"I come to glorify thy rays, living Aton, one eternal God!" Issachar replied.
"I declare the way of life unto you all, generations that have been and are to be: render praise to God Aton, the living God and ye shall live," Merira intoned again and Issachar replied:
"Praise be to thee, living Aton, who has created the heavens and the secrets thereof! Thou art in heaven and thy son, Akhnaton Uaenra, is on earth."
"Thy essence, Uaenra, is the essence of the sun," they both sang together, "thy flesh is the sunlight, thy limbs the beautiful rays. In truth thou didst proceed from the Sun as a child from its mother's womb. The Sun rises in the sky and rejoices at its son on the earth!"
The rising sun lighted the altar. Merira raised the libation cup and slowly, drop by drop, poured on the burning embers the thick, blood-red wine.
"Lord!" he exclaimed in such a heart-rending voice that Issachar began to tremble as in the night when looking at the empty chair he saw the Invisible, "Lord! Before the foundations of the earth were laid Thou didst reveal Thy will to Thy Son who is forever. Thou, Father, art in His heart and no one knows Thee except Him, Thy Son!"
Then, turning his back to Issachar, he put some fresh wine into the cup, put it on the altar table, took the tablets from his bosom and placed them on the table, too; taking the ring off his finger, he lifted the carbuncle and put the poison in the cup. He took the cup in his hands, again turned with his face to the sun and cried three times in a low, as it were distant, voice:
"Glory be to the Sun, the Son Who is to come!"
Issachar fell on his knees and covered his face with his hands: it suddenly seemed to him that Merira saw the One Who was to come.
Merira raised the cup to his lips, drained it, and dropping it, stretched his hands to the sun with a low cry: