{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/hec/hec30.htm","path":"chr/hec/hec30.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/hec/hec30.htm","text":"Hymns of the Eastern Church, by J.M. Neale, [1884]\nby S. John Damascene.\n\u0394\u03b5\u1fe6\u03c4\u03b5 \u03c4\u03b5\u03bb\u03b5\u03c5\u03c4\u03b1\u1fd6\u03bf\u03bd \u1f04\u03c3\u03c0\u03b1\u03c3\u03bc\u03bf\u03bd \u03b4\u1ff6\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd.\nThe following Stichera, which are generally (though without any great cause) attributed to S. John Damascene, form, perhaps, one of the most striking portions of the service of the Eastern Church. They are sung towards the conclusion of the Funeral Office, while the friends and relations are, in turn, kissing the corpse; the Priest does so last of all. Immediately afterwards, it is borne to the grave; the Priest casts the first earth on the coffin, with the words, \"The earth is the Lord's and all that therein is: the compass of the world, and they that dwell therein.\" I have omitted four of the stanzas, as being almost a repetition of the rest.\nTake the last kiss,\u2014the last for ever!\n \u00a0\u00a0Yet render thanks amidst your gloom:\n He, severed from his home and kindred,\n \u00a0\u00a0Is passing onwards to the tomb:\n For earthly labours, earthly pleasures,\n \u00a0\u00a0And carnal joys, he cares no more:\n Where are his kinsfolk and acquaintance?\n \u00a0\u00a0They stand upon another shore.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Let us say, around him pressed,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Grant him, Lord, eternal rest!\nThe hour of woe and separation,\n \u00a0\u00a0The hour of falling tears is this:\n Him that so lately was among us\n \u00a0\u00a0For the last time of all we kiss:\n Up to the grave to be surrendered,\n \u00a0\u00a0Sealed with the monumental stone,\n A dweller in the house of darkness,\n \u00a0\u00a0Amidst the dead to lie alone. p. 110\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Let us say, around him pressed,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Grant him, Lord, eternal rest!\nLife, and life's evil conversation,\n \u00a0\u00a0And all its dreams, are passed away:\n The soul hath left her tabernacle:\n \u00a0\u00a0Black and unsightly grows the clay.\n The golden vessel here lies broken:\n \u00a0\u00a0The tongue no voice of answer knows:\n Hushed is sensation, stilled is motion;\n \u00a0\u00a0Toward the tomb the dead man goes.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Let us cry with heart's endeavour,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Grant him rest that is for ever!\nWhat is our life? A fading flower;\n \u00a0\u00a0A vapour, passing soon away;\n The dewdrops of the early morning:\u2014\n \u00a0\u00a0Come gaze upon the tombs to-day. p. 111\n Where now is youth? Where now is beauty,\n \u00a0\u00a0And grace of form, and sparkling eye?\n All, like the summer grass, are withered;\n \u00a0\u00a0All are abolished utterly\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0While our eyes with grief grow dim,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Let us weep to Christ for him!\nWoe for that bitter, bitter moment,\n \u00a0\u00a0The fearful start, the parting groan,\n The wrench of anguish, from the body\n \u00a0\u00a0When the poor soul goes forth alone!\n Hell and destruction are before her;\n \u00a0\u00a0Earth in its truest worth she sees;\n A flickering shade; a dream of error;\n \u00a0\u00a0A vanity of vanities.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Sin in this world let us flee,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0That in heaven our place may be.\nDraw nigh, ye sons of Adam; viewing\n \u00a0\u00a0A likeness of yourselves in clay: p. 112\n Its beauty gone; its grace disfigured;\n \u00a0\u00a0Dissolving in the tomb's decay;\n The prey of worms and of corruption,\n \u00a0\u00a0In silent darkness mouldering on;\n Earth gathers round the coffin, hiding\n \u00a0\u00a0The brother, now for ever gone.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Yet we cry, around him pressed,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Grant him, Lord, eternal rest!\nWhen, hurried forth by fearful angels,\n \u00a0\u00a0The soul forsakes her earthly frame,\n Then friends and kindred she forgetteth,\n \u00a0\u00a0And this world's cares have no more claim\n Then passed are vanity and labour;\n \u00a0\u00a0She hears the Judge's voice alone;\n She sees the ineffable tribunal:\n \u00a0\u00a0Where we, too, cry with suppliant moan,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0For the sins that soul hath done,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Grant Thy pardon, Holy One!\nNow all the organs of the body,\n \u00a0\u00a0So full of energy before,\n Have lost perception, know not motion,\n \u00a0\u00a0Can suffer and can act no more.\n The eyes are closed in death's dark shadow;\n \u00a0\u00a0The ear can never hear again;\n The feet are bound; the hands lie idle;\n \u00a0\u00a0The tongue is fast as with a chain.\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Great and mighty though he be,\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Every man is vanity.\nBehold and weep me, friends and brethren!\n \u00a0\u00a0Voice, sense, and breath, and motion gone;\n But yesterday I dwelt among you;\n \u00a0\u00a0Then death's most fearful hour came on.\n Embrace me with the last embracement;\n \u00a0\u00a0Kiss me with this, the latest kiss;\n Never again shall I be with you;\n \u00a0\u00a0Never with you share woe or bliss.\nI go toward the dread tribunal\n \u00a0\u00a0Where no man's person is preferred;\n Where lord and slave, where chief and soldier,\n \u00a0\u00a0Where rich and poor alike are heard:\n One is the manner of their judgment:\n \u00a0\u00a0Their plea and their condition one:\n And they shall reap in woe or glory\n \u00a0\u00a0The earthly deeds that they have done.\n I pray you, brethren, I adjure you,\n \u00a0\u00a0Pour forth to Christ the ceaseless prayer,\n He would not doom me to Gehenna,\n \u00a0\u00a0But in His glory give me share","title":"Hymns of the Eastern Church: S. John Damascene: The Stichera of the Last Kiss","type":"page"}