Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/284

230 lambs to be slain, ye should first call the priests, who shall sign them with the sign of the cross before they are slain, and say over them these words: He was brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth in His humility. O, the mighty God, accept at our hands this oblation which we offer before Thee this day.

If ye vow a vow and purpose in your hearts to offer oblations and sacrifices, ye may not leave any part of it, but ye shall distribute the whole of it, and give the skins of the lambs to the Church.

If ye offer lambs to be slain in oblation, ye shall not bring them female but male, as was the oblation of Abraham and Isaac who sacrificed to their, and the will forgive our sins and the sins of our dead.

If ye bring lambs to be offered, the unbelieving and prayerless may not stretch out the knife upon them; but let him [who slays them] be pure that he may make others pure, whether he be Gentile or Christian, that the sheep slain may be fit for sacrifice.

Let this oblation which Thy servants offer to-day be for the forgiveness of their sins, and to their preservation and help, may it heal their wounds, and wipe out their transgressions, and save them from every plague. Even so, in Thy mercy, accept this oblation.

But if ye are not able to offer all male lambs, let there be female ones among them, that your work be not hindered; and if you so do in purity of heart, the will accept your oblation.

O, let this oblation which Thy servants have willingly and with a pure heart offered up before Thee this day be unto them a light in darkness to guide them to that place where all the righteous are at Thy right hand. Vouchsafe unto them, O, the promised beatitudes, and the denarius of the bridal-chamber in the last day, that day of retribution.

O, let the oblation which Thy servants have offered before Thee this day be acceptable as was that of faithful Abraham the righteous, who vowed his son in oblation and stretched out the knife upon his throat, whereupon he saw a lamb hung on a tree like his life-giving who was crucified on Golgotha