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Translated by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson.
128 Pages
Page 61
Feed us, the children, as sheep. Yea, Master, fill us with righteousness, Thine own pasture; yea, O Instructor, feed us on Thy holy mountain the Church, which towers aloft, which is above the clouds, which touches heaven. "And I will be," He says, "their Shepherd," [1254] and will be near them, as the garment to their skin. He wishes to save my flesh by enveloping it in the robe of immortality, and He hath anointed my body. "They shall call Me," He says, "and I will say, Here am I." [1255] Thou didst hear sooner than I expected, Master. "And if they pass over, they shall not slip," [1256] saith the Lord. For we who are passing over to immortality shall not fall into corruption, for He shall sustain us. For so He has said, and so He has willed. Such is our Instructor, righteously good. "I came not," He says, "to be ministered unto, but to minister." [1257] Wherefore He is introduced in the Gospel "wearied," [1258] because toiling for us, and promising "to give His life a ransom for many." [1259] For him alone who does so He owns to be the good shepherd. Generous, therefore, is He who gives for us the greatest of all gifts, His own life; and beneficent exceedingly, and loving to men, in that, when He might have been Lord, He wished to be a brother man; and so good was He that He died for us.
[1254] Ezek. xxxiv. 14-16.
[1255] Isa. lviii. 9.
[1256] Isa. xliii. 2.
[1257] Matt. xx. 28; Mark x. 45.
[1258] John iv. 6.
[1259] Matt. xx. 28.
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