XXXIV.
And the churches, too, will wail with a mighty
lamentation, because neither “oblation nor in
cense” is attended to, nor a
service acceptable to God;
1969
but the sanctuaries of the churches will become like a
garden-watcher’s hut,
1970
and the holy body and blood of Christ will not be shown in those
days. The public service of God shall be extinguished, psalmody
shall cease, the reading of the Scriptures shall not be heard;
1971
but for men
there shall be darkness, and lamentation on lamentation, and woe on
woe. At that time silver and gold shall be cast out in the
streets, and none shall gather them; but all things shall be held an
offence. For all shall be eager to escape and to hide themselves,
and they shall not be able anywhere to find concealment from the
woes
1972
of the
adversary; but as they carry his mark about them, they shall be readily
recognised and declared to be his. Without there shall be fear,
and within trembling, both by night and by day. In the street and
in the houses there shall be the dead; in the streets and in the houses
there shall be hunger and thirst; in the streets there shall be
tumults, and in the houses lamentations. And beauty of
countenance shall be withered, for their forms shall be like those of
the dead; and the beauty of women shall fade, and the desire of all men
shall vanish.
1969
[The
reference is to
Mal. i.
11
, and
incense
is expounded spiritually by the Ante-Nicene Fathers generally.
See Irenæus, vol. i. p. 574, Tertullian, iii. p. 346 and
passim
.]
1970
[
Isa. i. 8
.]
1971
[The
public reading of Scripture-lessons is implied,
Acts xv. 21
. See Hooker,
Eccl.
Pol
., book v. cap. xix.]
1972
παθῶν
. B reads
παγίδων
,
snares.