Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 2.djvu/104

76 bim and seraphim who sing Holy, Holy, Holy, and was welcomed with awe by the thrones, dominions, and powers above. The evangelical apostles wondered when they beheld the clay of the corporeal and the despised nature of the earthly ones thus praised and extolled by the heavenly ones. Let us also who are of the earth with our tongues laud and magnify Him for ever, and let us ceaselessly celebrate the praises of Him from "Whom all help doth come." From the service appointed in the Khudhra for Ascension day.

§ 4. "On the day of the great ascension of the heavenly King of kings to the height of the highest heavens. He lifted up His holy hands and blessed the disciples, then separated from them, and ascended up in glory into heaven. A cloud of light received Him, and hid Him from the eyes of the disciples, and so they saw Him no more. Then there appeared unto them two angels in white apparel who said unto them: 'Ye men, why are ye gazing up into heaven? This same Who is taken up, shall so come in like manner, in glory, in the day of the great resurrection." From the Khudhra, ut supra.

§ 5. "He who is by His Self-existence perfect God, the Word, magnified His compassion towards our weakness, took upon Him our likeness to be the abode of His Divinity, lifted it up and nailed it to the cross, and surrendered it up unto death thereby to give us life, then raised it up, and seated it in the heavens far above all principalities and powers." From the service appointed in the Khudhra for the day after the festival of the Ascension.

See also chap. vi. § 6, par. v.

The above extracts most fully declare the certainty of our Blessed 's resurrection and ascension in the same body in which He lived and suffered, and the assurance which this fact affords of our own resurrection to eternal life in endless glory, if we truly trust in Him who tasted death for every man, and opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers.

Appendix B., Part V. c. vii., contains an excellent exposition of the doctrine of the resurrection, and the nature of the rewards which shall be dispensed by the in His glori-