Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/352

298 this occasion by a large circle of Eastern friends. The corpse was borne into the body of the church of the Tâhara, where, the chant of the Patriarch and Bishops ended, I read over the remains of my mother the first part of our Burial Service, and then committed it to the ground "in sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life," when once the number of 's elect is perfected, and His kingdom shall come in all its glory. Most truly may it be said as it was of a mother like-minded: she was one—

The united part which the Nestorian Patriarch and Jacobite Bishops took on this mournful occasion is perhaps unique in the history of these contending sects since the time of Gregory Bar Hebræus, of whom Edward Gibbon, as already quoted in another place, thus writes: "In his death his funeral was attended by his rival the Nestorian Patriarch, with a train of Greeks and Armenians, who forgot their disputes, and mingled their tears over the grave of an enemy."

"O ye spirits, and souls of the righteous, bless ye the : praise Him, and magnify Him for ever."