h the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail;
And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,
The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown.

And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,
And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal,
And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,
Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!

_--Lord Byron_

HERE FOLLOWETH THE HISTORY OF TOBIT

_Which is read the third Sunday of September_

Tobit of the tribe and of the city of Nephthali, which is in the
overparts of Galilee upon Aser, after the way that leadeth men westward,
having on his left side the city of Sepheth, was taken in the days of
Salmanazar, King of the Assyrians, and put in captivity, yet he forsook
not the way of truth, but all that he had or could get he departed daily
with his brethren of his kindred which were prisoners with him. And
howbeit that he was youngest in all the tribe of Nephthali yet did he
nothing childishly. Also when all other went unto the golden calves that
Jeroboam, King of Israel, had made, this Tobit only fled the fellowship
of them all, and went to Jerusalem into the temple of our Lord. And
there he adored and worshipped the Lord God of Israel, offering truly
his first fruits and tithes insomuch that in the third year he
ministered unto proselytes and strangers all the tithe. Such things and
other like to these he observed while he was a child, and when he came
to age and was a man he took a wife named Anna, of his tribe, and begat
on her a son, naming after his own name Tobias, whom from his childhood
he taught to dread God and abstain him from all sin. Then after when he
was brought by captiviy with his wife and his son into the city of
Nineveh with all his tribe, and when all ate of the meats of the
Gentiles and Paynims, this Tobit kept his soul clean and was never
defouled in the meats of them. And because he remembered our Lord in all
his heart, God gave him grace to be in the favor of Salmanazar the king
which gave to him power to go where he would. Having liberty to do what
he would, he went then to all them in captivity and gave to them
warnings of health. When he came on a time in Rages, city of the Jews,
he had such gifts as he had been honored with of the king, ten besants
of silver. And when he saw one Gabael being needy which was of his
tribe, he lent him the said weight of silver upon his obligation. Long
time after this when Salmanazar the king was dead, Se