Sermons and Prayers at the Dedication

Meanwhile the festival gained added luster from the prayers and sermons of the ministers of God. Some praised the godly emperor’s willing devotion to the Savior of humankind, and spoke at length on the magnificence of the building the emperor had raised in the Savior’s memory. Others gave all who were present what might be called a feast for the mind, with public lectures on the sacred doctrines of our religion. Others interpreted passages of holy Scripture and unfolded their hidden meaning. Those who were not equal to these efforts offered to God a bloodless sacrifice and the service of the mysteries in the prayers they made for the peace of all, for the church of God, for the emperor himself as the means through whom so many blessings had come, and for his godly sons. I myself too, unworthy as I was of such a privilege, gave various public speeches in honor of this celebration. In them I partly explained in a written description the details of the emperor’s building, and partly tried to draw from the visions of the prophets fitting illustrations of the symbols it displayed. So joyfully was the festival of dedication celebrated in the thirtieth year of our emperor’s reign. [a]