I am despairing of myself when on the number of my deeds I muse; but when in mind I bear thee, Mother of God, who above mind didst bear the Lord, I am refresh’d with hope; for we have thee a sole defence. _Ode vi. Irmos._ I will pour forth a prayer before the Lord, and to him will I tell my grief; for my soul is full of evils, and my life draweth nigh unto hades, and I pray as Jonas, O God, raise me out of corruption. _Refrain._ Rest thou the babe, O Lord. Thou was laid in a manger as a babe, and wast plac’d in an elder’s arms, who generatest babes in the womb; and ere this one attain’d perfect growth, thou hast bidden him to thee. Then we with thanksgiving extol thee. Thou didst say to the apostles, O Word, Let the children come unto me; for my kingdom is for them that are such in wiseness. Then count the babe remov’d to thee of thy light worthy. _Glory._ Thou of earth’s blessings hast depriv’d thy babe, that thou of heaven’s might’st make him sharer, who hath not overstepp’d thy bid divine. O Good One, we extol thy judgments’ depth unmeasur’d. _Both now. Theotokion._ We have thee, Maiden, as a sheltering wall, for souls a full salvation, and in afflictions ample room; and in thy light we aye rejoice, and in this save us now, O Queen, from passions and from dangers. _Then the irmos. And after the irmos the priest saith the previously written ectenia and the prayer. Page 139._ _Then the condakion, tone viii._ Rest with the Saints, O Christ, thy servant’s soul, where is no pain nor grief, nor sighing, but life that endeth not. _Icos._ Thyself alone immortal art, who madest and didst fashion man; for out of earth we mortals fashion’d were, and unto that same earth shall go, as thou who madest me hast given command, and sayest unto me, Earth thou art, and unto earth shalt thou return. And thither all we mortals go, making the funeral wail, even the song, the Alleluia. _And these following icosi._ More sympathetic than a mother there is none, and than a father more compassionate none; for vexed are their inward parts when they the babes accompany hence: great is the sting which for the children’s sake their hearts receive, and still the more when these sweet-spoken are, and they their words remember with the song, the Alleluia. For oft beside the grave they smite their breasts, and say, O thou my son and sweetest child! hearest thou not thy mother what she saith? lo, ’tis the womb that thee hath borne: why dost thou speak not as thou wert wont to speak to us? But so thou silent art, even to say with us the Alleluia.