TRANSFIGURATION.

I shall, perhaps, render the following Canon more acceptable to most readers if, instead of translating the Odes in detail, I make a cento from the more remarkable Troparia. They are principally from the first four Odes.

χορὸς Ισραήλ.

The choirs of ransomed Israel,
The Red Sea's passage o'er,
Uprais'd the hymn of triumph
Upon the further shore :
And shouted, as the foeman

Was whelm'd beneath the sea,—

Sing we to Judah's Saviour,

For glorified is He!'

Amongst His Twelve Apostles
CHRIST spake the Words of Life,
And show'd a realm of beauty
Beyond a world of strife:
'When all My FATHER'S glory
Shall shine expressed in Me,
Then praise Him, then exalt Him,
For magnified is He !'

Upon the Mount of Tabor

The promise was made good;
When, baring all the Godhead,
In light itself He stood :
And they, in awe beholding,
The Apostolic Three,
Sang out to GOD their Saviour,

For magnified was He!

In days of old, on Sinai,

The LORD of Sabaoth came,

In majesty of terror,

In thunder-cloud and flame :
On Tabor, with the glory

Of sunniest light for vest,
The excellence of beauty
In JESUS was express'd.

All hours and days inclin'd there,
And did Thee worship meet;
The sun himself adored Thee,
And bow'd him at Thy feet :

While Moses and Elias,

Upon the Holy Mount,

The co-eternal glory

Of CHRIST our GOD recount.

O holy, wonderous Vision!

But what, when this life past, The beauty of Mount Tabor Shall end in Heav'n at last?

But what, when all the glory
Of uncreated light

Shall be the promis'd guerdon
Of them that win the fight?

[No. 5 in Mr. Sedding's book.]

L

5. Stephen the Sabaite.

A.D. 725...A.D. 794.

S. Stephen, called the Sabaïte, from the monastery of S. Sabas, was the nephew of S. John Damascene, who placed him in that house. He was then ten years of age: he passed fifty-nine years in that retreat; and was the earliest of the hymnographers who lived to see the final restoration of Icons. He has left but few poetical compositions. The two best are those on the Martyrs of the monastery of S. Sabas(March 20th)-on which a monk of that house would be likely to write con amore; and on the Circumcision. His style seems formed on that of