29. What then was the response of Him who
was the God of that night and of the sick man? A shudder comes
over me as I proceed with my story. And though you, my hearers,
may shudder, do not disbelieve: for that would be impious, when I
am the speaker, and in reference to him. The time of the mystery
was come, and the reverend station and order, when silence is kept for
the solemn rites; and then he was raised up by Him who quickeneth the
dead, and by the holy night. At first he moved slightly, then
more decidedly; then in a feeble and indistinct voice he called by name
one of the servants who was in attendance upon him, and bade him come,
and bring his clothes, and support him with his hand. He came in
alarm, and gladly waited upon him, while he, leaning upon his hand as
upon a staff, imitates Moses upon the mount, arranges his feeble hands
in prayer, and in union with, or on behalf of, On behalf of,
or perhaps “at the head of.” The passage does not
mean that he actually celebrated the Holy Mysteries, but that he used
some of the prayers of the service, and united himself in intention
with the service being at the time performed in the church, and invoked
the Divine blessing upon his people in his absence.
his people eagerly celebrates the mysteries, in such few words as his
strength allowed, but, as it seems to me, with a most perfect
intention. What a miracle! In the sanctuary without a
sanctuary, sacrificing without an altar, a priest far from the sacred
rites: yet all these were present to him in the power of the
spirit, recognised by him, though unseen by those who were there.
Then, after adding the customary words of thanksgiving, and after blessing
the people, he retired again to his bed, and after taking a little
food, and enjoying a sleep, he recalled his spirit, and, his health
being gradually recovered, on the new day The new
day. On this feast (in another year) Orat. xliv. was
preached. of
the feast, as we call the first Sunday after the festival of the
Resurrection, he entered the temple and inaugurated his life which had
been preserved, with the full complement of clergy, and offered the
sacrifice of thanksgiving. To me this seems no less remarkable
than the miracle in the case of Hezekiah, 2 Kings xx. 1 et seq.
who was glorified by God in his sickness and prayers with an extension
of life, and this was signified by the return of the shadow of the
degrees, Isai. xxxviii. 8. according to the
request of the king who was restored, whom God honoured at once by the
favour and the sign, assuring him of the extension of his days by the
extension of the day.