The appointed Turgâma being next read, the deacon Epistler takes the censer and says aloud: "Stand ready to hear the holy Gospel;" and another adds: "Let all keep silence." Whereupon all the congregation present uncover their heads. The officiating priest then begins with the salutation: "Peace be with you;" to which the deacons and people respond: "With thee, and with thy spirit." After which, the proclamation of the Gospel from whence the lesson is taken being made, the deacon adds: "Glory be to Christ our Lord." The Gospel ended, the deacon again exclaims: "Glory be to Christ our Lord; and let us all commit ourselves and one another to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost."
It is worthy of note that the selections from the Gospels and Epistles, read during the celebration of the Nestorian liturgy, are strikingly adapted to the several occasions for which they are appointed, and are generally remarkable for their devotional and practical character.
The Daweedha, literally David, or the Psalter, is considered as the principal spiritual food for all devout worshippers, and is therefore largely used in the service of the Nestorians. As in the orthodox Eastern Church, the Psalms appointed to be read in the Nestorian ritual are divided into twenty cathismata, called Hoolâle, and a twenty-first hoolâla (always bound up with the Psalter), consists of the two songs of Moses from the fifteenth chapter of Exodus and the thirty-second of Deuteronomy, the latter being divided into two.
After the angelic hymn, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men," and the Lord's Prayer, with which every service commences, the Psalms succeed in the following order: one half of the entire Psalter is now chanted at the morning service of every Sunday, viz., nine hoolâlé appointed for the Nocturns, and one for the Laud,9 to which are added the psalms for Lauds. These, which are Ps. xcv., xci., civ. to v. 16, cxiii., xciii., clxviii., li. to v. 18, clxix. and cl., are invariable, and are read at every Matin throughout the year. For the week-day Nocturns the Psalter is divided into six portions, consisting alternately of three and four hoolâlé. For the Vesper service several entire psalms are appointed to be read consecutively. These are selected from different parts of the
