I noted that their garden was green. It was the first thing one saw of the establishment while approaching. Overall, the impression was positive, though I wondered how they kept it so at the auspices of winter. My canter turned to a trot as my eyes sampled the luscious, color-filled flowers lining the way. Surely illusory? I stopped.

My nose nudged one. My hoof pawed one. I plucked it. Not so.

Leaving the flower where it once was growing, I picked up my trot and quickly found myself face-to-steel with a gate. Locked.

My friend had said nothing of the sort in his invitation. The image of wrong direction wandered across my mind, but I suppressed it. The instructions were specific, and I had followed them precisely.

There was a brass bell on this side of the gate. Teething the rope below it gave a sonorous melody. Excellent.

On the other side of the gate was more greenery, and between two trees sat a shack. The door budged and opened and out stumbled an odd creature: dragonspawn surely, but too small. After his clomping over, the gate was unlocked and opened. The odd thing said something like, “Duce grating”. I was allowed in, the gate closed, and the too-small dragonspawn waddled back to the shack. My friend had not mentioned any of this either.

But, alas, I was here. The large architecture stood before me: a great deal of stone, wood, and glass cobbled together in this place of silence and sanctuary, housing the current object of my study. I approached gleefully. My hoof fell upon the door and summoned to me my friend waiting within.

“Good morning, Doctor,” he said.

“Hello, Noteworthy.”

“You’re here just in time, actually. The Morning Order is only now gotten underway. How about you come in and I’ll find you a seat?”

I nodded and followed him into the building.

The door shut behind me.

---

“The Saviour draws near: Come and adore him!”

The place he had led us to was filled with noise. It was a place filled with the voices of ponies, zebra, and some dragons. It was a room where every other body was occupied with the playing of an instrument: some familiar and some of foreign design. Some was of the speech I knew, and some was in a language unknown to me. Noteworthy tendered to me a transcription of the Order. I have reproduced it here with noted actions as close to their proper location as possible.

When the first music had subsided, a pony in white garb at the front of us announced, “Come! O come, fellows and friends: let us sing—”

The rest responded, “Let us raise joyful praise unto our King—”

“The rock and the strength that saves the living.”

“Let us come near him with great thanksgiving.”

“God is the Lord, a king high above gods grand.”

“The depths of the earth have sat in his hand—”

“The heights of the mountains are his too.”

“The seas are his; it is he who made them blue—”

“And his hands assembled the dry domain.”

“Come in, then, fall down with us and remain —”

More silently by the single voice, “Bowing before this God who has made us.”

The congregation around me knelt then. There was a silence and I looked then for its end.

The head pony in white soon stood and pronounced, “Who but the Lord is our God? What are we—”

And the rest stood and said, “But sheep of his hand, and folk in his lea?”

“If only you would listen to his voice!”

“Now clothe yourselves to worship and rejoice—”

“Let all the earth stand in awe of our God.”

“Hear the trees of the forest: they laud—”

“The Lord when he comes, when he comes to rule—”

“When his truth will judge the meek and the cruel.”

There was a thumping and stomping. Hooves beat upon the ground and fists beat upon breasts.

The one pony chanted, “Blessèd be the Lord, the God of Ja-el!”

“For he turns and visits upon his souls—”

“And wrought them new redemption, for they fell.”

“He raised up a scepter of salvation—”

“From the household of his servant Dawey.”

“The lips of prophets were his oration—”

“Age by age since before the world began—”

“That we should be saved from our enemies—”

“From those whose hate grows greater than a span.”

“He brought his sworn mercy to our fathers—”

“Remembering his holy covenant.”

“This oath he swore to patriarch Avers—”

“That he would give us to live fearlessly—”

“So that we might worship in his presence—”

“Pleasant to his sight, dwelling righteously.”

“And you, child, will be named a prophet high—”

“Going before the Lord to clear his way—”

“Telling the people salvation is nigh—”

“To bring them liberation from their sin.”

“Such is the loving-kindness of our God.”

“It's dawn, and light shines on us from within.”

“It will shine on those who lie in discord—”

“And in the shadowy valley of death—”

“And will guide us to the way of concord.”

At the final word everyone nodded curtly. They proceeded out. I followed my friend again.

---

“Following the Morning Order we are obliged to do some work,” he was explaining. “So today you will be collecting sap.”

“Sap?” I said.

“Well, yes. Sap is the—”

“I know what sap is.”

“Mm, okay. What did you ask for?”

“Why sap?”

“Why not?”

“Er...” I’d never studied sap collection. “Is it the right season even?”

“Maybe”

That did not assure me.

Well, we did go out and start driving taps into trees. We were the only ones.

“Are you simply keeping me from the harder work?”

“Maybe.”

That perturbed me.

“That doesn’t sound like a very Izuen answer. Is there not something in your scripture about letting yes be yes and no be no?”

“Quite possibly,” he replied.

I let my fury lay.



“O come and we will magnify the Lord.”

Our sap-collecting adventure ended with two dozen buckets under two dozen taps in two dozen trees. By that time the Midday Order was to start. I heard others calling it a mess, though I’m unsure of what they meant.

The responsive form was in full-force here.

“Let us now exalt his Name together,” said the officiant (as I was informed he is called).

“O taste and see from his goodness outpoured:”

“Blessèd are they grasped onto his tether.”

“O fear the Lord, those that are here his saints.”

“The eyes of the Lord are over the pure—”

“And here he who fears the Lord never faints.”

“And unto his ears their cries will endure.”

“The Lord is near the soul broken apart.”

“God redeems the spirits that evils rend.”

“He shall save such as are of a crushed heart—”

“And none that trust in him shall be condemned.”

At the end of this the people sat and some knelt. The officiant, who had faced us thus far, turned away.

“Blessed God, love in holy happiness,” he began, “who made by breath the prophets to write these scriptures for our learning and edification; Give this and grant that we may in many a time and myriad a place hear the Holy Word, read by day and night at candlelight, mark well with mind, speech, and ink, learn in great earnestness, and inwardly digest them with every mite of our being, that thus forborne and comforted by it, we may embrace, and ever hold fast, the happiest hope of everlasting life, given to us in Izu your Son. Amen.”

A dragon in white ropes brought to him a book.

He took it and opened it. He addressed us from it.

“(See how all the words written long ago were written for our instruction? in order that by their encouragement we may derive comfort and hopeful endurance.)

“Now may God, the author of each encouragement and every endurance, enable each of you to be of one mind, even the mind of the Anointed Izu: that you may have but one heart and one mouth, that with one voice you may praise the God and Father of our Lord Izu the Anointed. You must befriend one another, as the Savior has befriended you, for God’s honor. I must now remind those who have marked flesh, that God came to relieve their needs by making good his promises to the patriarchs. And I must now remind the nations to praise God for his mercy.

“As scripture says, ‘Therefore I will praise you among the nations and sing hymns to your name’; and again, ‘O you nations, join in celebration with his people’; and yet again, ‘All nations, praise the Lord; let all peoples praise him.’ Once again, Jizias says, ‘The Heir of Ezi shall come, a ruler who rises to govern the nations; on him shall they rest their hope.’

“May God, the author of all hope, fill you with all joy and peace in faith that through the power of the Holy Spirit you brim with hope.”

He closed the book and passed it to another pony, who brought it down into the midst of us.

All sung together, “Glory be to the Lord.”

The pony carrying the book gave it to an attending dragon, who opened it and held it before him.

The pony said solemnly:

“Foreshadowing will appear in the sun and the moon and the stars, and on the earth the nations will stand in distress, bewildered by the roaring sea and the surge of its waters. Hearts will be dried up with fear at the thought of the trouble that will overtake the whole world. Celestial powers will be shaken and the heavens will rock. And then they will see the Son of Flesh coming in a cloud with his great power and glorious majesty. When all this begins, stand upright, look up, and hold your heads high; the time for your deliverance draws near.

“He told them a parable: See the fig-tree, or any of the trees. When they bud and bear fruit, you know by experience that summer is near. Just so, when you see all this happening, be assured that the kingdom of God is close at hand. Truly I tell you, this generation will not have passed away before all this is accomplished. Heaven and earth may pass away, but my words will stand.”

After this was said was sung, “Praise be to the Anointed.”

And the whole group bearing the book retreated to the front.

After all this, the officiant spoke at length concerning their scriptures, the notes from which are too numerous to reproduce here.

Next Noteworthy quietly instructed me to stay seated. I blinked at him.

At the front was whispered much that I couldn’t hear and that my friend could not tender me with later.

But, to substitute, might I describe the front more fully. What caught my eye, and remains most strongly in my memory, was a statue of an ewe with her lamb, the lamb smitten and its blood upon the floor. At first I imagined it a condemnation of the Sheepish peoples. But that revealed itself as incorrect.

The dead lamb is their God.

Yet they point to it and say it is a living lamb. I cannot comprehend them.

After the officiant’s much speaking, he presented to us a plate and cup, saying: “Behold, the gifts of God prepared for the people of God.”

The whole stood up and started singing. I stayed sitting as instructed.

“We believe in one God the Father Almighty,
Maker of all above and all below,
And of the things clear or hid:”

They approached the front and bowed before the statue described before, each at his turn.

“And in Izu the Anointed his only Son our Lord,
Who was conceived by thy Holy Ghost,
Born by the Maiden Mari,
Suffered under Pontu Jirat,
Was crossed, dead, and buried,
He descended into Hel;
The third day he rose again from the dead,
He ascended into heaven,
And sits now on the right hand of the Father Almighty;
From there he will come to judge the quick and the quit.”

They took from the plate (what I believe to be) bread, and from the cup they drank.

“I believe in the Holy Ghost;
The holy Whole Church;
The Friendship of Saints;
The Forgiveness of sins;
The Fleshly Resurrection;
And the Life everlasting.
Amen.”

And when they had all taken and drank and returned, the service was dismissed.

---

After the mess had been dismissed was first feasting, next merriment in dancing, and finally games. It was a great joy to learn of so many cultural characteristics in a row: their meals, their jigs, and even their other amusements. I even played with a young mare who Noteworthy informed me quite liked my mane.

Soon, however, the dark crept across the windows. The time was come for the Even Order.

“Out of the light that dazzles me—” began the officiant

“Bright as the sun from pole to pole—”

“I thank the God I know to be—”

“For this the conqueror of my soul.”

“Since his the sway of circumstance—”

“I would not wince nor cry aloud.”

“Under that rule which men call chance—”

“My head with joy is humbly bowed.”

“Beyond this place of sin and tears—”

“That life with him! and his the aid—”

“Despite the menace of the years—”

“Keeps, and shall keep me, unafraid.”

“I have no fear, though strait the gate—”

“He cleared from punishment my scroll.”

“This is the Master of my fate—”

“He is the Captain of my soul.”

Once again our officiant turned his back to us.

“Now, Good Ruler, release your servant to go in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have made me see that saving power of yours which you prepared in the sight of every nation. This is the light of revelation to the nations, and this is the glory of your people.”

---

My day with them finished with what is called the End Order. This order was without music.

“Now lighten our darkness, we beg of you, Good Lord. By your great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night, for we love your only Son, our Savior Izu. Amen.”

The congregation said together,

“Come, behold the Lord, praise him all you that are his servants.
You that stand by at midnight, night after night in the Lord's home,
lift up your hands in the sanctuary and bless the Lord.
May the Lord that has made heaven and earth bless you from Zoam!”

“His wings will be your refuge,” said the officiant, kneeling, “and you will nestle safely under his feathers. His faithfulness and truth will be your watch and ward. You will not fear from nighttime terrors, from the arrow flying by daylight, from sickness stalking to and fro in the darkness, nor from the death that lays waste under the sun. A thousand fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will never come near enough to touch you. Rather, with your own eyes will you look about and see the reward for sinners. “

He stood to face us. With a leg raised he said,

“The peace of God, exceeding our understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God. The blessings of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, be among you and remain with you always. Amen.”

And that was the end.

I spoke some with my friend afterward. We made plans for another joining. I left him in sadness.

And in the dark I left the door, passed the gated yard. And in the moonlight I found the flowers that had glowed so freely this morn. And on that day I thought—though they dimly wave in the garden—before I left I thought and said to myself, they seem so much more cheery now.