Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 2.djvu/444

416 the hath sent Me. Hence the Apostles enjoined that the Prophets should be read first, and after these the Gospel which is their fulfilment and seal. And this ordinance we observe every Sunday in remembrance of the resurrection to come, when all shall be rewarded according to their works, that hereby we may be led to eschew evil and to do good.

In like manner, and with the same design, the Church celebrates year by year the life and actions of our blessed, lest, from not being commemorated, those benefits which are given to us through the advent of should be withheld from us, and should finally be lost to us in the darkness of error.

This used to be called the sixth day until the sun set upon it at the crucifixion of our, and darkness prevailed over all creation on account of the temerity of the Jews; and hence it is called arobta [the setting of the sun]. Creation, we say, put on the garment of mourning and affliction because of the enormity of the first sin, and because of the sins of all, for which He died Who had committed no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth. The sun was hid from the heavens, the earth shook and quaked, the veil of the temple was rent, and the rocks were riven, and no carnivorous animals or birds of prey ate meat on that day, or went near to any carcasses, in reverence to the holy corpse of the which was outstretched upon the wood, as we understand from the comments of Mar Ephrem. Hence the Apostles made a Canon, that Christians should not eat meat on this day, neither on Wednesday, on which latter day the Jews took counsel together to kill the, and agreed upon the price of the innocent blood with Judas Iscariot. On this account Wednesday is included in the same Canon. And, in truth, Friday ought to be a day of mourning with all, because on it, for the transgression of the first Adam, the sentence of death was passed upon all our race, and we were driven