"Behold, priests and kings

Lie bound by me,

In the midst of my prisons!"

A mighty war

Came without warning

Against the tyrant Death;

And, as a robber,

The shouts of the foe overtook him,

And humbled his glory.

The dead perceived

A sweet savour of life,"

In the midst of Hades;

And they began to spread the glad tidings

Among one another,

That their hope was accomplished.

From the beginning of the world,

Death had dominion

Over mortal men ;

Until there arose

The Mighty One

And abolished his pride.

His voice then came

Like heavy thunder

On mortal men;

And he proclaimed the glad tidings,

That they were set at liberty

From their bondage.

It has no

THE metre is tetrasyllabic, in strophes of six verses. title in the printed text, being one of the general Canons; it is called a "Hymn for Easter," from internal evidence.

a "Liberated his captives."-Sy., snatched away his captivity. The allusion is to Eph. iv. 8. "He received gifts for men," in that text, is also the foundation of the last verse, "he returned the spoils to our race."

b" A sweet savour of life."— -(See Hymn XIII., strophe 1.) The expression is taken from 2 Cor. ii. 16, “a savour of life." Michaelis, in Castell (8.v.,) says that odor vitæ is put pro medicamine efficacissimo in the Epistle to the Corinthians. The Syriac writer of the Life of Ephraem, which is printed by Asseman, (Bibliotheca Orientalis, tom. i., p. 54,) uses the phrase in a way which probably that father would not have recognized; for he says that when the bones of Ephraem were removed from one sepulchre to another, " a sweet savour of life exhaled from them, and imparted life and gladness to all believers."

XXVII.

Before retiring to Rest.

(PARENESIS XXX., tom. vi., p. 480.)

GRANT, Lord, that if I keep my vigils,
I may stand in purity before Thee;
And if, oh my Saviour, I slumber,
Let my sleep be free from sin.

If in my watching I commit iniquity,
Oh Lord by Thy grace forgive me ;
If I sin when sleeping,

Let Thy kindness be my expiation.

And through the cross of Thy humiliation,

Afford me refreshing slumber;

And deliver me from disturbing dreams,

And from profane imaginations;

And in sleep full of peace,

Let all the night conduct me;

Let not evil beings have dominion over me,

Nor thoughts full of iniquity.

And from hateful concupiscence deliver me
Through Thy living body which I have eaten ;
And I will lie down and sleep in peace.
And let Thy blood be a protector to me:-

And to the soul which is Thy production
Grant the freedom of Thy likeness;"
And let Thy right hand watch over
The body which Thy hands have formed.

Let the wall of Thy mercy encompass me
Like a buckler of defence;

And when my body is still, and slumbers,
Let Thy kindness be its guard.

Let not the Evil One approach my couch,
Thro' the supplication of the mother who bare Thee;
And by Thy sacrifice' on behalf of all men,

Put Satan to flight that he persecute me not.

And, Lord, perform Thy promise to me,

And protect my life by Thy cross;

And when I awake I will praise Thee,

Because Thou hast displayed Thy love to my lowliness. From the sleepers, satisfied with rest,

And the watchers who have put on their arms,

Be glory to Thee, Thou guardian Spirit!
Who hast made me a watcher for Thy praise!

THIS hymn is heptasyllabic, in strophes of eight verses.

a "The freedom of Thy likeness."? 0; probably refers to Rom. viii. 21, "the glorious liberty of the sons of God," in conjunction with Gen. i. 26.

"And by Thy sacrifice."-That no reliance can be placed on the Latin translation of these hymns will appear from the render

ing of this simple and scriptural expression, "Et ob incruentum ac salutiferum illud sacrificium, quod pro omnibus Eterno Patri in arâ Crucis sanctissimâ obtulisti !"

c“Thou guardian Spirit!"—The Syriac from ¡ expergefecit, is much used by ecclesiastical writers for the guardian spirits, supposed to watch over good men. The phrase here is, Thou living watcher, to distinguish Christ from the speaker, who applies the term to himself in the last verse.