper: may his fire be kindled beside him!

For to what end avails fire: for him whose fire is from himself?

For when the visible fire is kindled: in it is consumed the secret fire.

Sufficient for me is the pain without: add ye not to me that which is within.

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"Lay me not with sweet spices: for this honour avails me not;

Nor yet incense and perfumes: for the honour benefits me not.

Burn sweet spices in the Holy Place: and me, even me, conduct to the grave with prayer.

Give ye incense to God: and over me send up hymns.

Instead of perfumes of spices: in prayer make remembrance of me.

What can goodly odour profit: to the dead who cannot perceive it?

Bring them in and burn them in the Holy Place: that they which enter in may smell the savour.

Wrap thou not the fetid dung: in silk that profits it not.

Cast it down upon the dunghill: for it cannot perceive honour [done to it].

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"Lay me not in your sepulchres: for your magnificence profits me not;

For I have a covenant with God: that I shall be buried with strangers.

I am a stranger, as they were: with them, O my brethren, lay me!

For every bird loves its kind: and man loves him that is like himself.

In the cemetery lay me: where are the broken of heart,

That when the Son of God comes: He may embrace me and raise me among them."

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[After blessing by name the five faithful disciples above mentioned (page 126), he leaves an anathema on the two, Paulinus and Urit, who had erred from the faith; and against]

"Arians and Anomoeans: Cathari and those of the Serpent,

Marcionites and Manichoeans: Bardesanites and Kukites,

Paulites and Vitalianites: Sabbatarians and Borborites,

With all the other doctrines: of superstitious that are unseemly."

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[The dying Saint recalls in the following lines the vision of his childhood, and praises God for its fulfilment.]