XXXIV.

And the churches, too, will wail with a mighty lamentation, because neither “oblation nor in251cense” is attended to, nor a service acceptable to God;^19691969    [The reference is to Mal. i. 11, and incense is expounded spiritually by the Ante-Nicene Fathers generally.  See Irenæus, vol. i. p. 574, Tertullian, iii. p. 346 and passim.] but the sanctuaries of the churches will become like a garden-watcher’s hut,^19701970    [Isa. i. 8.] and the holy body and blood of Christ will not be shown in those days. The public service of God shall be extinguished, psalmody shall cease, the reading of the Scriptures shall not be heard;^19711971    [The public reading of Scripture-lessons is implied, Acts xv. 21. See Hooker, Eccl. Pol., book v. cap. xix.] but for men there shall be darkness, and lamentation on lamentation, and woe on woe. At that time silver and gold shall be cast out in the streets, and none shall gather them; but all things shall be held an offence. For all shall be eager to escape and to hide themselves, and they shall not be able anywhere to find concealment from the woes^19721972    παθῶν. B reads παγίδων, snares. of the adversary; but as they carry his mark about them, they shall be readily recognised and declared to be his. Without there shall be fear, and within trembling, both by night and by day. In the street and in the houses there shall be the dead; in the streets and in the houses there shall be hunger and thirst; in the streets there shall be tumults, and in the houses lamentations. And beauty of countenance shall be withered, for their forms shall be like those of the dead; and the beauty of women shall fade, and the desire of all men shall vanish.