I will now adduce another piece of evidence which
might perhaps seem insignificant, but because of its antiquity must in
nowise be omitted by a defendant who is indicted on a charge of
innovation. It seemed fitting to our fathers not to receive the
gift of the light at eventide in silence, but, on its appearing,
immediately to give thanks. Who was the author of these words of
thanksgiving at the lighting of the lamps, we are not able to
say. The people, however, utter the ancient form, and no one has
ever reckoned guilty of impiety those who say “We praise Father,
Son, and God’s Holy Spirit.”
Ps. cxli. was called ὁ ἐπιλύχνιος
ψαλμός (Ap.
Const. viii. 35). In the Vespers of the Eastern Church
an evening hymn is sung, translated in D.C.A. i. 634,
“Joyful Light of the holy glory of the immortal Father, the
heavenly, the holy, the blessed Jesus Christ, we having come to
the setting of the sun and beholding the evening light, praise
God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. It is meet at all times
that thou shouldest be hymned with auspicious voices, Son of God,
Giver of Life: wherefore the world glorifieth
thee.” And if any one knows the Hymn of
Athenogenes, Identified by
some with two early hymns, Δόξα ἐν
ὑψίστοις, and
φῶς
ἱλαρόν. which, as he was
hurrying on to his perfecting by fire, he left as a kind of farewell
gift The
mss. vary between ἐξιτήριον and
ἀλεξιτήριον, farewell gift and amulet or charm. In Ep. cciii. 299
Basil says that our Lord gave His disciples peace as an
ἐξιτήριον
δῶρον, using the word, but in
conjunction with δῶρον. Greg. Naz.,
Orat. xiv. 223 speaks of our Lord leaving peace
“ὥσπερ ἄλλο
τι
ἐξιτήριον.” to his
friends, he knows the mind of the martyrs as to the Spirit.
On this head I shall say no more.