Sayfadaki görseller
PDF
ePub

body of the clay, and inspired my soul by thy divine and quickening spirit. Therefore, O Christ! give life to thy servant in thy rest for ever.

"I weep and lament when I consider death and those who are laid low in the grave; when I behold that body which was created after the image of God, deformed and inglorious! But our Redeemer liveth; and through his might, what is sown in corruption shall rise up incorruptible. Truly then we may say, blessed is the Lord who maketh us partakers of his kingdom."

After several short prayers for the pardon and beatitude of the deceased, the following is chanted, as if addressed by the dead to those around.

"Brethren, friends, kinsmen, and acquaintance; view me here lying breathless, motionless, bereft of all that made me lovely in your eyes! But yesterday, we conversed together, we looked on each other; and now death hath sealed my lips, and closed my lids for ever. Come near all who loved me, and with a last embrace, pronounce the last farewel. No longer shall I sojourn with you, no more will you hear the sounds of my voice. To the Judge I go who is no respecter of persons; the master and the slave; the sovereign and the subject; the rich and the poor; all are alike before him; and according to their deeds and his mercy shall they be put to shame or to honour. Therefore, let me intreat, and beseech you all to pray earnestly unto Christ our God that I may not be tormented with the wicked according to my sins, but be received into the light of life!"

When this appeal is sung with all the pathos of religious melody, I cannot conceive any thing more solemn and affecting. The dead body of one we love, lying before us; his graces and imperfections laid low in the grave: nothing seems alive but our own grief, and his conscious soul trembling before the Allperfect God. We hear him cry for our prayers! Such an adjuration strikes against the heart with a force unutterable. The next invocation is not less impressive. It is delivered by the priest.

"Come, my brethren, let us give our last farewel to our deceased brother, giving thanks to God! He hath now forsaken his kindred and approacheth the grave; no longer mindful of

vanity, or the cares of the world. Where are now his kindred and his friends? Behold they are now divided from him! O what a separation, my brethren! What lamentation accompanies this hour! Approach, embrace him who lately was as one of yourselves! He is now delivered up to the grave; he is covered with a stone; he sojourneth in darkness, and is buried among the dead. He is separated from his kindred and friends. Every sinful connexion with life and vanity is now dissolved. The spirit hath forsaken her mansion: the clay is disfigured, the vessel is broken. We carry a speechless, motionless, senseless body to the grave: let us intreat the Lord to grant him repose!

"What is life? a flower, a vapour, the early dew of the morning! Approach therefore, with attention contemplate the grave. Where is now the graceful form? Where is youth? Where is the brightness of the eye, where the beauty of the complexion? All are withered like grass, all are vanished. Come, and let us with tears fall down before the pitying Jesus!

"Life is a shadow that departeth, a dream of error, the fruitless labour of imagined existence. Let us fly from the corruption of the world, that we may inherit the eternity of heaven! Come hither, O ye descendants of Adam! See, humbled in the dust, a man like ourselves; divested of his comeliness, consumed by worms in the grave; perishing in darkness, and covered with earth! When the awful angels have severed the spirit from the body, then the ties of earth are no longer remembered; then the future judgment alone engages our attention. Let us then supplicate the Judge, and beseech him to forgive the sins of our departed brother!

"Come hither, my brethren, and view the dust and ashes of which we are formed! Whither are we going? What shall we become? Who is poor? or who is rich? who is master, or who is free? All, all are ashes! The bloom of the countenance withereth; and the blossom of youth is cut down by death. How vain and perishing are all the pleasures and dignities of life! for, we must all decay and die. Kings and princes, judges and potentates, the rich and poor, all are human nature, and sink into the dust. See! all the members of the once vigorous body now

motionless in death! The eyes which were once so intelligent, are closed; the feet are bound; the hands, clods of clay; extinct is the sense of hearing; and the tongue locked up in silence! All are delivered up to the grave; all human things are vanity!

"Hearken, O thou mother of the sun that never sets! Thou parent of the blessed Jesus, we beseech thee intercede with thy Divine Son, that he who is departed hence may enjoy repose with the souls of the just made perfect! O, our Saviour Christ, let the soul of thy servant rest in peace in thy kingdom!"

Then the priest, turning towards the body of the deceased, says:

"May thy memory endure for ever, O, our brother, who art worthy to be blessed and to be had in remembrance!"

The choir repeats the same thrice; and after that the priest pronounces the absolution, through "the mediation of Jesus Christ," aloud. The corpse is then laid into the grave, while the funeral anthem to the Trinity is sung over it. When it is lowered into the earth, the priest takes a shovel of dust and casteth it crossways upon the coffin, saying,

"The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the round world, and they that dwell therein."

After which he pours oil out of the lamp, and scatters some incense on the lid. The grave is then covered in; and the ceremony ends with a prayer to the Saviour for the rest and eternal happiness of the deceased.

A vulgar opinion has gone abroad, that in the Greek church it is usual to put into the coffin with dead persons a writing called a passport to heaven. This idea is a mere fable. A paper often is placed in the hands of the deceased when they go to the grave; but it is rather a confession of their misdeeds, than any license to carry them into the presence of their offended God. I shall give you the petition or confession; as I conceive its spirit to be as pious as the prayer is finely composed.

"O thou Creator and Preserver of all, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, in three persons, but one godhead, substance, and essence; who art incessantly praised by all creatures; who by thy holy will, foreknowledge, immeasurable goodness, and inexpressible wisdom, didst create me also

thy servant [the name of the deceased] to glorify thee, O Lord my God, to celebrate thy holy name, gratefully to thank thee for thy mercy, and to endeavour by all virtues to attain thine everlasting kingdom. But, O divine Trinity, I have sinned against thee, I have offended thy holiness, I have broken thy commandments during my life, and have not preserved, as I ought, thy image and likeness existing within me. I have defiled my soul and body by all manner of sins; and by wicked actions have moved thee to wrath. But though I have been deceived by the vanities of the world, yet O Lord, have I not cast myself wholly from thee, my creator, my life, my joy, my hope and my salvation. And now my days being limited by thy power, I willingly resign them. My soul separates itself from my corruptible body, which, when it seemeth good unto thee, shall with this body rise again to life immortal; which consummation I hope for, from thy goodness and mercy, according to the faith of our holy religion; and because thou didst suffer for our salvation. I am terrified with fear lest the torments of the wicked should be inflicted upon me for the sins I have committed against thee; wherefore, O immortal King, and my God, I pray unto thee with my latest breath that thou wouldst forgive all my sins from my youth up until now; for thou art my God and my creator. I believe in thee, I hope in thee. By thy righteous judgment save me, O Lord, and vouchsafe unto me thy heavenly kingdom. Thou, O Jesus Christ, didst become man for our sakes; grant that we may be delivered from suffering and sin. By thy grace I was born and educated in the orthodox christian faith, and in the wisdom of the only holy eastern church. I beseech thee, O Lord, judge me according to this christian faith, and not according to my works. By this faith of the holy church, and of all orthodox christians who are gone before, I earnestly beg for mercy, forgiveness, and remission of all my offences. And in this faith I come unto thee, O Lord, without doubt. And at the separation of my soul from my body, I beseech thee to receive my spirit into thine hands; and according to thy mercy admit me into thine everlasting habitation! Amen."

The Russians have no idea of purgatory, yet the natural love

which inclines them to prolong the memory of a deceased friend has made them establish services in commemoration of the dead to be celebrated at the grave, or in the church, on the third, ninth, and fortieth day after his death; also on the anniversary of that event, as long as the mourners live to see it performed. Having brought you to this meditation on the end of our time, I shall bid you a temporary farewel, with as sincere a benediction as ever passed from the lips of priest or bishop. God bless you in weal or wo, in sickness or in health, in life or death! Ever yours, &c. &c.

LETTER X.

St. Petersburgh, September, 1805.

I HAVE undertaken a very intricate matter, that of initiating you into all the mysteries of the Greek church: and, perhaps, I shall execute my enterprise so clumsily as to be easily discovered to be no better a novice than the daring Clodius; and so share the same fate that he did at the rites of the bona dea, be hooted forth for my impertinence. And yet, my good friend, if that should be your decree, I shall take it as rather ungrateful: in asking me to penetrate these mysteries, you send me into the temple; and if I am debarred from inspecting the Holy of Holies, or deemed sacrilegious for having touched the ark at all, you must not unite in the cry against such presumption, by blaming me for not carrying the whole of the fabric by storm.

Much time is required, much reading, and many conversations with the intelligent ministers of the Greek church, to gain any correct idea of its institutions. The books which relate to its services in Russia are numerous, and all in the Sclavonian language. That tongue being almost obsolete, very little of the service is understood by the congregation; but believing that all is orthodox which the priest utters, they repeat at the end of every prayer the usual response, "Lord have mercy upon us!" and cross themselves with the most unreserved faith.

« ÖncekiDevam »