Christian saints -- India -- Romances; Gautama Buddha -- Legends -- Adaptations; Princes -- India -- Romances
So when Ioasaph had manfully finished his long journey, and had brought
the things required for the Holy Sacrifice, saintly Barlaam offered up
to God the unbloody Sacrifice. When he had communicated himself, and
also given to Ioasaph of the undefiled Mysteries of Christ, he rejoiced
in the Spirit. And when they had taken together of their ordinary
food, Barlaam again fed Ioasaph's soul with edifying words, saying,
"Well-beloved son, no longer in this world shall we share one common
hearth and board; for now I go my last journey, even the way of my
fathers. Needs must thou, therefore, prove thy loving affection for me
by thy keeping of God's commandments, and by thy continuance in this
place even to the end, living as thou hast learned and been instructed,
and alway remembering my poor and slothful soul. Rejoice, therefore,
with great joy, and make merry with the gladness that is in Christ,
because thou hast exchanged the earthly and corruptible for the eternal
and incorruptible; and because there draweth nigh the reward of thy
works, and thy rewarder is already at hand, who shall come to see the
vineyard which thou hast dressed, and shall richly pay thee the wages
of thine husbandry. 'Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all
acceptation,' as proclaimed by Paul the divine, 'For if we be dead with
him, we shall also live with him; if we endure, we shall also reign
with him in his eternal and everlasting kingdom, being illuminated with
the light unapproachable, and guerdoned with the effulgence of the
blessed and life-giving Trinity.'"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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