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| author | nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org> | 2025-03-07 18:23:11 -0800 |
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| committer | nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org> | 2025-03-07 18:23:11 -0800 |
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diff --git a/43247-0.txt b/43247-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e4258bc --- /dev/null +++ b/43247-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8760 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43247 *** + +[Illustration: Titlepage] + + +_BY THE SAME AUTHOR_ + +THE EPIC OF PAUL + +A SEQUEL TO "THE EPIC OF SAUL" + +The action of THE EPIC OF PAUL begins with that conspiracy formed at +Jerusalem against the life of the apostle, which in the sequel led +to a prolonged suspension of his free missionary career. It embraces +the incidents of his removal from Jerusalem to Cæsarea, of his +imprisonment at the latter place, of his journey to Rome for trial +before Cæsar, and of his final martyrdom. The design of the poem as a +whole is to present through conduct on Paul's part and through speech +from him, a living portrait of the man that he was, together with +a reflex of his most central and most characteristic teaching. Its +descriptions are vivid, and it brings the reader's mind into close +touch with the great spirit of Paul. It is a poem in which dignity, +beauty, and power are commingled with a rare charm. + + "Paul, the new man, retrieved from perished Saul, + Unequaled good and fair, from such unfair, + Such evil, orient miracle unguessed!-- + Both what himself he was and what he taught-- + This marvel in meet words to fashion forth + And make it live an image to the mind + Forever, blooming in celestial youth."--_From the Proem._ + + +_AN APPRECIATIVE CRITICISM._ + + "Noble as was Dr. Wilkinson's 'Epic of Saul,' his 'Epic of + Paul' is even nobler. The kingliness of its range; the majesty + of its principal figure; the fascination of its subordinate + figures; the subtlety of its characterizations; the pathos of + its interviews; the intricate consistency of its plot; the + conscientiousness of its exegesis and allusions; the splendor of + its imaginations; the nobility of its ethics; the stateliness of + its rhythm; the grandeur of its evolution--these are some of the + characteristics which make 'The Epic of Paul' another necessary + volume in the library of every clergyman, philosopher, and + litterateur." + + --REV. GEORGE DANA BOARDMAN, D.D. + + +_8vo, Cloth, Gilt top, 722 pp. Price, $2.00, post-free._ + +_Both books together, $3.00._ + +FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY, Publishers, New York + + + + + THE EPIC OF SAUL + + BY + + WILLIAM CLEAVER WILKINSON + + AUTHOR OF "THE EPIC OF PAUL" + + FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY + NEW YORK AND LONDON + 1898 + + COPYRIGHT, 1891, + BY FUNK & WAGNALLS; + 1898, + BY FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY. + + [Registered at Stationers' Hall, London, Eng.] + + PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + PAGE + + Book I. SAUL AND GAMALIEL, 5 + + Book II. SAUL AND THE SANHEDRIM, 37 + + Book III. SAUL AGAINST STEPHEN, 59 + + Book IV. STEPHEN AGAINST SAUL, 87 + + Book V. SAUL AND SHIMEI, 113 + + Book VI. SAUL AND RACHEL, 139 + + Book VII. STEPHEN AND RUTH, 159 + + Book VIII. STEPHEN MARTYR, 183 + + Book IX. RUTH AND RACHEL, 209 + + Book X. SAUL AT BETHANY, 235 + + Book XI. SAUL AND HIRANI, 265 + + Book XII. SAUL AND THE APOSTLES, 299 + + Book XIII. SAUL AND SERGIUS, 317 + + Book XIV. FOR DAMASCUS, 347 + + Book XV. SAUL AND JESUS, 371 + + + + +THE EPIC OF SAUL. + + +Saul of Tarsus, brought up at Jerusalem a pupil of Gamaliel, the +most celebrated Rabbi of his time, from setting out as eager but +pacific controversialist in public dispute against the preachers of +the Gospel, changes into a virulent, bloody persecutor of Christians, +and ends by abruptly becoming himself a Christian and a teacher of +Christianity. THE EPIC OF SAUL tells the story of this. + + +PROEM. + + Saul saw the prophet face of Stephen shine + As it had been an angel's, but his heart + To the august theophany was blind-- + Blinded by hatred of the fervent saint, + And hatred of the Lord who in him shone. + What blindfold hatred such could work of ill + In nature meant for utter nobleness, + Then, how the hatred could to love be turned, + The proud wrong will to lowly right be brought, + And Paul the "servant" spring from rebel Saul-- + This, ye who love in man the good and fair, + And joy to hail retrieved the good and fair + From the unfair and evil, hearken all + And speed me with your wishes, while I sing. + + + + +BOOK I. + +SAUL AND GAMALIEL. + + +Saul visits Gamaliel to submit a forming purpose conceived by him of +entering into public dispute with the Christian preachers. Gamaliel +disapproves; informing Saul that the Jewish rulers are about to +apply against those preachers the penalties of the law. These men +accordingly arrested and arraigned, the Sanhedrim hold a council on +their case, at which Caiaphas advises accusing them to the Romans +as seditious; Mattathias urges stoning them out of hand; Shimei +recommends pursuing against them a policy of guile. + +THE EPIC OF SAUL. + +SAUL AND GAMALIEL. + + Gamaliel sat at evening on his roof + And deeply mused the meaning of the law. + The holy city round about him lay + Magnificent, encircled with her hills. + Beyond the torrent Kedron, sunken deep + Within his winding valley, Olivet + Leaned long his shaded ridge against the east, + Distinct in every olive to the sun. + Nearer, amid the city, chief to see, + The glory of the temple of the Lord! + The seat was noble for a noble pile: + The summit of Moriah, levelled large, + Spread larger yet, outbuilt on masonry + Cyclopean, or more huge, pillar and arch + Fast-founded like the basis of a world. + A world of architecture rested there-- + Temple, and court, and long-drawn colonnade + On terrace above terrace ranged around, + Cloister, and porch, and pendent gallery, + Height, depth, length, space, and splendor, without end, + Glittering its stones of lustre purest white, + And stately portals rich with gems and gold: + The setting sun now smote it that it blazed. + The sight was torment to Gamaliel's pride, + Torment with pleasure mixed, but torment more, + As there he sat upon his roof alone. + + Tall, and erect in port, unbent his form + With all that weight of venerable years, + His head with almond-blossom glory-crowned, + And bosom overstreamed with silver beard, + Gamaliel stood before his countrymen + Their stay, their solace, and their ornament, + One upright pillar in a fallen state. + Fallen, for Rome had pushed her foaming wave + Of conquest far into the East, and laid + Judæa under deluge, quiet now, + But deep, of domination absolute-- + A weight as of the sea upon her breast. + Jerusalem was glorious to behold, + Girdled with guardian mountains round about, + And sunlit with her temple in the midst. + Alas, but more her glory, more her shame! + For all her glory was the Roman's now, + The queen a vassal at a tyrant's feet, + She Cæsar serving who should serve but God. + And, worse disgrace than heathen servitude, + There recreant Jews were found, and more and more, + Who their hearts sold to their captivity, + And abjectly gave up the ancient hope + And promise, dawning-star of prophecy, + That yet to captive Israel should arise + Messiah, King of kings and Lord of lords, + To break the yoke from off His people's neck + And gift them with the empire of the earth-- + This crown of Israel's hope gave up, to choose, + Instead, for captain and deliverer, one + Base-born, from Galilee, consorting friend + With publicans and sinners, hung at last + Convicted malefactor on the cross! + + Such thoughts and tortures exercised the mind + Of grave Gamaliel on his roof that eve. + He felt the burden of his name and fame + Weigh heavy, his renown of sanctity, + With wisdom, rife so wide, and holy zeal. + His head declined upon his bosom, there + Amid the evening cool unheeded, he, + Gray reverend teacher of the law, sat mute, + Rapt over the writ parchment on his knees, + And read, or thought, or thought and read, and prayed. + The veil was on the old man's heart; he saw + Unseeing, for the sense from him was sealed. + + In words like these his prayer and plaint he poured: + "Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Will + Jehovah cast us off forevermore? + We groan, O Lord, Thy people groan, beneath + The yoke of the oppressor. It is time, + Lo, bow Thy heavens and come avenging down! + Appear Thou for Thy people! Visit us! + Not only the uncircumcised are come, + And heathen, into Thine inheritance, + But of Thy chosen seed are risen up + False children unto Abraham, to vex + Our nation's peace and shame us to our foes. + The son of Joseph suffered his desert, + Accurséd, on the tree, pretender vile, + Who out of Nazareth came forth to claim + Messiahship, the gift of David's line, + And trailed a glorious banner in the dust, + The banner of the hope of Israel. + That day, too long expected, yet shall dawn + And true Messiah, girded on His thigh + His sword athirst for alien blood, shall ride + Conquering and to conquer over all + The necks of these His enemies and ours. + How long, Lord God of Sabaoth, how long? + For now that hated false Messiah's name + Is preached, the dead for re-arisen to life, + The crucified for glorified, to men, + And ICHABOD is written everywhere + On all that was the boast of Israel. + O Thou that overthrewest the harrying horde + Of Pharaoh whelmed beneath the entombing sea, + Rise, overwhelm Thine enemies, restore + The glory and the kingdom to Thine own!" + + Gamaliel prayed, and knew not that his prayer + Found voice and smote at least an earthly ear. + "Amen!" Gamaliel started as he heard + The voice of Saul responding fervently. + Saul had been pupil to Gamaliel, + Loyal and loving, and he now was friend + Familiar, whom, as guest, unbidden oft + And unannounced, that famous Pharisee + Welcomed to share his most seclusive hours. + "My son!" "Rabboni!" mutually they said. + + The younger to the elder now had come, + A thought to purpose quickening in his breast. + He too was Hebrew patriot, and he yearned + With anguish like his master's, yet at once + Sharper than his, and more accessible + To hope, as well his livelier youth became + And native blood more nimble in his veins-- + Saul also, with Gamaliel, yearned and burned, + Beholding prone his country in the dust, + Under the grinding heel of Roman power-- + And Messianic glory turned to shame! + Saul's first wish was to bring his brethren back + Stung to their pristine, proud, prophetic hope + Of a Messiah born to regal robes, + Swaying a sceptre, seated on a throne, + Crowned with a crown of myriad diadems, + Symbol of lordship that should myriad tribes + Mass in one mighty empire of mankind. + He felt the soul of eloquence astir + Within him, and he longed to be at war, + In words that flamed like lightning and that smote + Like thunder-stones, against those grovelling men + Who Israel taught to grovel at the feet + Of Galilæan Jesus crucified, + Accepted for the Christ, forsooth, of God! + Such wish, becoming purpose, Saul has brought + This evening to Gamaliel, with high hope, + Hope high, but vain, to disappointment doomed, + Of grateful gratulant words to hearten him, + Approving and applauding his desire, + Won from the wisest in Jerusalem. + + Thus minded, Saul, blithe, eager, sanguine, bold, + With yet a grace of filial in his mien, + As toward a master had in love and fear, + Said: + "Teacher, what I came to learn from thee, + Already, having marked thy prayer, I know. + God hear thee out of Zion in thy prayer! + God bring to naught the counsels of His foes! + Now know I, and rejoice to know, that thou, + My teacher in the blessed law, wilt say, + 'God speed thee, son,' in what I seek to do. + For, lo, I seek to serve the suffering cause + Of truth wounded and bleeding in the street. + Love of my country burns me as with flame + Imprisoned and living in my very bones-- + My country, and my countrymen. This land + To me is lovely like a bride beloved-- + Beloved the more, unutterably wronged! + Her trodden dust is dear to me. Not I, + As do my brethren on her bosom born, + Equably love her with composed and calm + Affection sweet. That homesick longing bred + With boyhood in Cilicia haunts me yet, + To heighten love with anguish, and more dear + Make the dear soil of this my fatherland. + A passion, not a fondness, is my love; + And for my countrymen to die, were sweet-- + Such blind abandonment of love usurps + My being for my kinsmen in the flesh. + Would God I might in very deed pour out + This blood, no vain oblation, to redeem + My bondmen brethren and to purge this land!" + + In speech no farther--though in passionate tears + The strong man vented still his else choked heart. + Gamaliel, with wise senior sympathy, + Sat silent, waiting till that burst were past. + Then gravely: + "Yea, my son, I know thy zeal, + And praise it. Such as thou, in number more, + Might somewhat; such as thou, alas, are few." + + His master's praise Saul took as check and chill, + Uttered with that insinuated sense + Of sage discountenance to his youthful zeal. + He shrank, but braced himself, and gently said: + "But, father, not by many or by few + Is our God bound to working. Many or few + To Him is one. Nay, were there none save me, + Were I alone among my brethren, I, + Alone among my brethren, yet would dare." + + Against the vernal aspiration warm + Of Saul's young blood and tropic temperament + Gamaliel's aged, wise, sententious phlegm, + And magisterial manner though benign, + Abode unmoved, inert, insensible; + Like an ice-Alp that freezes on its cheek + A breath of spring soft blowing from the south. + With viscid slow demur the old man spoke, + And downcast heavily shook his hoary head: + "To dare is cheap and common with our race, + We are few dastards; did not Judas dare? + And Theudas? But their daring came to naught. + Wisdom with daring, fortitude to wait, + We need, son Saul; the daring that must do, + And cannot wait, has wrought us sumless ill." + + Damped, but remonstrant, Saul still plied his plea: + "And yet but now, 'How long,' I heard thee cry, + 'How long, Lord God of Sabaoth, how long?'" + + "Yea," said Gamaliel, "that I daily cry." + + "Thy counsel and thy praying how agree?" + + "Men I bid wait; wait not, I pray my God." + + "Were this not well, O master calmly wise, + In trust that God will rouse him at my cry, + To rouse myself and strongly side with God? + I cannot rest in peace; I hear the woe + Denounced for such as safely sit at ease + In Zion. Let me do as well as pray." + + Saul's rising zeal once more the master checked: + "Praying is doing, likewise waiting works; + But what, son Saul, is in thine heart to do? + I cherished better dreams, my son, for thee, + Than to behold thee leading to their doom + One helpless, hopeless, hapless company more, + Insurgent out of season against Rome, + Confederate sons of folly and of crime!" + + Rebuke like this Saul brooked it ill to hear; + With filial sweet resentment he replied: + "And cherish other dreams, I pray thee, father! + No man-at-arms am I to challenge Rome; + Though not even Rome should daunt me, called of God + To front her with but pebble from the brook, + Like David, in her plenitude of power. + Rome rules us, and I grieve, but I rejoice: + I grieve that we are such as must be ruled, + And cannot rule ourselves; but I rejoice, + Since such we are, that we are ruled by Rome. + The strongest and the wisest is the best + To serve, if one must serve. Alas, my country! + Her face is in the dust because her heart + Grovels, and therefore on her neck the heel. + So, not to rid us of the Roman, I + Labor with this desire, but to erect + The dustward spirit of my countrymen. + This people knowing not the law are cursed!" + + By instinct wise of policy unmeant, + Saul, in his last half-maledictory words + Of vehement passion edged with bitterness, + Had struck a chord that answered in the breast + Of the habitual teacher of the law. + "Yea," said Gamaliel, "now art thou true son + And utterest wisdom. Make them know the law. + With both my hands I bless thee speaking thus. + The law shall save them, if they know the law." + + Saul knew it was Gamaliel's wont that spoke, + His life-long wont of reverence for the law + And trust in its omnipotence to serve + Whatever need befell his nation--this, + Rather than any fresh, fair-springing sense + Of hope in him auxiliar to his own. + Yet, in despair of better heartening now, + And self-impelled to ease his laboring mind, + He, fixed and faltering both, with courteous phrase + Premised of teachable assent sincere + To smooth somewhat thereto his doubtful way, + Frankly a hearing for his counsel sought: + "I ever heard thee, father, teaching that, + And I believe it wholly, mind and heart; + But something now I did not learn from thee, + Hearken, I pray, and weigh if it be wise." + + But less like one who hearkened as to weigh + A counsel shown, Gamaliel now to Saul + Seemed, than like one who sat behind a shield + In opposition, a broad shield of brow + Immobile, placid, large circumference, + And orb of diamond proof, between them hung + There on the housetop still in dim twilight, + Ready to quench in darkness any ray + Of word or sign from him that should aspire + To reach an understanding guarded so-- + Such to Saul seemed Gamaliel now, while yet, + Despite, repressed but irrepressible, + That strenuous strong spirit thus went on: + "Deeply I have desired to know my time + And not to waste my strength beating the air. + Are not men's needs other with other times? + No more perhaps in peaceful shelters now + Sacred to sacred studies, synagogue + Retirements, where our doctors of the law + Propose in turn their sage conclusions, heard + By questioning disciples--here perhaps + No more is truth most truly taught to men. + Some, it may be, might well go forth to stand + Even at the corners of the streets and cry. + Folly amain preaches to gaping crowds, + And shall not wisdom cry? My heart is hot, + Amid the multitude they make their prey, + To meet these false proclaimers to their face, + And stop their mouths, with Moses and with all + The prophets and the Psalms, from uttering lies." + + Gamaliel heard, and like a lion stood, + That shakes his dewy mane from slumber roused; + The old man loomed in action nobly tall, + As thus, with weighty gesture, in a voice + Solid with will, he gently, sternly spoke: + "Nay, Saul, my son, thy zeal misguides thee now-- + Thy zeal, and peradventure some conceit + Of wisdom wiser than thine elders. Thou, + Consenting thus to parley with the fool + According to his folly, like becomest. + This is a time to answer otherwise + Than with the wind of words against their words + Of wind, as equal against equal matched. + Those wresters of the law must feel the law + Smiting their mouths shut with the heavy hand. + With blows, not words, vain fools like these are taught. + Go thou thy way, to-morrow shalt thou see + Hap other far than that thou hast devised + Befall those evil men of Galilee. + Our chiefly prudent, watchful for our weal, + Will stop their mouths profane and make an end." + + Saul chode his tongue to silence, but his heart + Set stern in resolution touched with pride, + As, after decent pause, he took farewell. + + The master and the pupil parted thus, + And both were blind to that which was to be; + For both would change, but change in converse ways + Gamaliel gentle grow, and Saul grow hard. + + That morrow, Peter with his brethren all, + Apostle preachers of the Gospel, felt + The heavy hand Gamaliel shadowed fall + Indeed upon them into dungeon thrown. + But thence by night the angel of the Lord, + Opening the doors, delivered them, and bade + Boldly into the temple take their way + And there preach Christ to all the worshippers. + With the first flush of morning, their swift feet + Shod with the sandals of obedience, + They hasten to fulfil the angelic word. + Meanwhile the Sanhedrim for counsel met + Concerning those their prisoners, and the state, + The vexed state, of the Hebrew commonwealth, + Sent pursuivants to fetch them from their cells + And station them in presence to be judged. + But those despatched to bring them came and said, + "We found, indeed, the prison safely shut + And all the keepers keeping watch and ward + Without before the doors; but entering in + To find our prisoners, prisoner found we none." + + The captain of the temple, the high-priest, + And all that council mused in maze and doubt-- + Gamaliel most, guessing the finger of God. + + But now comes one who brings a fresh report, + "Behold," said he, "the men ye put in bond + Are standing in the temple teaching there." + Forthwith the captain of the temple goes, + His band attending, and, no violence shown-- + For fear was on them of the people, lest + They stone them--leads the Galilæans in. + + Robed venerably each in rich array + Of purple, and fine linen, glistering white + And broidered fair, their flowing garments fringed + With large expanse of border and with cords + Of blue adorned, broad their phylacteries, + The council of the seventy sat severe + Within their council-hall in solemn state. + A semi-orb they sat, or crescent-wise, + And in the midst, between the horns, were placed, + Under their beetling frown, the prisoners. + Awful these felt the presence of the place, + And, while the high-priest of their nation, throned + Middle and chief among the councillors, + Denouncing asked: "Did we not straitly bid + Forbear to teach in this accurséd name? + And, lo, ye fill Jerusalem with bruit, + And seek to bring on us this person's blood!"-- + While thus, sternly, he spoke, those simple men + Felt the heart fail within them and the tongue + Cleave to the mouth's dry roof. He ceasing, back + Their spirit came, and Spirit not their own, + The Holy Ghost of God, flooded their souls, + As when into a bay the ocean pours. + Then Peter and his brethren boldly spoke: + "Fathers and brethren, hearken to our words: + God needs must we, rather than men, obey. + That Jesus whom ye crucified and slew, + Him did the Lord God of our sires raise up, + And at His own right hand exalt to be + Both prince and saviour, to bestow on us + Repentance and forgiveness of our sins. + Of these things all we stand here witnesses; + Nor we alone, for with us witnesseth + God's Spirit bestowed on whoso Him obeys." + + Something not earthly in those prisoners' mien + A tone of more than human in their words, + A majesty, as of omnipotence + Patient within them, ready to break forth, + But patient still, to brook how much was need-- + So much, no more!--this awed one watchful heart + Prepared amid that council now to heed; + Gamaliel inly pondered, 'Is it God?' + The clear simplicity, the perfect faith, + The steady, prompt obedience, the serene + Courage that dared, without defying, all + The terrors brandished by the Sanhedrim-- + This spirit, strange in those despiséd men, + As with a soft and subtle atmosphere + Enfolding and suffusing him, subdued + The solid temper of his mind, the strong + Set of his resolution grim relaxed, + Undid the hard contortions of his nerves, + And supple made the will so firm before. + His steadfast poise of confidence perturbed, + Gamaliel trembled with uncertainty. + + Otherwise Saul; he, merged in different thought, + Eluded quite that penetrative spell. + Unconscious of the Holy Ghost, he strove + Blindly against Him, like the rest, though not + Yet, like the rest, with zeal of violence + To do the prisoners harm or shed their blood; + With such zeal not, but with ambitious pride + Of wisdom unawares puffed up to show + His prowess in the Scriptures, and to earn + A high degree surpassing all his peers. + His fellow-councillors concerting how + To quench this propagandist fire in blood, + Saul said within his heart: + 'Nay, nay, instead, + Might I but once these bold presumers face + Amid the idling crowds they feed with lies, + How, from the law itself, whereof, untaught + Therein, they prate, would I, in open test + Of argument, confute them to their teeth! + Their own ill-wielded weapons from their hands + Seen wrenched and turned against them, surely then + Not only would these brawlers cease, but all + Would laud and magnify the glorious Word + Of God, thus shown, well wielded, capable + Of wreaking its own vengeance on its foes.' + + These twain such counsel in their secret breast + Held diverse, while that strife of words went on. + + Not what, in present need, behooved to do-- + A full and fell accord conjoined them there!-- + Was doubt or question to the Sanhedrim; + But in what chosen way their chosen goal, + The doom of death for those accurséd men, + With safe sure speed, most prudently, to reach-- + This doubt embroiled a vehement debate. + + One argued thus his sentence and advice-- + Caiaphas he, high-priest that lately was, + Reputed statesman politic and wise: + "We are a subject nation; government + Is for this present slipped from out our hands. + Chafe how we may, how will it otherwise, + Ours is a state of vassalage to Rome. + Death in our hearts and death upon our tongues, + Denounced amain against our enemies, + Is futile--thunder bare of thunderbolt. + We make ourselves a laughter--unless we + Warp toward our end with wisdom; who is weak + Well needs be wise, to win--wisdom is power. + To kill and keep alive, by process due + Of law, no longer appertains to us, + That right being forfeit to our conqueror; this + Must we not let our honorable pride, + Justly indignant, and our holy zeal + Incensed for God, bribe us to blink. But slave, + If wise, may make a foolish master serve. + Break we proud Rome to do our task for us. + True triumph, when we wield the tyrant power + Itself of domination over us + A weapon in our hands to work our will! + + "I counsel that we seek and find firm ground + Of mortal accusation, before those + Who rule us, against these audacious men, + As teachers of seditious doctrine meant + To undermine allegiance, and at length + Prompt insurrection and a state of war. + Rome then will stamp our troublers out of life, + And we, well rid of them without annoy, + Besides shall safely reap from her the praise, + Ill-merited, of fealty to her right-- + Praise that sometime hereafter may be gain + Of vantage, if sometime hereafter come + Fit season to fling off her hated yoke." + + Such words of weight spoke Caiaphas, and ceased + Those words, not idle, fell as falls the steel + Smiting the flint; a sparkle keen of fire + Flew forth, found tinder ready, and flashed up + In instant flame. A patriot malcontent, + Fiercely, irreconcilably, a Jew, + Was Mattathias; Mattathias said: + "Yoke by whom hated? Surely not by him + Who tamely brooks to talk of earning praise + For loyalty from Rome! Nor more by those + Who patient sit to hear such counsel broached! + Nay, men my brethren, that I did not hear! + Sure, son of Abraham never have I heard + Own himself slave, and meekly speak of Rome, + As of a master! This I will not hear! + I could not hear it! Speech of such a strain + Were like a river of molten metal poured + Red-hot into my ear to quench the sense! + Stone-deaf am I to craven treachery + From one of my own fellow-councillors here! + I only heard my brother say, 'Let us + Arise and stand for God!' Lo, I arise + And stand, with him, with all! There is a law, + Ancient and unrepealed, wholesome and good, + To stone for blasphemy. Blasphemers these, + What wait we? We have hands, and there are stones, + Let us this instant forth and stone them, stone + Unto the death!" + The clenched hands, and the fierce + Menace of husky tones, half-choked, and teeth + Gnashing, and brow braided with swollen knots, + Were more than words to speak the murderous will. + + The prisoners listened with suspended breath; + They deemed a dreadful doom indeed was nigh. + Instinctive instant fear, forestalling faith, + With sudden loud alarum startled them, + And for one moment violently shook, + In them, all save the basis of the soul-- + One moment--then they sped themselves with prayer, + Ran to the shelter of the promises, + And were at peace! In that secure retreat + Withdrawn, the secret place of the Most High, + The angel of the Lord encamping round, + Composédly at leisure they looked out + And saw the wicked plot against the just, + Vainly, and gnash upon him with his teeth! + Within their hearts they knew his day would come. + + The speaker still stood leaning imminent, + His posture instigation, while a hiss + Of hot adhesion ran increasing round-- + But skipped Gamaliel, skipped the musing Saul + With one beside, scarce daring to be dumb-- + When, in his place, slowly, by soft degrees, + With furtive look and gesture, to his feet + Stealing, half stood, half crouched, a speaker new. + This was one Shimei, an abject man, + Abject in spirit, though in wit not dull, + And capable of long malevolence + Fed on resentments such as abjects feel. + Saul listened, but Gamaliel bowed in prayer, + As Shimei thus, obliquely, sneering, spoke: + "Stoning is pleasant, doubtless, when, as now, + One's sense of righteousness is much engaged. + The reflex satisfaction to be had + From accurately casting a choice stone + To break the teeth of the ungodly, is + Superlative, perhaps the very highest + Relish attainable to mortals here. + The consciousness of sympathy with God + Always exhilarates delightfully; + But in particular if the sympathy + Be exercised in such a case as this, + Where the most glorious of God's attributes, + His justice, is involved. Borne far above + Pity, or any weakness of the sense, + You only feel a rapture of divine + Approval of the law you execute. + So subtly strong and sweet possesses you + The instinct to indulge your appetite + For righteousness, you might almost mistake + Your pleasure for the pleasure of revenge. + + "But let revenge be for the heathen, who + Know not Jehovah and His law contemn. + Jehovah's chosen we, our sentiment + Purged of all personal bias of mere hate, + We simply wash our feet in wicked blood + With pleasure--pleasure naturally enhanced, + If we have spilled said wicked blood ourselves. + + "Yea, stoning gratifies the pious mind + Profoundly--grant the stoning be by you; + By you, not to you; being stoned, I judge, + Is less satisfactory. On this point who doubt + Or differ, have their opportunity + To clear their minds by prompt experiment-- + They need but act upon the last advice; + For--grant our gracious masters smiled and pleased + To let us play a prank of self-misrule, + This once, wilful, but harmless, in their view, + Which might even turn out comedy for them-- + Yet, stoning these, we should ourselves get stoned, + With expedition--past all chance of doubt. + Our friend, the vehement adviser here, + Might peradventure go himself as blithe + To be stoned by the people, as to stone + These pestilent fellows--for the glory of God. + But, then, more clearly how the glory of God + Would be subserved thereby, the rest of us, + Colder in heart perhaps, but certainly + Cooler in head, would wish to be advised, + Before we take our lives into our hands + To wreak the righteous judgment of the law + On favorites of a fierce and fickle mob + Whose palms, unless I much misread the signs, + Already itch for stones to throw at us, + While we sit here and talk of throwing stones + At whom they love and honor. + "Give them line + This wild Jerusalem mob, and they will change + Their mood. Remember how it chanced but late + With Jesus Nazarene. Hailed yesterday + Messiah, King of kings and Lord of lords, + Ovation of hosannas greeting him + From thousand times a thousand throats--to-day, + A malefactor hooted through the streets, + With 'Crucify him! Crucify him!' cried + In multitudinous chorus like one voice-- + The mouths to-day and yesterday the same. + Their second tune indeed we set for them + And sang precentors--but how well they joined! + In due time pitch them the like tune again, + And doubt not they will sing it with full breath. + + "Not that I hence advise to wait remiss; + My counsel is no less from sloth removed + Than hostile to crude, hasty violence. + Only, shun public note; with proper quest, + Ways may be found, ways pregnant too, that make + No noise. The nail that went so shrewdly through + Sisera's temples made no noise. It sped + Softly, but sped surely, and found the quick + Secret of life. Are there not Jaels yet? + You have guessed what I advise. The end you seek + Is holy; holy hold whatever means + Shall lead thereto. Let us commit this thing + To those the wisest found among us, few + Better than many, charging them to choose + Some suitable silent means of silencing + These praters, without stir or scandal made, + Likest the ways of nature, hint, perhaps, + Conveyed of overruling providence + At work through nature for revenging crime. + + "For me, I seek no honor at your hands: + I do not court responsibility; + I am least wise among you; yet a trust + Imposed were duty sacred in mine eyes." + + As, should along a living bosom warm + With youthful life-blood coursing joyously, + A deadly serpent, with protracted, cold + Belly incumbent, glide, beneath that touch + And creep the conscious flesh would creeping shrink, + And all the genial current in the veins + Curdle; so now, at Shimei's words, much more + At signs in him that spoke beyond his words, + The accent of the voice, the look, the port + Of figure, sinister suggestion couched + In action or grimace, there came a chill, + A shudder, of reaction and collapse + Over the council late with zeal aglow. + Even Mattathias, who, in attitude + Of menace, after Shimei arose, + Some space still stood--he, too, while Shimei + Was speaking, felt the evil spell and sank + Into his seat. With one accord they all, + When Shimei ceased, a gloomy silence kept. + Gamaliel did not lift his head, but groaned + Audibly now, though gently, in his prayer. + + From such a source such sound made seem yet more + Ominous the spell which hushed that council-hall. + + + + +BOOK II. + +SAUL AND THE SANHEDRIM. + + +The Sanhedrim still in session on the apostles' case, Saul speaks; +first scornfully repudiating for himself Shimei's proposal of guile, +and then impressively announcing his own purpose, now fully mature, +to controvert the Christian preachers in open argument before the +people. After a pause following Saul's speech, Gamaliel speaks in +favor of letting the prisoners go free. Other councillors express +their sentiments. A scourging of the utmost severity being proposed, +Nicodemus, with bated breath, deprecates first a cruel infliction, +and then any infliction at all. Release after scourging is finally +resolved upon. + +SAUL AND THE SANHEDRIM. + + Dumb-struck and stirless long the Sanhedrim-- + Instinctively abhorrent from the part + Of that base councillor--at last there rose + A new assessor in the midst to speak. + + A young man he, who, in the general thought, + Wherever moving, round about him wore + A golden halo of uncertain hope + And prophecy of bright futures. Aspect clear + And pure; straight stature; foothold firm and free; + The bloom of youth just ripening to the hue + Of perfect manhood upon cheek and brow; + Lip mobile, but not lax--capacity + Expressed of exquisite emotion, will + Elastic and resilient, tempered true + To bend, not break, and ultimately strong; + Glances of lightning latent in the eye, + But lightning liable to be quenched in tears; + The pride of every Hebrew, such was Saul. + + A stir of expectation broke the hush + Of that strange silence, ere his opening words: + "That I, the youngest of this order, thus + Should rise for speech--and that beloved gray head + Before me bowed, unready yet--might seem + Unseemly. But to speak after he speaks, + My own reveréd guide, the guide of all, + Would be, should I then speak to differ, more + Unseemly still. And what I have to say, + Being my thought, burns in me to be said, + Approve, condemn, who will; God bids me speak." + + Gamaliel raised his head and looked at Saul. + Saul felt the look, and hardened his will, but not + His heart, to meet it. Turning so, he saw, + Not what he inly braced himself to bear, + Warning, rebuke, anger to overawe, + Reproach, appeal, dissuasion, pain confessed + At filial separation, grasp of will + At old authority elapsed--of these, + Naught; only a pathos of perplexity, + A broken, anguished, groping childlikeness, + Desire of any help, and hope of none-- + Saul will hereafter understand it all; + He simply marks it now compassionately + In wonder, pausing not, and thus, with loth + Allusion to the last advice, proceeds: + "But other speech my lips refuse, until + I purge my conscience by protesting here, + For me, I spurn, scorn, hate, loathe utterly + The devil and devilish lies. I have no qualms + At blood, but I love truth, and qualms I own + At falsehood, practised in whatever name; + Damnable ever, then thrice damnable, + Damning a holy cause it feigns to serve!" + + A flush of warm revival in the breasts + Of some that listened answered to such words. + But one there was, that vile adviser, felt + A gripe of mortal hatred at his heart. + He, by Gamaliel's eye not unobserved, + Behind a black malignant scowl which, like + That murk emission of the cuttle-fish, + Flushed from his heart his face to overspread + And hide his thought, sat fostering the wound + Of Saul's disdainful noble words--a wound + To rankle long in the obscene recess + Of that bad bosom, and therein to breed + At last an issue foul of fell revenge; + In purpose fell, though in fulfilment foiled. + + But Saul, magnanimously heedless, deigned + Nor glance at him nor thought of consequence. + Elate with the elixir of his youth, + And buoyed with confidence exultant now + By the rebound of his beginning, buoyed + Besides with sympathy, he passed along, + Yet, master he, not mastered, of his mood, + Curbed strongly his strong passion and delight + Of power, and, calm with self-possessing will, + Force in him to have sped a thunderbolt + Stayed back from sudden waste, to be sent on + In fine diffusive throb--as farther thus: + "Enough of that; I did but purify + My soul with words. I feared some inward stain + From only listening, if I listened only, + And did not speak, when base was proffered me. + + "Hear now what I propose. What I propose + Is not advice; advice I neither give + Nor ask. I do not ask it, for my heart + Is fixed; duress of conscience presses me, + With flesh and blood forbidding to confer. + I must do what I shall, in man's or devil's + Despite. I trust I speak not thus in pride. + Not therefore that the census of your yeas + Or nays may guide me, but that ye may weigh + What force my purpose now unfolded owns + To sway your present counsels, hear and judge. + + "Ye know, and all Jerusalem, that Saul + Has counted nothing worthy to be prized + Beside the learning of the law of God. + For this, a boy, from yon Cilician lands + I came; for this, I have consumed my youth. + What envied gains of knowledge I have made, + Sitting a student at Gamaliel's feet, + Befits me not to vaunt; these, small or large, + Belong to God and to my nation, being mine + Only to use for Him and them. I see + Plainly how I must use my trust from God. + Wherefore are we assembled? Wherefore, save + Because these sciolists pervert the law, + Deceived perhaps, deceiving certainly?" + + Scarce waved a careless hand in sign at them-- + Toward the apostles, still in presence there, + Saul deigned not to divert his scornful eyes: + "Shame is it if I, knowing the law indeed, + Am less than match for these untutored minds, + Amid the flocking fools they lead astray, + To controvert their hateful heresies. + Herewith then I proclaim my ripe resolve + To undertake, against the preaching liars, + On their own terms, a warfare for the truth. + Let it be seen which cause, in open list, + Is stronger, truth from heaven or lie from hell! + + "Brethren and fathers, as ye will, consult; + The youngest has his purpose thus divulged." + + As when a palm diversely blown upon + In a strong tempest of opponent winds, + Now this way, and now that, obedient + To each prevailing present urgency, + Leans to all quarters of the firmament + By turns, but quickly, let a lull succeed, + Upright again, shows every leaf composed; + So now the council, long enough between + Opinion and opinion buffeted, + While Saul was speaking took a little ease, + No new advice proposed, to breathe again, + Steady itself, and come to equipoise. + + Some thought that Saul had spoken proudly; some, + That pride became his worth; some held that he + Would make his vaunting good; some feared his plan + Savored of youth and rashness; others deemed + Public dispute mistaken precedent + Teeming with various mischief--sure to breed + Insufferable pretensions in the crowd, + So taught to count themselves fit arbiters + On Scriptural or traditional points of moot, + And, by close consequence, a serious breach + Endanger in their own authority; + Yet others felt, whatever fruit beside + Was borne of Saul's proposed experiment, + Two things at least were safe to reckon on-- + In its own dignity, the Sanhedrim + Must needs incur immedicable hurt, + So plainly scandalous a spectacle + Exhibiting, a councillor enrolled + Of their own number stooping to debate + On equal terms with ignorant fishermen; + Then, on their side, those flattered fishermen, + Far from indulging proper gratitude + For being publicly confounded quite + At such illustrious hands, would be instead + Inflated out of measure, nigh to burst, + With added pride at complaisance so new + From their superiors, while the common herd + Would give them greater heed accordingly. + + Such things diverse they thought, and silence kept, + Saul's colleagues in the Sanhedrim; they all + Together felt that Saul in any wise + Would go Saul's way; they therefore silence kept. + + One man alone, by age and gravity, + And reverence his in ample revenue, + Was easy master of the Sanhedrim: + On him the council rested and revolved, + As on a fixéd centre and support. + And now 'Gamaliel! let us hear at last + Gamaliel's word' was suddenly the sole, + The simultaneous, silent thought to all. + The eyes of all concentred instantly + Upon Gamaliel found that saint esteemed + And sage already stirring as to rise. + Their readiness to hear, with his to speak, + Timed so in perfect reciprocity + And exquisite accord responsive, marked + That fleet meet moment for the orator, + Which, conscious half, but half unconscious, he, + Gamaliel, wielded by the Holy Ghost, + Was now to seize and use for God so well. + + The hoary head, the mien of majesty, + The associative power of ancient fame, + His habit and tradition of command, + Their instinct, grown inveterate, to obey, + Always, wherever he arose to speak + Among his brethren, won Gamaliel heed. + But now, a certain gentle winsomeness, + Born of a certain wavering wistfulness, + Qualified so a new solemnity + Of manner, like a prophet's, felt in him, + That awe came on his hearers as from God. + Gamaliel first bade put the prisoners forth, + In keeping, out of audience, and then said: + "My brethren: Saul my brother--son no more + I name him, since he parts himself from me + In counsel--yet I love him not the less--" + + A tremor of sensation fluttered through + The council, with these words, and at Saul's heart + Pausing, infixed, then healed, a subtle pang + Of sweet remorse and gracious tenderness-- + "Yea, not the less for this love I my son, + My brother, while I honor him the more. + Yea, and not wholly does he part himself + From me; in deepest counsel we are one. + Saul seeks to honor God obeying Him, + The same seek I; are we not deeply one? + And ever I have taught obedience + To God as the prime thing and paramount; + Disciple therefore still to me, and son, + Is Saul, even in this act and article + Of his secession from his master's part; + Saul and Gamaliel both, and all of us, + I pray my God to save from self-deceit! + I shudder while I pray, 'Deliver me, + O Lord, deliver, from the secret sin + Of false supposed obedience masking pride!' + + "Late, I was sure, as Saul is sure to-day. + I thought, and doubted not, we ought to do + Even what ye now are bent to bring to pass. + My way was not Saul's way, but rather yours; + To me it seemed plainly, as seems to you, + Wiser to save the body by some loss, + If loss were need, of limb. Unfalteringly, + The knife would I myself with mine own hand + Have wielded to cut off these members, judged + Unsound and harmful to the general health, + Forever from the congregation. Now, + I feel less sure, Gamaliel feels less sure. + I wish--brethren, I think I wish--to be + Obedient; though deceitful is the heart + Above all things and wicked desperately-- + What man can know it?--yet I think I will + Obedience. That was a pure word--the mouth + However far from pure that uttered it-- + 'To God rather than men must we obey.' + Saul was true son of mine to turn from me + To God--if haply he to God indeed + Have turned from me, and not from me to Saul, + Not knowing! Might I also turn, even I, + Gamaliel from Gamaliel, unto God! + I dread to trust myself, lest I, myself + Obeying, misdeem myself obeying God. + + "Hearken, my children. These accuséd men + Unlikely, most unlikely, choice of Heaven + To be His prophets, seemed, and seem, to me. + I look at them and find no prophet mien; + I listen and their Galilæan speech + Offends me; and far more the scandal is + To think what message they propound to us. + Their person and their message I reject-- + Reject, or if reject not, not receive. + And yet, my brethren, yet, I counsel you, + Beware! What ye intend, accomplished once, + Were once for all accomplished, not to be + Undone forever. Ye consult to slay, + And find your purpose hard to come by. How, + If, having slain, to your repentance, ye + Consulted to bring back to life again? + Were that not harder yet? Wherefore take heed, + Ye men of Israel. Remember how, + A generation gone, Theudas arose, + Proud boaster and asserter of himself, + Who drew his hundreds to his standard; he + Was slain, and all his followers came to naught. + Some space thereafter, out of Galilee + Judas arose and mustered to his side + Many adherents; but he perished too, + And all that clave to him were far dispersed. + + "This therefore as to these is my advice: + Refrain your hands from them; let them alone. + Know, if their deed and counsel be of men, + Its doom is certain, it will come to naught; + But if it be of God, strive how ye may, + Ye cannot overthrow it. Well take heed, + Lest haply ye be found to fight against + God. For myself, when close upon the heels + Of what was wrought mysterious in the escape + Of these our prisoners from that warded keep + Fast-barred, I heard their answer to our sharp + Inquest and blame, I felt as felt of old + That prophet chanting his majestic strain, + 'The Lord is in His holy temple, let + The earth, let the whole earth, before Him keep + Silence.' My soul kept silence and still keeps. + And silence keep, all ye, before the Lord! + For the Lord cometh, lo, He cometh swift + To judge the earth! And who of us shall bide + The day of His approach? Not surely he + Then found in arms against God and His Christ!" + + Gamaliel spoke and ceased; but, while he spoke, + His speaking was like silence audible, + Rather than sound of voice; and when he ceased, + His silence was as eloquence prolonged. + + Awhile the council sat as in a trance, + Unable or unwilling to bestir + Themselves for speech or motion. But not all + Are capable of awe. Some present there, + Either through sad defect of nature proof, + Or through long worldly habit seared and sealed, + Against the access of heavenly influence, + Bode unaware of anything divine + Descended near them--carnal minds, immersed + In sense, from shocks of spirit insulate, + Calm, discomposure none from things unseen, + The faculty for such experience lost, + Pitiably self-possessed! and God Himself + So nigh to have possessed them! + These a space + Waited to let the power a little pass, + Wrought by Gamaliel on the council; then + With tentative preamble, one of them + Said that Gamaliel's words were words of weight, + Weight well derived from character like his-- + Whereat the speaker paused, with crafty eye + Cast round from countenance to countenance, + To read how much he safely might detract, + By open difference or by sly demur, + From the just value and authority + Of mild Gamaliel's sentence. But small sign + Saw he to hearten him in hope of ebb + To the strong tide still standing at full flood + That set in favor of the prisoners. + He feebly closed with wish expressed--and wish + It was, not hope--of hope no grounds he saw-- + That some means might be found to save the shocked + And staggering dignity--a dignity + Ancient and sacred--of the Sanhedrim + From sheer shipwreck. + Some slight responsive stir + Under such spur to pride emboldened one + To trust they should at least sharply rebuke + The prisoners, and take bond of word from them + Not further to disturb the city's peace. + Another following said, that had been tried + Already once, with what result accrued + Was plain to see. And now the Sanhedrim, + Through various such suggestion commonplace, + Relaxed somewhat from their late mood so tense, + Grew readier to approve his voice who said: + "The first offence we deemed condignly met + With reprimand from us, and interdict. + Those gentle means the prisoners once have scorned, + And to our face assure us they will scorn. + Now let such contumacious insolence + Toward just authority too meek, be met, + If not with death deserved, at least with stripes + So heavy they shall wish it had been death." + + Such truculence renewed provoked a new + Reaction. This, that councillor less stern + Noted--who, with Gamaliel and with Saul, + Refrained, when all the others hissed applause + To Mattathias--noted, and with thrift + Converted into opportunity. + + A wary spirit Nicodemus was, + With impulses toward good, but weak in will, + And selfish as the timid are. His heart + Was a divided empire in his breast, + Half firm for God, but half to self seduced. + His fellows trusted him accordingly; + Hate him they could not, but they did not love. + Some guessed him guilty of discipleship + To Jesus, secretly indulged through fear. + This their suspicion the suspect in turn + Suspected, and the uneasy consciousness + Made him more curious than his wont to move + By indirection toward his present aim. + What he wished was, to serve the prisoners + And not disserve himself--a double end, + Rendering his counsels double; but as such + Could speak, now Nicodemus rising spoke. + With sinuous slow approach winning his way + Devious whither he wished to go, like those + Creatures that backward facing forward creep + And seem retiring still while they advance, + So Nicodemus wound him toward his goal, + Well-chosen, as he said: + "Let us be wise; + Beyond our purpose were not well to go, + Were foolish. Cruelty is not, I trust, + Our spirit; God is just, but cruel not. + Let us, God's sons, be just indeed, like God, + But then, like God, also not cruel. Stripes + Are heavy, howsoever lightly laid + On freeborn men. The shame is punishment; + A wounded spirit who can bear? Through flesh + You smite the smarting spirit, every blow. + Remember too that lacerated flesh + Has lips to plead with, makes its mute appeal + To pity--eloquence incapable + Of being answered, charging cruelty; + Whereas the bleeding spirit, bleeding hid, + No cruelty imputes, reports no pain, + But, pith of self-respect clean gone from one, + Glazes the eye, dejects the countenance, + Changes the voice to hollow, takes the spring + Out of the step, and leaves the man a wretch + To suffer on an object of contempt + More than compassion--hopelessly bereft + Of power to captivate the public ear, + Which ever itches to be caught the prey + Of orator full-blooded, iron lungs, + Brass front, a lusty human animal. + Such make of men, through shame of public stripes, + Transformed to eunuchs--this, sure, were enough; + Nay, for our purpose, more than more would be. + And even so much as this, yea, lightest stripe, + Drawing a sequel such as I have said-- + Brethren, for me, my soul revolts from it; + I feel it cruel, fear it impious. + Behooves we ponder well Gamaliel's word; + And, if to slay were haply against God + To be found fighting, why not, then, to scourge?" + + "Such fine-spun sentiment," another now, + Concurring, though sarcastically, said, + "In pity of the victim of the scourge + For suffering inwardly endured through shame, + Supposes that your victim is endowed + With some small faculty for feeling shame, + Which in the present case asks evidence. + + "Still, I too take the clement part, and say, + If only for Saul's sake, let these go free + Of any but the lightest punishment. + Saul will desire for foemen hearts as strong + As may be, to call out that strength in him + Which we well know, for their discomfiture. + Even thus, he may prefer some other foe + Than men disparaged by the brand of blows + Upon their backs, some fairer, fresher fame, + His gage of battle to take up, and be + By him immortalized through overthrow + Experienced, such as never yet was worse." + + Divergent so in view or motive, they + Agreed at last to let the prisoners go + With stripes inflicted, and a charge severe + Imposed to speak in Jesus' name no more. + These so released departed thence with joy, + Rejoicing to have been accounted meet + For Jesus' sake to suffer shame. Nor ceased + Those faithful men to preach and teach as erst, + Both in the temple and from house to house, + Daily still sounding forth Jesus as Christ. + + But Saul withdrew deep pondering in his mind + How he might best his plan divulged fulfill. + + + + +BOOK III. + +SAUL AGAINST STEPHEN. + + +Stephen, as a Christian preacher of brilliant genius and of growing +fame, is selected by Saul to be his antagonist in the controversy +resolved upon by him. To a vast concourse of people assembled in +expectation of hearing Stephen preach, Saul takes the opportunity to +address an impassioned and elaborate appeal, with argument, against +Stephen's doctrine. His hearers are powerfully affected; among them, +he not knowing it, Saul's own beloved sister Rachel. + +SAUL AGAINST STEPHEN. + + Like a wise soldier on some task intent + Of moment and of hazard, who, at heart + Secure of prospering, yet no caution counts, + No pains, unworthy, but with wary feet + Explores his ground about him every rood, + All elements of chance forecalculates, + Draws to his part each doubtful circumstance; + Never too much provided, point by point + Equips himself superfluously strong, + That he prevailing may with might prevail, + And overcome with bounteous victory; + So Saul, firm in resolve and confident, + And inly stung with conscience and with zeal + Not to postpone his weighty work proposed, + Would not be hasty found, nor rash, to fail + Of any circumspection that his sure + Triumph might make more sure, or wider stretch + Its margin, certain to be wide. + Some days + After the council, he, with forecast sage + And prudence to prepare, refrained himself + From word or deed in public; while, at home, + Not moody, but not genial as his use, + His gracious use, was, self-absorbed, retired + In deep and absent muse, he nigh might seem + A stranger to his sister well-beloved, + Wont to be sharer of his inmost mind. + + Inmost, save one reserve. He never yet + Had shown to any, scarce himself had seen, + The true deep master motive of his soul, + That fountain darkling in the depths of self + Whence into light all streams of being flowed. + Saul daily, nightly, waking, sleeping, dreamed + Of a new nation, his belovéd own, + Resurgent from the dust consummate fair, + And, for chief corner-stone, with shoutings reared + To station in the stately edifice-- + Whom but himself? Who worthier than Saul? + + This beckoning image bright of things to be-- + Audacious-lovelier far than might be shown + To any, yea, than he himself dared look, + With his own eyes, steadfast and frank upon-- + Was interblent so closely in his mind + With what should be the fortune and effect + Of his intended controversy nigh, + That, though his settled purpose to dispute + He had for public reasons publicly + Declared, he yet in private, of that strife, + Still future, everywhere to speak abstained, + Abiding even unto his sister dumb. + + Rachel from Tarsus to Jerusalem + Had borne her brother company, her heart + One heart with his to cheer him toward the goal + Of his high purpose, which she knew, to be + Beyond his equals master in the law. + Alone they dwelt together, their abode + Between Gamaliel's and the synagogue + Of the Cilicians. Beautiful and bright + His home she made to him, with housewife ways + Neat-handed, and with fair companionship. + + The sister, with that quick intelligence + The woman's, first divined, for secret cause + Of this her brother's travailing silentness, + That he some pregnant enterprise revolved; + Then, having, with the woman's wit, found means + To advise herself what enterprise it was, + She, with the woman's tact of sympathy, + In watchful quiet reverent of his mood, + Strove with him and strove for him, in her thought, + Her wish, her hope, her prayer; nor failed sometimes + A word to drop, unconsciously as seemed, + By lucky chance, that might perhaps convey + A timely help of apt suggestion wise + To Saul her brother for his purpose, he + All undisturbed to guess that aught was meant. + + At home, abroad, reserved, Saul not the less + All places of men's frequence and resort + Still visited, and mixed with crowds to catch + The whisper of the people; active not, + But not supine, observing unobserved + As if alone amid the multitude. + The brave apostles of the Nazarene + He heard proclaim their master Lord and Christ, + And marked their method in the Scriptures; not + With open mind obedient toward the truth, + But ever only with shut heart and hard, + Intent on knowing how to contradict. + + Meanwhile the novel doctrines spread, and found + New converts day by day, and day by day + Proclaimers new. Of these more eminent + Was none than Stephen, flaming prophet he, + Quenchless in spirit, full of faith and power. + Him oft Saul heard, to listening throngs that hung + Upon the herald's lips with eager ear, + The claim of Jesus to Messiahship + Assert, and from the psalms and prophets prove. + + In guise a seraph rapt, with love aflame + And all aflame with knowledge, like the bush + That burned with God in Horeb unconsumed, + The fervent pure apostle Stephen stood, + In ardors from celestial altars caught + Kindling to incandescence--stood and forged, + With ringing blow on blow, his argument, + A vivid weapon edged and tempered so, + And in those hands so wielded, that its stroke + No mortal might abide and bide upright. + Stephen is such as Saul erelong will be + Risen from the baptism of the Holy Ghost! + + Saul felt the breath of human power that blew + Round Stephen like a morning wind, he felt + The light that lifted and transfigured him + And glorified, that bright auroral ray + Of genius which forever makes the brow + It strikes on from its fountain far in God + Shine like the sunrise-smitten mountain peak-- + Saul felt these things in Stephen by his tie + With Stephen in the fellowship of power; + Kindred to kindred answered and rejoiced. + But that in Stephen which was more and higher + Than Stephen at his native most and highest, + The inhabitation of the Holy Ghost-- + This, Saul had yet no sense to apprehend. + The Spirit of God, only the Spirit of God + Can know; the natural man to Him is deaf + And blind. Saul, therefore, seeing did not see, + And hearing heard not. But no less his heart, + In seeing and in hearing Stephen speak, + Leapt up with recognition of a peer + In power to be his meet antagonist + And task him to his uttermost to foil. + Beyond Saul's uttermost it was to be, + That task! though this of Stephen not, but God. + + Still goaded day by day with such desire + As nobler spirits know, to feel the strain + And wrestle of antagonistic thews + Tempting his might and stirring up his mind, + Saul felt, besides, the motion and ferment + And great dilation of a patriot soul, + Magnanimous, laboring for his country's cause. + He thought the doctrines of the Nazarene + Pernicious to the Jewish commonwealth, + Not less than was his person base, his life + Unseemly, and opprobrious his death. + He saw, or deemed he saw, in what was taught + From Jesus, only deep disparagement + Disloyally implied of everything + Nearest and dearest to the Hebrew heart. + The gospel was high treason in Saul's eyes; + Suppose it but established in success, + The temple then would be no more what erst + It was, the daily sacrifice would cease, + The holy places would with heathen feet + Be trodden and profaned, the middle wall + Of old partition between Jew and Greek + Would topple undermined, the ritual law + Of Moses would be obsolete and void, + Common would be the oracles of God, + To all divulged, peculiar once to Jews-- + Of Jewish name and nation what were left? + Such thoughts, that seemed of liberal scope, were Saul's, + Commingled, he not knowing, with some thoughts, + Less noble, of his own aggrandizement. + + It came at length to pass that on a day + The spacious temple-court is thronged with those + Come from all quarters to Jerusalem, + Or dwellers of the city, fain to hear + Once more the preacher suddenly so famed. + Present is Saul, but not as heretofore + To hearken only and observe; the hour + Has struck when his own voice he must uplift, + To make it heard abroad. + He dreamed it not, + But Rachel too was there, his sister. She + Had, from sure signs observed, aright surmised + That the ripe time to speak was come to Saul. + In her glad loyalty, she doubted not + That he, that day, would, out of a full mind, + Pressed overfull with affluence from the heart, + Pour forth a stream of generous eloquence-- + Stream, nay, slope torrent, steep sheer cataract, + Of reason and of passion intermixed-- + For such she proudly felt her brother's power-- + Which down should rush upon his adversaries + And carry them away as with a flood, + Astonished, overwhelmed, and whirled afar; + Rescued at least the ruins of the state! + So glorying in her high vicarious hope + For Saul her brother, Rachel came that morn + Betimes and chose her out a safe recess + For easy audience, nigh, and yet retired, + Between the pillars of a stately porch, + Where she might see and not by him be seen. + + Thence Rachel watched all eagerly; when now + The multitude, expecting Stephen, saw + A different man stand forth with beckoning hand + As if to speak. The act and attitude + Commanded audience, for a king of men + Stood there, and a great silence fell on all. + Some knew the face of the young Pharisee, + These whispered round his name; Saul's name and fame + To all were known, and, ere the speaker spoke, + Won him a deepening heed. + Rachel the hush + Felt with a secret sympathetic awe, + And for one breath her beating heart stood still; + It leapt again to hear her brother's voice + Pealing out bold in joyous sense of power. + That noble voice, redounding like a surge + Pushed by the tide, on swept before the wind, + And all the ocean shouldering at its back, + Which seeks out every inlet of the shore + To brim it flush and level from the brine-- + Such Saul's voice swelled, as from a plenteous sea, + And, wave on wave of pure elastic tone, + Rejoicing ran through every gallery, + And every echoing endless colonnade, + And every far-retreating least recess + Of building round about that temple-court, + And filled the temple-court with silver sound-- + As thus, with haughty summons, he began: + "Ye men of Israel, sojourners from far + Or dwellers in Jerusalem, give heed. + The lines are fallen to us in evil times: + Opinions run abroad perverse and strange, + Divergent from the faith our fathers held. + A day is come, brethren, and fallen on us-- + On us, this living generation, big + With promise, or with threat, of mighty doom. + Which will ye have it? Threat, or promise, which? + Yours is the choosing--choose ye may, ye must. + + "Abolish Moses, if ye will; destroy + The great traditions of your fathers; say + Abraham was naught, naught Isaac, Jacob, all + The patriarchs, heroes, martyrs, prophets, kings; + That Seed of Abraham naught, our nation's Hope, + Foretold to be an universal King; + Make one wide blank and void, an emptied page, + Of all the awful glories of our past-- + Deliverance out of Egypt, miracle + On miracle wrought dreadfully for us + Against our foes, path cloven through the sea, + Jehovah in the pillar of cloud and fire, + And host of Pharaoh mightily overthrown; + The law proclaimed on Sinai amid sound + And light insufferable and angels nigh + Attending; manna in the wilderness; + The rock that lived and moved and followed them, + Our fathers, flowing water in the waste-- + Obliterate at a stroke whatever sets + The seal of God upon you as His own, + And marks you different from the heathen round-- + Shekinah fixed between the cherubim, + The vacant Holy of Holies filled with God, + The morning and the evening sacrifice, + Priest, altar, incense, choral hymn and psalm, + Confused melodious noise of instruments + Together sounding the high praise of God; + All this, with more I will not stay to tell, + This temple itself with its magnificence, + The hope of Him foreshown, the Messenger + Of that eternal covenant wherein + Your souls delight themselves, Who suddenly + One day shall come unto His temple--blot, + Expunge, erase, efface, consent to be + No more a people, mix and merge yourselves + With aliens, blood that in your veins flows pure + All the long way one stream continuous down + From Abraham called the friend of God--such blood + Adulterate in the idolatrous, corrupt + Pool of the Gentiles--men of Israel! + Or are ye men? and are ye Israel? + I stand in doubt of you--I stand in doubt + Of kinsmen mine supposed that bide to hear + Such things as seems that ye with pleasure hear! + + "Say, know ye not they mean to take away + Your place and name? Are ye so blind? Or are + Ye only base poor creatures caring not + Though knowing well? Oft have ye seen the fat + Of lambs upon the flaming altar fume + One instant and in fume consume away; + So swiftly and so utterly shall pass, + In vapor of smoke, the glorious excellency, + The pomp, the pride, nay, but the being itself, + Of this our nation from beneath the sun, + Let once the hideous doctrine of a Christ + Condemned and crucified usurp the place + In Hebrew hearts of that undying hope + We cherish of Messiah yet to reign + In power and glory more than Solomon's, + From sunrise round to sunrise without end, + And tread the Gentiles underneath our feet." + + Indignant patriot spirit in the breast + Of Rachel mixed itself with kindred pride + And gladness for her brother gleaming so + Before her in a kind of fulgurous scorn + Which made his hearers quail while they admired; + She could not stay a sudden gush of tears. + + But Saul's voice now took on a winning change, + As, deprecating gently, thus he spoke: + "Forgive, my brethren, I have used hot words + Freely and frankly, as great love may speak. + But that I love you, trust you, hope of you + The best, the noblest, when once more you are + Yourselves, and feel the spirit of your past + Come back, I had not cared to speak at all. + I simply should have hung my head in shame, + Worn sackcloth, gone with ashes on my brow, + And sealed my hand upon my lips for you + Forever. Love does not despair, but hopes + Forever. And I love you far too well + To dream despair of you. Bethink yourselves, + My brethren! Me, as if I were the voice + Of your own ancient aspiration, hear. + Bear with me, let me chide, say not that love + Lured me to over-confidence of you. + + "Be patient now, my brethren, while I go, + So briefly as I may, through argument + That well might ask the leisure of long hours, + To show from Scripture, from authority, + From reason and from nature too not less, + Why we should hold to our ancestral faith, + And not the low fanatic creed admit + Of such as preach for Christ one crucified. + Be patient--I myself must patient be, + Tutoring down my heart to let my tongue + Speak calmly, as in doubtful argument, + Where I am fixed and confident to scorn." + + As when Gennesaret, in his circling hills, + By wing of wind down swooping suddenly + Is into tempest wrought that, to his depths + Astir, he rouses, and on high his waves + Uplifts like mountains snowy-capped with foam; + So, smitten with the vehement impact + And passion of Saul's rash, abrupt + Beginning, that mercurial multitude + Had answered with commotion such as seemed + Menace of instant act of violence: + But, as when haply there succeeds a lull + To tempest, then the waves of Galilee + Sink from their swelling and smooth down to plane + Yet deep will roll awhile from shore to shore + That long slow undulation following storm; + So, when, with wise self-recollection, Saul, + In mid-career of passionate appeal, + Stayed, and those gusts of stormy eloquence + Impetuous poured no longer on the sea + Of audience underneath him, but, instead, + Proposed a sober task of argument, + The surging throng surceased its turbulence, + And settled from commotion into calm; + Yet so as still to feel the rock and sway + Of central agitation at its heart, + While thus that master of its moods went on: + "What said Jehovah to the serpent vile + Which tempted Eve? Did he not speak of One, + Offspring to her seduced, Who should arise + To crush the offending head? No hint, I trow, + Of meekness and obedience unto death + Found there at least, death on the shameful tree, + Forsooth, to be the character and doom + Of that foretokened Champion of his kind, + That haughty Trampler upon Satan's head! + + "To Abraham our father was of God + Foretold, 'In thee shall all the families + Of the earth be blessed.' What blessing, pray, could come + Abroad upon mankind through Abraham's seed, + Messiah, should Messiah, Abraham's seed, + Prove to be such as now is preached to you, + A shame, a jest, a byword, a reproach, + A hissing and a wagging of the head, + A gazing-stock and mark for tongues shot out-- + Burlesque and travesty of our brave hopes + And of our vaunts, shown vain, rife everywhere + Among the nations, that erelong a prince + Should from the stem of Jesse spring, to sway + An universal sceptre through the world? + + "Did God mock Abraham? Did He mean, perchance, + That all the families of the earth should find + Peculiar blessedness in triumphing + Over that puissant nation promised him, + His progeny, to match the stars of heaven + For multitude, and be as on the shore + The sands, innumerable? Was such the sense + Of promise and of prophecy? Behooves, + Then, we be glad and thankful, we, on whom + The fullness of the time now falls, to be + This blessing to the Gentiles. But ye halt, + Beloved. Slack and slow seem ye to greet + The honor fixed on you. Why, hearken! Ye, + Ye, out of all the generations, ye + Fallen on the times of Jesus crucified, + May count yourselves elect and called of God + To bless the Gentiles, in affording them + Unquenchable amusement to behold + Your wretched plight and broken pride! Now clap + Your hands, ye chosen! Let your mouth be filled + With laughter, and your tongue with singing filled! + + "Nay, sons of Abraham, nay. No mocking words + Spake He who cannot lie, Lord God of truth + And grace. He meant that Abraham's race should reign + From sea to sea while sun and moon endure. + And ever a blessing true it is to men + To bend the neck beneath an equal yoke + Of ruler strong and wise and just to rule. + Then will at last the Gentiles blesséd be + In Abraham, when, from Abraham's loins derived + Through David, God's Anointed shall begin, + In David's city, His long government + Of the wide world, and every heathen name + Shall kiss the rod and own Messiah king. + + "Our father Jacob, touched with prophecy, + Spake of a sceptre that should not depart + From Judah until Shiloh came, to Whom + The obedience of the peoples was to be; + A sceptre, symbol of authority + And rule, law-giving attribute, resort + Of subject nations speeding to a yoke-- + Such ever everywhere in Holy Writ + The image and the character impressed + On God's Messiah, hope of Israel. + + "What need I more? Wherefore to ears like yours, + Well used to hear them in the temple chants + Resounded with responsive voice to voice, + Rehearse those triumphs and antiphonies + Wherein Jehovah Father to His Son + Messiah speaks: 'Ask Thou of Me, and I + To Thee the heathen for inheritance + Will give, and for possession the extreme + Parts of the earth. Thou shalt with rod of iron + Break them, yea, shatter them shalt Thou in shards, + Like a clay vessel from the potters hand. + Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings, be ye + Instructed, judges of the earth. Kiss ye + The Son, lest He be angry, and His wrath, + Full soon to be enkindled, you devour.' + Tell me, which mood of prophecy is that, + The meek or the heroic? Craven he, + Or king, to whom Jehovah deigns such speech, + Concerning whom such counsel recommends? + + "'Gird Thou upon Thy thigh Thy sword, O Thou + Most Mighty,'--so once more the psalmist, rapt + Prophetical as to a martial rage, + Breaks forth, Jehovah to Messiah speaking-- + 'Gird on Thy glory and Thy majesty; + And in Thy majesty ride prosperously, + And Thy right hand shall teach Thee terrible things. + Sharp in the heart of the king's enemies + Thine arrows are, whereby the peoples fall + Beneath Thee.' Such Messiah is, a man + Of war and captain of the host of God. + Nay, now it mounts to a deific strain, + The prophet exultation of the psalm: + 'Thy throne, O God' it sings--advancing Him, + Messiah, to the unequalled dignity + And lonely glory of the ONE I AM, + Audacious figure--close on blasphemy, + Were it not God who speaks--to represent + The dazzling splendors of Messiahship. + + "Let us erect our spirits from the dust, + My brethren, and, as sons of God, nay, gods + Pronounced--unless we grovel and below + Our birthright due, unfilial and unfit, + Sink self-depressed--let us, I pray you, rise, + Buoyed upward from within by sense of worth + Incapable to be extinguished, rise, + Found equal to the will of God for us, + And know the true Messiah when He comes. + Be sure that when He comes, His high degree + Will shine illustrious, like the sun in heaven, + Not feebly flicker for your fishermen + From Galilee to point it out to you + With their illiterate 'Lo, here!' 'Lo, there!'" + + At this increasing burst of scorn from Saul, + Exultant like the pæan and the cry + That rises through the palpitating air + When storming warriors take the citadel, + Once more from Rachel's fixéd eyes the tears + Of sympathetic exultation flowed-- + The sister with the brother, as in strife + Before the battle striving equally, + Now equally in triumph triumphing. + + But Saul, his triumph, felt to be secure, + Securer still will make with new appeal: + "If so, as we have seen, the Scriptures trend, + Not less the current of tradition too-- + No counter-current, eddy none--one stress, + Steady and full, from Adam down to you, + Runs strong the self-same way. Out of the past + What voice is heard in contradiction? None. + + "Turn round and ask the present; you shall hear + One answer still the same from every mouth + Of scribe or master versed in Holy Writ. + Tradition and authority in this + Agree with Scripture, teaching to await + For our deliverer an anointed king. + What ruler of our people has believed + In Jesus, him of Nazareth, Joseph's son, + As Christ of God? If any, then some soul + Self-judged unworthy of his rulership, + Secret disciple, shunning to avow + His faith, and justly therefore counted naught-- + Ruler in name, in nature rather slave. + + "And now I bid you look within your breast + And answer, Does not your own heart rebel + Against the gospel of the Nazarene? + 'Gospel,' forsooth! Has God, who made your heart, + Provided you for gospel what your heart + Rejects with loathing? Likely seems it, pray, + Becoming, fit, that He Who, on the mount + Of Sinai once the law promulging, there + Displayed His glory more than mortal eye + Could bear to look upon or ear to hear-- + Who in the temple hid behind the veil + Shekinah blazed between the cherubim-- + Nay, tell me, seems it tolerable even + To you, that your Jehovah God should choose, + Lover of splendor as He is, and power, + To represent Himself among mankind + Not merely naked of magnificence, + But outright squalid in the mean estate + And person of a carpenter, to die + At last apparent felon crucified? + Reason and nature outraged cry aloud, + 'For shame! For shame!' at blasphemy like this." + + A strange ungentle impulse moved the heart + Of Rachel to a mood like mutiny, + And almost she "For shame!" herself cried out + In echo to her brother's vehemence; + While murmur as of wind rousing to storm + Ran through the assembly at such words from Saul, + The passion of the speaker so prevailed + To stir responsive passion in their breasts. + This Saul perceiving said, in scornful pride, + Fallaciously foretasting triumph won: + "Ye men of Israel, gladly I perceive + Some embers of the ancient fire remain, + If smouldering, not extinguished, in your breasts. + I will not further chafe your noble rage. + You are, if I mistake not, now prepared + To hear more safely, if less patiently, + The eloquence I keep you from too long. + Let me bespeak for Stephen your best heed." + + And Saul, as if in gesture of surcease, + A pace retiring, waved around his hand + Toward Stephen, opposite not far, the while + His nostril he dispread, and mobile lip + Curled, in the height of contumelious scorn; + And Rachel, where she stood, unconsciously, + The transport of her sympathy was such, + Repeated with her features what she saw. + + + + +BOOK IV. + +STEPHEN AGAINST SAUL. + + +Stephen, following Saul, turns the tide of feeling overwhelmingly in +the opposite direction. Saul, however, but he almost alone--for even +his sister Rachel has been converted--stands out defiant against the +manifest power of God. Shimei appears as an auditor watching with +sinister motive the course of the controversy. + +STEPHEN AGAINST SAUL. + + The tumult grew a tempest when Saul ceased: + No single voice of mortal man might hope, + Though clear like clarion and like trumpet loud, + To live in that possessed demoniac sea + Of vast vociferation whelming all, + Or ride the surges of the wild uproar. + What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thy mad mind + So suddenly was soothed? Did 'Peace, be still!' + Dropping, an unction from the Holy One, + Softly as erst on stormy Galilee, + Wide overspread the summits of the waves + And sway their swelling down to glassy calm? + Stephen stood forth to speak, and all was still. + + Before he spoke, already Rachel felt + A different power of silence there, and sense, + Within, other than sympathetic awe; + This felt she, though she knew it not, nor dreamed + It was the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven! + + "Brethren"--so Stephen spoke, beyond his wont + Now, under awe of grave occasion, calmed + From God with power--"God's thoughts are not our thoughts, + Neither our ways His ways; for as the heavens + Are than the earth more high, so than our ways + More high are His, and His thoughts than our thoughts. + Our valued wisdom folly is to God + Full oft; then most, when folly seems to us + God's wisdom. Have ye yet to learn that God + Rejoices to confound the vain conceit + Of man? The Scriptures, then, search ye with eyes + Blinded so thick? It is Isaiah's word: + 'Jehovah, yea, hath poured upon you all + The spirit of deep sleep, and hath your eyes, + Those prophets of the soul that might be, closed, + Also your heads, meant to be seers, hath veiled; + And vision all is now to you become + Even as the words of a shut book and sealed. + Therefore Jehovah saith, For that this people + Draw nigh to Me in worship with their mouth, + But have their heart removed from Me afar, + While all their fear of Me is empty form + Enjoined of men, and idly learned by rote-- + Behold, a thing of wonder will I do + Among this people, wonder passing thought, + And perish shall the wisdom of their wise + And prudence of their prudent come to nought!' + + "Brethren, that was man's wisdom which just now + Ye heard, and were well pleased to hear, from Saul. + Hearken again, and hear what God will speak." + + At the first word that fell from Stephen's lips, + An overshadowing of the Holy Ghost + Hung like a heaven above the multitude; + With every word that followed, slow and full, + That awful cope seemed ever hovering down + Impendent nearer, as when, fold to fold, + Droops lower and lower a dark and thunderous sky. + The speaker used no arts of oratory; + Only a still small voice, not wholly his, + Nor wholly human, issuing from his lips, + Only a voice, but eloquence was shamed. + And Stephen thus his theme premised pursues: + "Rightly and wrongly, both at once, have ye + This day been taught of God's Messiah; King + He is, as Saul has said, but in a sense, + And with a highth and depth and length and breadth + And reach immense of meaning, that nor Saul, + Nor ye, nor any by the Holy Ghost + Untaught, have yet conceived. Not of this world + His kingdom is. The pageant and the pomp, + State visible, and splendor to the eye, + Are of this world that vanishes away, + And of the princes of this world that come + To naught. His glory whose the kingdom is + Whereof I speak, no eye hath seen, no eye + Can see. That vision is for naked soul. + + "The lordship and authority which craves + Obeisance of the knee, the lip, the hand, + And the neck breaks to an unwelcome yoke, + But traitor leaves the hidden heart within, + Rebel the will insurgent, infidel + The mind, the critic reason dissident, + And violated conscience enemy-- + Such rule is but the hollow show of rule, + A husk of vain pretence, the kernel gone. + + "No earthly kingdom such, Messiah's is, + Of nations hating and yet serving Him-- + Trampled into the dust beneath His feet, + And either cringing or else gnashing rage. + A kingdom here on earth of heaven to found, + From heaven to earth God's true Messiah comes; + A kingdom built of meek and lowly hearts + By Monarch meek and lowly to be ruled; + A world-wide kingdom and a time-long reign. + This kingdom new of heaven on earth commenced + Will gather Jew and Gentile both in one, + Whereso, of high or low, of rich or poor, + Heart ready to receive it shall be found, + In time or clime however hence afar. + For hear Him speak, the High and Lofty One + Who maketh His abode eternity: + 'Lo, in the high and holy place dwell I, + Likewise with him of meek and contrite mind.' + + "In those words were foreshown the things which are, + Brethren, and kingdom which we preach to you, + Messiah here indeed, His reign begun, + Invisible but glorious, on the earth. + He that hath ears to hear, lo, let him hear, + And hail the one right Ruler come at last; + Who rules not nations, masses of mankind + Only, with indiscriminate wide sway + Imperfect though to view magnificent, + By many an individual will unfelt; + But seeks His subjects singly, soul by soul, + And over each, through all within him, reigns. + Jew must with Gentile, heart by heart, submit + To own Messiah thus his Lord and King, + Throning Him sovereign in the realm of self, + The empire of a humble, contrite mind. + + "No other rule is real than rule like this, + The true Messiah's rule, which well within + The flying scouts and outposts of the man, + Wins to the midmost seat and citadel + Of being, where the soul itself resides, + And tames the master captive to its thrall. + Then sings the soul unto herself and says, + 'Bless thou, Jehovah, O my soul, and all + That is within me, bless His holy name!' + Filled is the hidden part with melody. + For joyfully the reason then consents, + The mind is full of light to see, and says + 'Amen!' the will resolves the opposite + Of its old self, won by the heart, which, more + Than mere obedience, loves; conscience the while + Delightedly infusing all delight, + And Holy Spirit breathing benison. + + "Such subjugation is a state of peace; + But peace, stagnation not, nor death. You live + And move and have your being evermore + Fresher and deeper, purer and more full, + Drawn in an ether and an element + Instinct and vivid with God. The appetites + Are subject servitors to will, the will + Hearkens to reason and regards its voice-- + Reason which is the will of Him who reigns, + Your reason and His will insensibly + Blending to grow incorporate in one. + Such is the kingdom of the Christ of God. + You easily miss it--for it cometh not + With observation; you must look within + To find it--pray that you may find it so." + + A mien of something more than majesty + In Stephen as he spoke, transfiguring him; + Conscious authority loftier than pride; + Deep calm which made intensity seem weak; + Slow weight more insupportable than speed; + Passion so pure that its effect was peace, + Beatifying his face; betokened power + Beneath him that supported him, behind + Him that impelled, above him and within + That steadied him immovable, supplied + As from a fountain of omnipotence; + An air breathed round him of prophetic rapt + Solemnity oppressive beyond words + And dread communication from the throne, + Moved near, of the Most High, which only not + Thundered and lightened, as from the touched top + Of Sinai once in witness of the law-- + Such might, not Stephen's, wrought with Stephen there + And laid his hearers subject at his feet. + + Saul saw the grasp secure that he had laid + Upon his brethren's minds and hearts--to hold, + He proudly, confidently deemed, against + Whatever counter force of eloquence-- + This tenure his he saw relaxed, dissolved, + Evanishéd, as it had never been. + Perplexed, astonished, but impenetrable, + Though dashed and damped in spirit and in hope, + Angry he stood, recoiled upon himself. + + But Rachel had a different history. + She felt her inmost conscience searched and known; + Sharper than any sword of double edge, + The Word of God through Stephen pierced her heart, + And there asunder clove her self and self. + She heeded Stephen's warning words; she looked + Within, she pressed her hand upon her heart + And prayed, "O God, my God, my fathers' God, + Thy kingdom--grant that _I_ may find it _here_!" + So praying she listened while farther Stephen spoke: + "That such a Ruler should be such as He + Whom we proclaim, the Man of Nazareth, + The Carpenter, the Man of Calvary, + Affronts your reason, tempts to disbelief-- + Doubtless; but all the more shown absolute + His sovereignty, transcendent, passing quite + Limit of precedent or parallel, + As nothing in Him outwardly appears + To soothe your pride in yielding to His claim. + Always the more offended pride rebels, + Is proved his triumph greater who subdues. + Deep is our human heart, and versatile + Exceedingly, ingenious past our ken, + Inventive of contrivances to save + Fond pride from hurt. But here is no escape; + Pride must be hurt and bleed, unsalved her wounds. + She may not conquer crouching, she must crouch + Conquered; nor only so, she must be glad + To be the conquered, not the conqueror; + Thus deeply must the heart abjure itself, + Thus deeply own the mastership of Christ. + Christ will not practise on your self-conceit + And lure you to obey illusively. + Obedience is not obedience + Save as, obeying, you love, loving, obey-- + The chief of all obediences, love." + + Such serene counter to his own superb + Disdain of Jesus wrought on Saul effect + Diverse from that meanwhile in Rachel wrought. + She yielded to exchange her standing-ground, + And ceased to hold her centre in herself. + Centred in God, she all things new beheld + Translated by the mighty parallax. + Open she threw the portals of her soul + And gave the keys up to her new-found King. + + But Saul more stubbornly than ever clamped + His feet to keep them standing where they stood. + Haughty, erect, rebuffing--he alone-- + He still stared on at Stephen, who Saul's scorn + Felt subtly like a fierce oppugnant force + Resistlessly attractive to his aim, + As, suddenly soon borne into a swift + Involuntary swerving of his speech-- + Himself, with Saul, surprising--he went on: + "Such lord, requiring such obedience, + In Him of Nazareth, a man approved + Of God by many mighty works through Him + Among you done, this day I preach to you, + My brethren all--my brother Saul, to thee!" + + Therewith full round on Saul the speaker turned; + That self-same instant, the seraphic sheen + Brightened to dazzling upon Stephen's face; + Saul standing there, transfixed to listen, blenched, + As if a lightning-flash had blinded him. + Then, prophet-wise, like Nathan come before + King David sinner, Stephen, his right hand + And fixed forefinger flickering forth at Saul, + An intense moment centred upon him, + Sole, the converging ardors of his speech-- + As who, with lens of cunning convex, draws + Into one focus all the solar rays + Collected to engender burning heat. + + Rachel, who saw Saul blench, and full well knew + What pangs on pangs his pride could force him bear-- + He smiling blithely while he inly bled-- + Watched, with a heart divided in sore pain + Between the sister's pity of his case + And sympathy against him for his sake, + As Stephen thus his speech to Saul addressed: + "Yea, to thee, Saul my brother, in thy flush + And prime of youth and youthful hope, thy joy, + Thy pride, of all-accomplished intellect, + And sense of self-sufficing righteousness-- + To thee, thou pupil of Gamaliel, thee, + Thou Hebrew of the Hebrews, Pharisee, + Against the gust and fury of thy zeal, + And in the teeth of thy repellent scorn, + Jesus the crucified I preach _thy_ lord. + Blindly with bitter hate thou ragest now + Against Him; but hereafter, and not long + Hereafter, thou, despite, shalt lie prostrate + Before Him and beneath Him in the dust, + Astonished with His glory sudden shown + Beyond thy power with open eye to see. + Lo, by the Holy Spirit bidden, I + This day plant pricks for thee to kick against. + Cruel shall be the torture in thy breast, + And unto cruel deeds thou didst not dream + The torture in thy breast will madden thee-- + The anguish of a mind at strife with good, + A will self-blinded not to cease from sin. + Nevertheless at length I see thee mild-- + Broken thy pride, thy wisdom brought to naught, + To thyself hateful thy self righteousness, + Worshipping at His feet whom late thou didst + Persecute in His members, persecute + In me. Lo, with an everlasting love + I long for thee, O Saul, and draw thee, love + Born of that love wherewith the Lord loved me + And gave Himself for me to bitter death." + + Rachel her prayer and love and longing joins, + With tears, to Stephen's, for her brother, who, + Conscious of many eyes upon him fixed, + Far other thought, the while, and feeling, broods. + + As captain, on the foremost imminent edge + Of battle, leading there a storming van + Of soldiers in some perilous attack, + Pregnant with fate to empire, if he feel + Pierce to a vital part within his frame + Wound of invisible missile from the foe, + Will hide his deadly hurt with mask of smile, + That he damp not his followers' gallant cheer; + Thus, though with motive other, chiefly pride, + Saul, rallying sharply from that first surprise, + Sternly shut up within his secret breast + A poignant pang conceived from Stephen's words, + Resentment fated to bear bitter fruit, + But melt at last in gracious shame and tears. + + With fixéd look impassible, he gazed + At Stephen, while, in altered phase, that pure + Effulgence of apostleship burned on: + "Nor, brethren, let this word of mine become + Scandal before your feet to stumble you + Headlong to ruin--'gave Himself for me + To bitter death'--implying it the Christ's + To suffer death in sacrifice for sin. + This is that thing of wonder prophesied, + Confounding to the wisdom of the wise; + A suffering Saviour, a Messiah shamed, + Monarch arrayed in purple robes of scorn, + With diadem of thorns pressed on His brow, + And in His hand for sceptre thrust a reed-- + The Lord of life and glory crucified! + + "Dim saw perhaps our father Abraham this, + Through symbol and through prophecy contained + In smoking furnace and in blazing torch + Beheld, that evening, when the sun went down + And it was dark. The smoking furnace meant + The mystery of the Messiah's shame + To go before His glory typified + In the clear shining of the torch ablaze. + + "Of the same mystery of agony + In sorrow, shame, and death, forerunning dark + The bright and brightening sequel without end + Of the Messiah's work, Isaiah spake, + When he foresaw His coming day from far. + The eagle vision of that seer was dimmed + With tears, like Jeremiah's, to behold + What he beheld--Messiah's visage so + Marred more than any man's, and so His form + More than befell the sons of men. He read, + Within the mirror of his prophecy, + Astonishment depicted in the eyes + Of many--in the eyes of which of you, + My brethren?--at a spectacle so strange. + The melancholy prophet saw a gloom + Of unbelief darken the world. 'What soul,' + Wails he, 'is found to credit our report? + To whom has been revealed Jehovah's arm + In such a wise outstretched to save?' Heart-sick + At what, too clearly for his peace, he sees, + Isaiah, turning from his vision, cries + In pain--consider, brethren, whether ye + Unwittingly fulfil what he portrays!-- + 'He was despised, rejected was of men, + A man of sorrows and acquainted well + With grief; as one from whom men hide their face, + Despised was He, and we esteemed Him not.' + + "Now our own gospel hear Isaiah preach, + The good news that such sufferings borne by Him, + Messiah, were for you, for us, for all: + 'Surely our griefs they were Messiah bore, + He carried sorrows that were due to us. + Yet we, alas, of Him as stricken thought, + Smitten of God, and for affliction marked!' + + "Would God, my brethren, ye who hear these things, + This day, were minded as the prophet was + Who thus from God reported them to you! + He but foresaw them, and he saw them; ye + Saw them, and did not see! And yet, even yet, + Look back, as forward he; lo, touch your eyes + With eyesalve that ye be not blind, but see! + See, with Isaiah, how Messiah was + 'Wounded for your transgressions, bruised so sore + For your iniquities, how chastisement + On Him was laid that peace should bring to you, + How stripes whereby He bled to you were health.' + + "Meekly and thankfully Isaiah sinks + Himself, one drop, into the human sea, + And says 'we,' 'our,' and 'us'--do ye the same. + O brethren, if this day ye hear His voice, + A whisper only in your ear from heaven, + I pray you, harden not your heart. Confess + Your fault, and say with your own prophet, 'We, + All we, like sheep, have gone astray, astray, + And God on Him hath laid the sin of all.'" + + At such expostulation and appeal + Ineffable, found hidden in the words + Of prophecy, Rachel her heart felt fail + Into a pathos of repentance sweet + With love and soft sense of forgiveness, bought + For her at cost so dear!--and she dissolved + In sobs and tears of sorrow exquisite, + Better than joy, and uncontrollable. + The mastership of Jesus now to her + Merged in the sweetness of His saviorship; + The duty of obedience to a Lord + All taken up, transfigured, glorified, + In the transcendent privilege of love. + Never such grief in joy, such joy in grief, + Was hers before--for self was wholly slain + And her whole life grew love unutterable. + + Yet longed she, with a hope that half was pain, + For Saul, while Stephen brokenly went on: + "O ye to whom for the last time I speak, + My heart is large for you, it breaks for you, + And melts to tears within me while I plead. + I pray you, I beseech you, in Christ's stead, + Be reconciled to God. Hearken this once + And answer, Were it set your task, in choice + Few words to frame the image and the lot + Of Jesus whom ye slew, how otherwise + More fitly could ye do it than was done + Aforetime by Isaiah when he wrote + Prophetically thus of Christ to be: + 'Oppressed He was, yet He abased Himself + And opened not His mouth; even as a lamb + Led to the slaughter, as a sheep before + Her shearers speechless, so He opened not + His mouth. His grave they with the wicked made, + And with the rich they laid Him in His death.' + Say, brethren, was not Jesus very Christ? + + "But, that ye err not, Messianic woe + Is not the end; a glorious change succeeds. + Isaiah chanted it in sequel glad + And contrast of the sorrow-laden strain + That mourned Messiah's sufferings; hear the song: + 'When thou, Jehovah, shalt His soul have made + An offering for sin, Messiah then + The endless issue of His pain shall see; + Still on and on He shall His days prolong, + And in His hand the pleasure of the Lord + Shall prosper; of the travail of His soul + He shall see fruit and shall be satisfied.' + So, with rejoicing too serenely full + For exultation, sang Isaiah then + Of Messianic glory following shame. + + "And now, concerning Jesus whom ye slew, + Know, brethren, that He burst the bands of death, + Which could not hold the Lord of life in thrall. + Know that He, having risen, rose again, + Ascending far above all height, and led + Captive captivity; attended so + With retinue of deliverance numberless, + He entered heaven a Conqueror and a King; + Before Him lifted up their heads the gates, + The everlasting doors admitted Him. + There sits He now associate by the side + Of His Almighty Father, Lord of all. + For to Him every knee shall bow, in heaven, + On earth, and every tongue confess that He, + Jesus, is Lord; Jehovah wills it so. + + "Fall, brethren, I adjure you, haste to fall + Betimes upon this stone and bruise your pride; + Wait but too long, this stone will fall on you: + Not then your pride, but you, not bruised will be, + But ground to undistinguishable dust." + + So Stephen spoke; and ceased, as loth to cease. + + The moments of his speaking had been like + A slow and dreadful imminence of storm. + With those august and awful opening words + Of his, which were not his, but God's, it was + As when an altered elemental mood + Usurps the atmosphere; the winds are laid, + Clouds gather, mass to mass, anon perchance + Roll back, disclosing spaces of clear sky, + But close again, deeper and darker, full + Of thunder, silent yet, of lightning, leashed + From leaping forth, but watchful for its prey. + Such had been Stephen's speaking, boded storm; + His ceasing was the tempest burst at last-- + A silent tempest, silent and unseen, + Rending the elements of the world of soul! + + Meanwhile the angels in attendance there, + Watching with eyes that see the invisible + Things of the spirit of man within his breast, + The posture and behavior of the mind, + Had seen exhibited amidst that late + Motionless multitude of souls suspense + With supernatural awe, a spectacle + Of consternation and precipitate flight + To covert, such as sometimes is beheld + In nature, when a mighty tempest lowers, + And man, beast, bird, each conscious living thing, + Shuddering, hies to hiding from the wrack. + With wild inaudible outcry heard in heaven, + That shattered congregation, soul by soul, + Each soul its several way, fled, to find shroud + From spiritual tempest hurtling on the head, + Intolerably, hailstones and coals of fire. + + But one excepted spirit stood aloof, + Scorning to join the fellowship of flight. + Like a tall pine by whirlwind lonely left + Upon his mountain, forest abject round, + This man dared lift, though sole, a helmless brow + Of stubborn hardihood to take the storm. + Others, dismayed, might flee to refuge; Saul, + Not undismayed, fronted the wrath of God. + + Shimei alone there neither stood nor fell; + By habit grovelling, on his belly prone, + Already prostrate he had thither come. + Incapable of awe from good inspired, + He, abject, but without humility, + Ever, by force of reptile nature, crawled; + And now had crawled, as, dusty demon's-heart + And vitreous eye of basilisk, he still-- + With equal, though with different, enmity, + Devising death for Stephen in his mind, + And studying slow prolonged revenge for Saul-- + Watched all, whatever chanced to either there; + But most, malignantly delighted, watched + Deepen the settled shadow on Saul's face + Cast from the darkness of his inner mood. + + + + +BOOK V. + +SAUL AND SHIMEI. + + +Saul, sullen, gloomy, and chagrined, over his discomfiture recently +experienced, is visited, in his self-imposed seclusion at home, +by Shimei, who, always by nature antipathetic to Saul, hates him +virulently now for the affront from him received publicly in the +late council. Shimei exasperates Saul with sneering, pretended +sympathy for him over his defeat at Stephen's hands; at the same time +disclosing the plot he has himself concocted, involving subornation +of perjury, with alleged connivance on the part of the Sanhedrim +in general, for the stoning of Stephen. Shimei gone, Saul, in the +open court of his dwelling, sits solitary, brooding in the depths of +dejection over the fallen state of his fortunes. + +SAUL AND SHIMEI. + + As if one, from some poise of prospect high, + Should overlook below a plain outspread + And see a bright embattled host, in close + Array of antique chivalry, supposed + Invincible, advancing, panoplied, + Horseman and horse, in steel, and with delight + Of battle pricked to speed, he--while that host, + Swift, like one man, across the field of war, + With pennons gay astream upon the wind, + And arms and armor flashing in the sun, + Moved to the sound of martial music brave-- + Might ask, "What strength set counter could withstand + The multiplied momentum of such blow?" + And yet, as, let a rock-built citadel + Upspring before them in their conquering way, + And, through embrasures in the frowning wall, + Let enginery of carnage new and strange, + Vomiting smoke and flame from hellish mouths-- + Let cannon, with their noise like thunder, belch, + Volleying, their bolts like thunderbolts amain + Among those gallant columns, then would be + Amazement seen, and ruinous overthrow; + So, late, to Saul's superbly confident + Assay of onset all seemed nigh to yield, + Till that the wisdom of the Holy Ghost, + Through Stephen speaking, made the utmost might + Of eloquence ridiculous and vain, + So was the duel all unequal, joined + By Saul with Stephen on that fateful day. + Though not ill matched the champions' native force + And spirit, and not far from even their skill, + Equipment disparate of weaponry-- + Human against Divine, infinite odds!-- + Made the conclusion of the strife foregone. + Had mortal prowess against prowess been + Between those twain the naked issue tried, + Saul, with his sanguine dash of onset, might + Perchance have won the day--through sheer surprise + Of sudden and impetuous movement swift + Beyond the other's readiness to oppose + An instantaneous rally of quick thought + And lightning-like alertness of stanch will + Mustering and mastering his collected might. + But the event and fortune of that hour + Resolved no doubt which combatant excelled + In wit or will or strength or exercise. + Stephen was fortressed round impregnably, + Saul stood in open field obvious to wound; + Saul wielded weapons of the present world, + Celestial weapons furnished Stephen--nay, + Weapon himself, the Almighty wielded him. + + Saul knew himself defeated, overwhelmed. + By how much he had purposed in his heart, + And buoyantly expected, beyond doubt + Or possible peradventure, to prevail, + More than prevail, triumph, abound, redound, + And overflow, with ample surplusage + Of prosperous fortune far transcending all + Public conjecture of his hoped success; + By so much now he found himself instead + Buried beneath discomfiture immense + And boundless inundation of defeat. + For multitudes of new believers won + To Stephen's side from Saul's thronged to the Way, + Storming the kingdom of heaven with violence. + It was a nation hastening to be born, + Like Israel out of Egypt, in a day. + As Israel out of Egypt were baptized + To Moses in the cloud and in the sea, + So Israel out of Israel Saul now saw + Baptized obedient into Jesus' name. + Dissolving round about him seemed to Saul + The earth itself with its inhabitants, + And, to bear up the pillars of it, he + A broken reed that could not stand alone! + + But, while thus worsted Saul forlornly felt + Himself, he by whom worsted missed to know. + His challenge was to Stephen; how should he + Guess that in Stephen God would answer him? + Unconsciously with God at enmity, + But with God's servant Stephen consciously, + Saul chafed and raged in proud and blindfold hate; + Half yet, the while, despising too himself, + Detected hating thus, by his own heart + Detected hating, his antagonist, + For the sole blame of visiting on him + The fortune he had purposed to inflict. + + Saul in such mood of rancor and remorse + Commingled--both unhappy sentiments + Still mutually exasperating each + The other--Shimei came to him. + Now Saul + And Shimei were two opposites intense + In nature, never toward each other drawn, + But violently ever sent asunder; + Yet chiefly by repulsion lodged in Saul, + Spurning off Shimei, as the good the evil; + For Saul instinctively was noble, frank, + And true, as Shimei instinctively + Was false, profound in guile, to base inclined. + But strangely, since that council wherein Saul + Fulmined his shame on Shimei's proffer vile, + Shimei had felt the other's scorn of him + A force importunate to tempt him nigh-- + Perverse attraction in repulsion found!-- + As evil ever struggles toward the good, + Not to be leavened with virtue issuing thence, + But leaven instead to likeness with itself. + So Shimei came to Saul, as knowing Saul + Spurned him avaunt with loathing; in degree + Attracted as he was intensely spurned. + He fain would feast his malice on the pride, + Seen writhing, fain would make it writhe the more, + Of Saul in his discomfiture. + With mien + Demure of hypocritic sympathy, + The nauseating vehicle of sneer, + Malignly studied to exacerbate + The galled and angry feeling in Saul's mind, + He thus addressed that haughty Pharisee: + "The outcome of your effort, brother Saul, + To vindicate the cause of truth and God-- + And therewithal justly advance somewhat + Your individual profit and esteem + As rising bulwark of the Jewish state, + Whereby so much the better you might hope + Hereafter to promote the general weal-- + This spirited attempt, I say, of yours + Has in its issue disappointed you, + You, and your friends no less, who, all of us, + Together with yourself, refused to dream + Aught but the most felicitous event + To enterprise with so much stateliness + Of dignity impressively announced + By you, and show of lofty confidence. + By the way, Saul, the grand air suits your style + Astonishingly well; I should advise + Your cultivation of it. Why, at times, + When you display that absolutely frank + And unaffected lack of modesty + Which marks you, really, now, the effect on me, + Even me, is almost irresistible; + I find myself well-nigh imposed upon + To call it an effect of majesty. + + "But, to sustain the impression, Saul, it needs, + Quite needs, that you somehow contrive to shun + These awkward misadventures; the grand air + Is less impressive in a man well known + To have made a bad miscarriage, such as yours. + For in fact you--with sincere pain I say it-- + But served to Stephen as a sort of foil + To set his talent off and heighten it. + You must yourself feel this to be the case; + For never since that windy Pentecost + In which we thought we saw the top and turn + To this delirium of delusion touched, + Never, I say, till now were seen so many + New perverts to the Nazarene as seems + You two, between you, you and Stephen, Saul, + Managed, that memorable day, to make. + It is a pity, and I grieve with you. + Still, Saul, let us consider that your case, + Undoubtedly unfortunate, presents + This one alleviating circumstance, + At least, that your defeat demonstrates past + Gainsaying what an arduous attempt + Yours was, and thereby glorifies the more + That admirable headiness of yours + Which egged you on to venture unadvised. + For my own part, I like prodigiously + To see your young man overflow with spirit; + Age will bring wisdom fast enough; but spirit, + Like yours, Saul, comes, when come it does at all, + Born with the man. Never regret that you + Dared nobly; rather hug yourself for that + With pride; pride greater, since, through proof, aware + You really dared more nobly than you knew. + + "Some increment too of wisdom you have won + From your experience; not to be despised, + Though ornament rather of age than youth. + I may presume you now less indisposed + Than late you were, to reinforce, support, + And supplement mere obstinacy--fine, + Of course, as I have said, yet attribute + Common to man with beast--by counsel ripe + And scheme of well-considered policy, + Adapted to secure your end with ease. + Economy of effort well befits + Man, the express image and counterpart + Of God, who always works with parsimony, + Compassing greatest ends with smallest means, + To waste no particle of omnipotence. + + "Count now that you have rendered plain enough + What single-eyed, straightforward stubbornness + Can, and cannot, effect in this behalf; + So much is gained; now be our conscience clear + To cast about and find some other means, + Than mere main strength in public controversy, + Of dealing with these raw recalcitrants. + They lacked the grace to be discomfited + In honorable combat fairly joined, + Let them now look to it how much their gross + Effrontery in overthrowing you + Shall profit them at last. I have a scheme"-- + + "Your scheme,"--so, from the depths of his chagrin + And anguish at the contact of the man, + Spoke Saul, unwilling longer to endure + The friction and abrasion of his words-- + "Your scheme, whatever it may be, cannot + Concern my knowing; nothing you should plan + Were likely to conciliate in me + Either my judgment, or my taste, or please + My sense of what becoming is and right. + I pray you spare yourself the pains to unfold + Further to me your thought; your work were waste." + + But Shimei, naught abashed, nay, rather more + Set on, imagining that he touched in Saul + The quick of suffering sensibility + Replied: + "Yea, brother Saul, I did not fail + In our late session to observe what you + Hinted of your unreadiness to accord + Your valuable support to my advice, + Advanced on that occasion loyally + However far outrunning what the most + Were then prepared frankly to act upon. + We weaker, Saul, who may not hope to be + Athletes like you, whose sole resource must lie + In studying more profoundly than the rest, + Are liable to be misunderstood + Not seldom, when, through meditation deep + And painful, we arrive to see somewhat + Beyond the common, and propound advice + Startling, because some stages in advance + Of the conclusions less laborious minds + Reach and stop at contented--for a while, + But which mere halting-places on the road + Prove in the end, and not the final goal. + You probably remember, when I told + The council that some good judicious guile + Was what was needed, not one voice spoke up + To second my suggestion. Very well, + The lagging rear of wisdom has since then + Moved bravely up to step with me, and now + We walk along abreast harmoniously + Upon the very road I pointed out; + 'Guile' is the word with all the Sanhedrim. + + "But stay, you may perhaps not be apprised + Exactly of the current state of things-- + You have kept yourself, you know, a bit retired + These few days past, a natural thing to do, + Under the circumstances, all admit-- + Well, we have made some progress; I myself, + To imitate your lack of modesty + And don the egotistic, I myself + Have not been idle; all in fact is now + Adjusted on a plan of compromise, + My own invention, everybody pleased. + We shall dispose of Stephen for you, Saul: + Council; Stephen arrested and arraigned; + Production of effective testimony; + A hearing of the accused; commotion raised, + While he is speaking, to help on his zeal; + Then, at the proper point, some heated phrase + Of his let slip, a sudden rush of all + Upon him with a cry of 'Blasphemy!'-- + Impulse of passionate enthusiasm, + You know, premeditated with much care-- + And he is stoned; which makes an end of _him_. + Such is the outline; not precisely what + I could have wished, a little too much noise, + The Mattathias tinge in it too strong-- + Still, everything considered, fairly good. + The moment favors; for the very fume + And fury of the popular caprice + Has put it out of breath; nay, for the nonce, + The wind sits, such at least my hope is, veered + And shifted points enough about to bear + A touch of generous violence from us; + Then, as for those our rulers, they connive. + + "You see I have been open to admit + Ideas the very opposite of my own. + I am not one to haggle for a point + Simply because it happened to be mine. + The end, the end, is what we seek; the means + Signifies nothing to the wise. 'Let us + Be wise,' as our friend Nicodemus said, + That day, with so much gnomic wisdom couched + In affable cohortative, as who + Should say encouragingly, 'Go to, good friends, + Let us be gods'; wisdom and godship come, + As everybody knows, with equal ease + Indifferently, through simple conative, + 'Let us,' and so forth, and the thing is done." + + This voluble and festive cynicism, + Taking fresh head again and yet again, + At intervals, to flow an endless stream, + From Shimei's mouth, of bitter pleasantry; + His vulgarly-presumed familiar airs + And leer of mutual understanding, felt + Rather than seen, upon his countenance; + The gurgling glee of self-complacency + That purred, one long susurrus, through his talk; + The insufferable assumption tacitly + Implied that human virtue was a jest + At which the wise between themselves might grin + Nor hide their grin with a decorous veil; + These things in his unwelcome guest, traits all + Inseparably adhering to the man, + Or fibre of his nature, Saul recoiled + From, and revolted at, habitually: + They rendered Shimei's very neighborhood + An insupportable disgust to him. + Still did some fascination Shimei owned, + Perhaps a show of wit in mockery, + Playing upon a momentary mood + Of uncharacteristic helplessness in Saul + (A humor too of wilfulness and spite + Against himself displacent with himself + That made him hold his sore and quivering pride + Hard to the goad that hurt it) keep him mute, + If listless, while thus Shimei streamed on: + + "Well, as I said, friend Saul, I had no pride + To carry an opinion of my own; + The scheme I brooded was a compromise. + I plume myself upon a certain skill + I have, knack I should call it, in this line. + I like a pretty piece of joinery + In plot, such match of motley odds and ends + As tickles you with sense of happy hit, + And here you have it. See, I take a bit + Of magisterial statesmanship to start + With--go to Rome, as Caiaphas advised, + Though not quite on his errand; Rome agrees + To wink, while we indulge ourselves in what + To us will be self-rule resumed, to her, + A spasm of our Judæan savagery. + Thus is the way made eligibly clear + For brother Mattathias with those stones + He raves about on all occasions--rubbed + Smooth, they must be, as David's from the brook, + With constant wear in Mattathias' hands! + Was it not grim to hear him talk that day? + His dream of Maccabæan blood aboil + Within his veins has been too much for him, + Made him a monomaniac on this point; + He sees before him visionary stones, + Imponderable stones torment his hands; + Give him his chance, have him at last let fly + A real stone, a hard one, at somebody, + Who knows? it might bring Mattathias round. + Stephen at any rate shall be his man, + His _corpus vile_, as our masters say-- + Fair game of turn and turn about for him, + Dog, to have handled you so roughly, Saul! + Trick of Beelzebub, no manner of doubt. + + "But here I loiter, while you burn of course + To hear what figure you yourself may cut + In my brave patchwork scheme of compromise. + I modestly adjoin myself to Saul, + And so we two go in together, paired-- + A little of your logic let into + A little of my guile, and a fine fit." + + Shimei had counted for a master stroke + Of disagreeable humor sure to tell + On Saul, the piecing of himself on him + In plan, conscious of Saul's antipathy. + But Shimei still misapprehended Saul, + Lacking the standard in himself wherewith + To measure or assay the sentiment + Of such as Saul for such as Shimei. + Saul simply and serenely so despised + Shimei, that nothing he should do or say + Could change Saul's sentiment to more, or less, + Or other, than it constantly abode, + The absolute zero of indifference. + Half absently, through fits of alien thought, + And half with unconfessed concern to know + What passed among his fellow-councillors + Abroad, a little curious too withal + Wondering how any artifice of fraud + Could Saul with Shimei combine, to make + Such twain seem partners of one policy-- + So minded, Saul gave ear, while Shimei thus + The acrid juices of his humor spilled: + + "Here is the method of the joinery. + You know you put it strongly that the end + Of that pretended gospel which they preach, + Would be to overturn the Jewish state, + Abolishing Moses, and extinguishing + The glory of the temple, and all that-- + Really sonorous rhetoric it was, + That passage, Saul, and it deserved to win; + But who can win against Beelzebub? + Logic turned rhetoric is my idea + Of eloquence, and my idea you + Realized; but Stephen, without eloquence, + Bore off from you the fruit of eloquence: + Never mind, Saul, it was Beelzebub. + Let rhetoric now go back to logic; you + Demonstrated so inexpugnably + The necessary inference contained + In Stephen's doctrine, hardly were it guile-- + Though doubtless you will call it such, you have + Your sublimated notions on these points-- + To say outright that Stephen taught the things + You proved implicit in the things he taught; + At all events, guile or no guile--in fact, + Guile _and_ no guile it is, if closely scanned-- + Here is the scheme:--We find some blunderheads, + Who, primed with method for their blundering, + Will misremember and transfer from you + To Stephen what you stated on this point. + These worthies then shall roundly testify + Before our honorable body met + To give the fellow his fair hearing ere + His sentence--said fair hearing not of course + Eventually to affect said sentence due-- + Shall, I say, swear that they distinctly heard + Stephen set forth that Jesus Nazarene + Was going to destroy this place and change + The customs Moses gave us; bring about + In brief precisely what, with so much force, + You showed would surely happen"-- + "Shimei"-- + Saul interrupted Shimei again, + Surprised into expression by the shock + To hear himself mixed up in any way, + Of indirection even, in fraud like this-- + "Shimei, I thought that nothing you could say + Would further tempt me into speech to you; + But you have broken my bond of self-restraint. + Suborning perjury! That well accords + With what you slanted at in council once, + And what I trusted I had then and there + Made clear my scorn of. Shimei, hear--I set + My heel upon this thing and once for all + Grind it into the dust." + "In figure, of course," + Promptly leered Shimei, interrupting Saul; + "The thing goes forward just the same; you set + It under foot--in your rhetorical way; + I, in my practical way, set it on foot; + No mutual interference, each well pleased. + + "But, seriously, Saul, you overwork + The idea of conscience. What is conscience? Mere + Self-will assuming virtuous airs. A term + Cajoles you into making it a point + Of moral obligation to be stiff. + Limber up, Saul, and be adjustable. + Capacity of taking several points + Of view at will is good. For instance, now, + Probably Stephen may, at various times, + Himself have stated quite explicitly + What your rhetorical logic showed to be + Inextricably held as inference + In his harangues. Take it so, Saul, if so + Render your conscience easier; I myself + Highly enjoy my easy conscience. Still, + Nothing could be more natural than that some, + Hearers non-critical, you know, should mix + What you said with what Stephen said, and so + Quite honestly swear falsely--to the gain + Of truth. And to whose loss? Stephen's, perhaps, + But other's, none. So, salve your conscience, Saul-- + Which somehow you must learn, and soon, to do; + Unless you mean to play obstructionist, + Instead of coadjutor, in the work + You, with good motive, but with scurvy luck, + Set about doing late so lustily. + Conscience itself is to be sacrificed, + At need, to serve the cause of righteousness. + What is it but egregious egotism + To obtrude, forsooth, a point of conscience, when + You jeopard general interests thereby? + One's conscience is a private matter; let + Your conscience wince a little, if need be, + In order that the public good be served. + That is true generosity. 'Let us + Be just,' said Nicodemus; good, say I, + But in this matter of our consciences, + Let us go further and be generous." + + As one who turns a stopcock and arrests + A flow of water that need never cease, + So Shimei left off speaking, not less full + Of matter than at first that might be speech. + With indescribable smirk, and cynic sneer + Conveyed, sirocco breath of blight to faith + In virtue and in good, he went away, + Cheering himself that he had somewhat chilled + Within the breast of that young Pharisee + The ardor of conviction, and of hope + Fed by conviction,--but still more that he + Had probed and hurt the festering wounds of pride. + + Saul's first relief to be alone again, + Rid of that nauseous presence, presently + Was followed by depression and relapse + From his instinctive tension to resist + The unnerving spell of Shimei's influence. + Saul found that in the teeth of his contempt + For Shimei, absolute in measure, nay, + By reason of that contempt, he had conceived + Shame and chagrin beyond his strength to bear. + That Shimei, such as Shimei, should have dared + To visit Saul, and drill and drill his ears, + With indefatigable screw of tongue + Sinking a shaft through which to drench and drown + His soul with spew from out a source so vile-- + This argued fall indeed for him from what + He lately was, from what he hoped to be, + Far more, in popular repute. The sting + That Shimei purposed subtly to infix, + With that malicious irony and taunt + Recurrent, the intentional affront, + All of it, failed, blunted and turned in point + Against the safe impenetrable mail + Of Saul's contempt for Shimei. But that + Which Shimei meant not, nor dreamed, but was, + Went through and through Saul's double panoply, + Found permeable now, of pride and scorn, + And wilted him with self-disparagement. + + He marvelled at himself how he had not, + At first forthputting of that impudence, + Stormed the wretch dumb, with hurricane outburst + Of passionate scorn; a quick revulsion then, + And Saul was chafing that he had so far + Grace of rebuff vouchsafed, and honest heat, + To creature lacking natural sense to feel + Repudiation. Comfort none he found, + No refuge from the persecuting though + Of his own fall. He tried to brace himself + With thinking, "If I failed, I failed at least + Not for myself, but God; I strove for God." + But, ceaselessly, the image of himself, + Humiliated, swam between to blur + His vision of God. He could not cease to see + Saul ever, in the mirror of his mind, + And ever Stephen shadowing Saul's fair fame. + + + + +BOOK VI. + +SAUL AND RACHEL. + + +To Saul, wrapt in his gloomy contemplations, Rachel unobtrusively +presents herself. Conversation ensues between them, and Saul confides +to his sister his own most secret purposes and hopes, dashed now +so cruelly. The fact, however, at length comes out that Rachel was +herself converted to Christianity as a result of Stephen's reply +to Saul. Saul instantly hereon experiences a violent revulsion of +feeling. He breaks away from Rachel, spurning her, and breathing out +threatening and slaughter against the Christian church. + +SAUL AND RACHEL. + + Saul thus forlorn, a voice smote on his ear, + Voice other than of Shimei, clear and sweet; + The very sound was balsam to his pain. + Rachel's the voice was, who, with deep distaste, + As jealous for her brother, had perceived + The entering in to Saul of his late guest + Ill-favored, and through all his stay had still, + Impatiently awaiting, wished him sped. + He now some moments gone, she issued forth + From out her curtained chamber glimpsing gay + Behind her, through the hangings, as she passed, + With color--stuff of scarlet, linen fine + Embroidered, weft of purple tapestry, + Her handiwork--and sending after her + Sweet scent of herb and flower, her husbandry-- + Forth issued, and across the inner court + Open to heaven--small close of paradise, + A tall palm by a fountain, bloomy shrubs, + And vines that clad with green the enclosing walls-- + Stepped lightly to Saul's side. Saul sat beneath + A tent-cloth canopy outspread, his own + Tent-making skill--the high noon of the sun + To fend, if place perchance one then might wish + In which free air to breathe safe from the heat-- + There sat relapsed, deep brooding gloomy thoughts, + When now his sister pausing stood by him. + A lovely vision! Moving, or at rest, + Ever a rapture Rachel seemed of grace + Which but that moment that felicity + Of posture or of gesture had attained, + By accident, yet kept it, through all change, + Inalienably hers, by right divine + Of inward rhythm that swayed her heart in tune. + + The sister had, with love's observance, watched + Some days the phases of her brother's mood, + Biding her time to speak; and now she spoke. + "Brother," she murmured softly, "thou art sad. + Thy brow is written over like a scroll + With lines of trouble that I try to read. + Unbind thy heart, I pray, to me, who grieve + To see thee grieve, and fain at least would share + Such brother's sorrow as I may not soothe." + + This suave appeal of sister's sympathy + Won upon Saul to wean him from himself-- + A moment, and that moment he partook + Comfort of love, nepenthe to his pain, + While thus he answered Rachel: + "Nay, but thou, + My sister, thou thyself art to me rest + And solace. Sit thee down, I pray, beside + Thy brother. But to have thee nigh as now + Refreshes like the dew. I bathe my heart + In thee as in a fountain. Ask me not + To ease its aching otherwise than so. + Pillow me on thy love and let me rest + In silence from the sound of my own voice. + I hate myself, Rachel." + "But I love thee, + My own dear, noble brother," Rachel said; + "I love thee, and I will not let thee hate + Thyself. Brother and sister should be one + In love and hate. Hate what I hate, and what + I love, love thou--that is true brotherhood." + + "Safe law of brotherhood indeed for me, + With thee for sister, Rachel," Saul replied, + With fondness and self-pity, as he kissed + The pure young brow upturned toward him; "but me, + Thou dost not know me as I know myself." + + "O nay, but better, brother," Rachel said; + "Right hate is good, as good as love. So, hate, + But not thyself, Saul. Shall I tell thee one + To hate? I hate him, and I counsel thee, + Hate, Saul, that evil man I saw but now + Steal from his too long privilege at thine ear." + + "Him, Rachel," Saul replied, "I cannot hate; + Hatred is made impossible by scorn." + + "Thou scornest him," she said, "but not too much + To have been disturbed by him. The cloudy brow, + So unlike my brother--I have brought it back, + I see, dear Saul, by only mentioning him. + Hate him well, Saul, and be at peace again. + To hate is safer, better, than to scorn. + We scorn with pride, we must with conscience hate, + Such hating as I mean. Thou art too proud, Saul." + + Saul answered, "For my pride I hate myself." + + But she: "Were it not wiselier done to hate + One's pride, than for one's pride to hate one's self? + Whoever hates himself for his own pride + Still keeps the pride for which he hates himself. + Hate and abjure thy pride, and love thyself." + + "Easy to say, O Rachel, hard to do," + Sighed Saul,--"at least for such as I, who am + Too proud, too proud! Thou seest that after all + Thou and myself know Saul alike, too proud, + Albeit the too proud man we treat unlike, + Thou loving and I hating him." + + "O Saul," + Thus spoke she, gazing steadfastly at him, + But sudden-starting tears swam in her eyes, + "O Saul, Saul, Saul, my brother, whence is this? + Thou wert not wont to talk thus. Changed art thou + Since when I heard thee speak in that dispute + With Stephen--" + + "Thou heard'st me?" asked Saul. + + "Yea, Saul," + Rachel replied, "I heard both thee and him." + (Saul proudly hid an answering hurt of pride.) + "I heard thee, brother, and was proud for thee; + I never knew more masterful high speech + Fall from thy lips. My heart leaped up for joy + To listen. When those men of Israel + Shouted, I shouted with them, silently, + Louder than all. God heard the secret noise, + Like thunder, of the beating of my heart + In sister's pride for brother's victory. + I crowned thee, I anointed thee my king, + So glorious wast thou in thy conquering might! + And that effulgent pride upon thy brow!" + + "But when," said Saul, forestalling ruefully + The expected and the dreaded change and fall + From such a chanted pæan to his praise-- + "But when"-- + + "But when, O Saul," she said, "when he, + Stephen, stood forth to answer thee, there was-- + Didst thou not feel it?--" + + "Sister, yea, I felt, + More than my sister even could feel, that I + Was baffled, put to shame." + + "Nay, nay," she said; + "Not that, O Saul, dear Saul, it was not that." + + "What, then? For I felt nothing else," said Saul; + "That feeling filled me, as sometimes the sound + And stir of whirlwind fill the firmament. + My mind was one mad vortex swallowing up + All other thought than this, 'Saul, thou art shamed!'" + + "Why, Saul," cried she, "what canst thou mean? Thou shamed? + How shamed?" + + "Rachel, I lost, and Stephen won." + + "What didst thou lose?" said Rachel, wonderingly; + "And what did Stephen win, that also thou + Won'st not? I cannot understand thee, Saul." + + Such crystal clearness of simplicity + Became a mirror, wherein gazing, Saul + Beheld himself a double-minded man. + How should he deal with questioner like this? + + "Why, Rachel, canst thou then not understand," + He said, "how I should wish to conquer?" + + "Yea," + Said she, "for truth's sake, Saul. And still, if truth + Conquered, though not by thee, thou wouldst be glad, + Wouldst thou not, Saul? Here sad I see thee now, + As if truth's cause were fallen--which could not be, + Since truth is God's--and yet thou sayest not that, + But, 'Saul is shamed!' and, 'Saul has lost!' Not truth, + But Saul. I cannot understand. Thou hadst + Perhaps, unknown to me, some other end + Than only truth, which also thou wouldst gain?" + + It was his sister's single-heartedness + That helped her see so true and aim so fair. + Saul was too noble not to meet her trust + In him with trust in her as absolute. + + "Rachel," he said, his reverence almost awe, + "Never did burnished metal give me back + Myself more truly, outer face and form, + Than the pure tranquil mirror of thy soul + Shows me the image of my inner self. + The truth I see by thee is justly thine, + And thou likewise shalt see it all in all. + + "The law of God was ever my delight, + As thou knowest, sister, who hast seen me pore + Daily from boyhood on the sacred scroll + Of Scripture, eager to transfer it whole + Unto the living tablets of my heart. + And I have sought, how earnestly thou knowest + To make my life a copy of the law. + No jot or tittle of it was too small + For me to heed with scruple and obey. + With all my heart was I a Pharisee, + Born such, bred such, and such by deep belief. + + "But more, my sister. Musing on the world, + I saw one nation among nations, one + Alone, no fellow, worshipper of God, + The True, the Only, and by Him elect + To be His people and receive His law; + That nation was my nation. My heart burned, + Beholding in the visions of my head, + The glory that should be, and was not, ours. + Think of it, sister, God Himself our King, + And bondmen we of the uncircumcised! + I brooded on the shame and mystery + With anguish in the silences of night. + I saw the image of a mighty state + Loom possible before me. Her august + And beautiful proportions, builded tall + And noble, rested on foundation-stones + Of sapphire, and in colors fair they rose; + Her pinnacles were rubies, and her gates + Carbuncles--I beheld Jerusalem, + The city of Isaiah's prophecy; + Her borders round about were pleasant stones. + She sat the queen and empress of the earth; + The tributary nations, of their store, + Poured wealth into her lap, and vassal kings + Hasted in long procession to her feet. + The throne and majesty of God in her + Held capital seat, or his vicegerent Christ + Reigned with reflected splendor scarce less bright. + Such, sister, was the dream in which I lived, + Dream call it, but it is the will of God, + More solid than the pillared firmament. + + "Was it a fault of foolish pride in me, + Did I aspire audaciously, to hope + That I, by doing and by daring much, + Beyond my equals, might beyond them share + Fulfilments such as these? I heard a voice + Saying, 'Prepare the Lord His way.' I thought + The Lord was near, and what I could, I would + Do to make wide and smooth and straight His way + Before Him, ere He came. I trusted Him + That, when He came, He in His hands would bring + Large recompense for servants faithful found, + And not forget even Saul, should haply Saul + Not utterly in vain prove to have striven, + Removing from the path of His approach + The stone of stumbling. + "Sister, these are thoughts + Such as men have, but cherish secretly, + Even from themselves, and never speak aloud + To any; I have now not spoken these + To thee; thou hast but heard a few heart-beats + Rendered articulate breath by grace of right + Thine own to know the truth, who hast the truth + Revealed to me. + "O other conscience mine, + Wherein have I gone wrong? I felt the power, + Asleep within me, stirring half awake, + To take possession of the minds of men + And sway their wills; the world was not too wide + To be the empire I could rule aright, + As chiefest minister, were such His will, + Of God's Messiah. Some one needs must sit + At His right hand to hear and execute + His pleasure--why not Saul? Who worthier? + But now, alas! less worthy who, or who + Less likely? I am fallen, am shamed--past hope, + Past hope! I who aspired to greatest things + Am to least things by proof unequal found! + How shall I _not_ hate Stephen, who has wrought + On me this great despite--besides what he + Wrought on the suffering cause of truth divine?" + + Rachel's heart heaved, but in what words to speak + She did not find. Saul into his dark mood + Retired, and sat in silence for a while. + Returning, then, for torture of himself, + To that which Rachel brokenly began + To say, and left unsaid, Saul asked of her: + "What was it, sister, thou beganst to tell, + When, not thy brother, but thy brother's spleen, + Broke thy words off with interruption rude? + Something it seemed of how, at Stephen's words, + A change fell on thee, from thy first applause + Of me--" + + "O Saul! A chasm of difference," + So to her brother, Rachel sad burst forth, + "Yawns betwixt thee and me this day, how wide, + How wide! I feel the bond of sisterhood, + Stretching across, not strained to break--for that + Shall never, never be, in any world, + O brother, truest, noblest, best beloved!-- + But strained to draw thee to me where I am + From where thou art, far off, albeit so near!" + + "A tragic riddle which I fail to read, + Rachel," said Saul, perplexed; "solve thou it me." + + "Brother, I fear I cannot," Rachel said; + "But loyally I will try. When Stephen stood + To answer thee that day, a power not he + Oppressed my spirit with a sense of weight, + Gentle but insupportable, which grew + Instantly greater and greater, until it seemed + Ready to crush, unless I yielded; Saul, + I yielded, and that weight became as might + Which passed to underneath me and upbore." + + "Rachel, be simpler," Saul severely said; + "My soul refuses to be teased with words. + Meanest thou this, that Stephen mastered thee?" + + "Nay, Saul, my brother," meekly Rachel said, + Meekly and firmly; "Stephen not, but God. + No man could master me away from Saul. + Proudly I was thy vassal sister, Saul, + Until God summoned me with voice that I + Might not resist; God's vassal am I now, + But sister still to thee, and loyal, Saul, + Beyond all measure of that loyalty + I held before, which made me proud of thee, + And glad of thee, and spurred me on to praise + My brother as the paragon of men. + O Saul--" + + "Nay, Rachel," Saul said, with a tone + Repressive more than the repressive words, + "I will not hear thee further in this vein. + Thou art a woman, and I must not blame + Thy weakness; sister too to me thou art, + And I will not misdoubt thy love; but thou + Hast added the last drop of bitterness + To the crowned cup of grief and shame poured out + For me to drink. Go, Rachel, muse on this: + A brother leaned an aching, aching heart + Upon a sister's bosom to be eased, + And that one pillow out of all the world + To me, that trusted downy softness, hid + The cruelest subtle unsuspected thorn. + Saul's sister a disciple and a dupe + Of those that preach the son of Joseph, Christ! + And this, forsooth, the fruit that was to be + Of Saul's aspiring trust to strike the stroke + That in one day should crush the wretched creed! + Rachel, methinks thou mightst have spared me this! + But nay, my sister, better is it so. + Haply no barb less keen had stung me back + To my old self and made me Saul again-- + The weakling that I was, to pule and weep, + As if the cause were lost and all were lost! + I thank thee, sister, thou hast done me good, + Like medicine--like bitter medicine! + Tell me true, Rachel, thou didst feign me this, + To rouse me from my late unmanly swoon. + That is past now; I rise refreshed and strong, + I see my path before me, stretching straight, + I enter it to tread it to the end. + Doubt not but I shall feel the wholesome hurt + Of the shrewd spur my sister, with wise heart + Of hardness, plunged full deep into my side + Betimes, when I was drooping nigh to sink. + Peace to thee, sister, cheer thee with this thought, + 'I saved my brother from the last disgrace + By a disgrace next to the last--it was + A hard way, but the only, and it sped!'" + + Such cruel irony from her brother cut + The tender heart of Rachel like a knife. + But more for Saul she grieved than for herself; + She knew that naught but anguish of chagrin + The sharpest could have tortured out from him, + So noble and so gentle, any taunt. + From sheer compassion of his misery, + She wept, and said: + + "O Saul, Saul, Saul--" + + But he: + "Rachel, no more; already deep enough, + I judge, for present use, the iron has gone; + I shall not falter; thou mayst safely spare + To drive it deeper now--it rankles home. + And surely, if hereafter I should feel, + At some weak woman's moment, any touch + Of foolish tenderness to make me pause + Relaxing and relenting from my course-- + A sad course, Rachel, traced in blood and tears!-- + Should ever such a softness steal on me, + Surely I should but need remember thee, + Thou younger playmate of my boyhood! thee, + Mirror, that was, of saintly sisterhood! + Loveliest among the daughters of thy race + Once, to thy brother! fountain flowing free + Of gladness, never sadness, unto him!-- + Never of sadness until now, but now-- + O Rachel, Rachel, sister, changed this day + From all thou wert to what I will not name-- + Surely I shall but need bring back this hour, + And let the image of my sister pass-- + O broken image of all loveliness, + Distained and broken!--pass before my eyes, + As here I see her, separate from me + Forever, and outcast from God--that thought, + That image, shall make brass the heart of Saul, + And his nerve iron, to smite and smite again, + Until no wily Stephen shall remain + For any silly Rachel to obey!" + + Fierce so outbreathing threat and slaughter, Saul + In bitterness of spirit broke away. + + + + +BOOK VII. + +STEPHEN AND RUTH. + + +Rachel in dismay soliloquizes. She at length resolves on conveying to +Stephen, through Ruth, his wife, a warning of his danger. Ruth, not +a Christian, expostulates with her husband, attempting to dissuade +him from his course--a course certain, she says, to end fatally for +him. After a gentle, long, anguished effort on his part to bring Ruth +to sympathy with himself in his Christian faith, Stephen parts from +her with presentiment that it is never to return. Under the power of +the Holy Spirit, he takes his way from Bethany, where his home is, to +Jerusalem. His friends. Martha and Mary, with their brother Lazarus, +see him going, and follow. + +STEPHEN AND RUTH. + + Rudely thus parted from his sister, Saul + Straightway sought certain of his synagogue-- + The synagogue of the Cilicians--men + Less alien from himself than Shimei was + In spirit, while compatriot too by birth + As was not Shimei, an Asian he-- + And these made privy to his changed resolve. + They, glad of such adhesion, opened free + Their counsel to him, telling, with grimace + Added, and shrug of shoulder, to attest + Their scorn of Shimei, Shimei's scheme, which they + Sourly, as from compulsion, now took up. + Saul, swallowing a great throe of innermost + Revolt that well-nigh mastered him, subscribed + Himself, by silence, partner of their deed. + + Rachel, spurned from him by her brother, sat + Moveless a while, the image of dismay, + Her two ears caves of roaring sound, her mind + A whirling void of sheer astonishment. + When presently the storm a little calmed + Within her, and she knew herself once more, + She cleared her thought by settling it in words-- + Words which through fluent mood and mood changed swift + From passionate soliloquy to prayer, + And from prayer back to soft soliloquy: + "My brother shall not excommunicate + His sister! While I love him he is mine, + And I shall _not_ be 'separate' from him + 'Forever'--let him hate me as he will, + Who hates himself, and otherwise amiss + Hates liberally. Why did I let him go? + I should have held him, should have told him I + Am of one blood with him, as high as he + In spirit; though a 'woman,' not to be + Put down; he gave me right, with speech like that, + To equal him in stinging word for word. + I could have done it. Woman am I? Yea, + And Deborah was a woman, Miriam too. + I feel my blood a-tingle in my veins + With lust to have him back, and make him know + The lion with the lamb lies down in me + Together; and I showed him but the lamb! + The lion rouses late, occasion gone! + Did he cow me? So tamely I endured + His contumely! Anger none till now, + Nor shame not to be angry at such speech + From him; but now--anger with burning shame + Turns inward and incenses me like fire. + I scorn myself for that, reed-like, my head + I bowed before the tempest of his scorn, + When blast for blast I should have blown him back + His tempest." + + Rachel's indignation so + Like a sea wrought and was tempestuous. + But the recoil of her own violent speech + First gave her pause, then pierced her with remorse. + Daily, from when she, hearing Stephen speak, + Heard God through Stephen speaking, and obeyed, + Rachel, first having in baptism testified + Her death to sin, her birth to righteousness-- + Never her absent brother dreaming it-- + Gladsome had broken bread of fellowship + With the disciples of the Lord, and learned, + Both from their lips and from their lives beheld, + Deep lessons in the lore of Jesus, apt + By the tuition of the Holy Ghost. + The better spirit, for a moment lost, + So lately made her own, came back to her. + Sadly she mused, recalling her hot words + Of passion: + "'Tempest'? Tempest sure just now + Hummed in me. 'Scorn myself'? What word was that? + Rachel forsooth forbade Saul saying, 'I hate + Myself'--and scorn herself does she, yea, here + Sit impotently brooding scorn for scorn + To rival him? Surely I missed my way. + 'Scorn,' 'hate,' one spirit both these speak, such scorn + Such hate, in him, in me. One spirit both, + And that the spirit of this world, not His, + Not Christ's, no spirit of Thine, O Crucified, + Thou meek and lowly holy Lamb of God! + Forgive, forgive me, from Thy cross of shame + And passion, O Thou suffering Son of God! + Once prayedst Thou thence for those that murdered Thee, + 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what + They do.' I knew not what I did when so + I crucified Thee afresh through shameful pride. + My heart breaks with my sorrow for my sin, + A broken and a contrite heart, O Lord, + Thou never wilt despise. + "And now yet more + My heart breaks with forgiveness poured on me. + O sweet and blessed flood, pour on me still! + Deliciously I tremble and rejoice. + To be thus broken is bliss more to me + Than to be whole. I love to lie dissolved, + Dissolving, under this soft fall of peace + Distilled like dew from out Thy bleeding heart! + Lo, here I wholly, wholly, wholly yield + To Thee, O Christ, am fluid utterly, + To take whatever shape Thee best may please. + Remake me after Thine own image, Lord! + + "I pray Thee for my brother. Suffer not + That he act out his purposed madness. Save, + O save him from that dreadful sin he means + Against Thee and against Thy holy cause. + I cannot bear it, that my brother rage + Against Thee like the heathen. Thou art strong, + O Christ! I pray Thee--Thee I pray, O Christ, + Thee only, for none other can--meet Thou + And master Saul! His sister pleads with Thee; + I plead for his sake, he being dear to me, + But more for Thine own name and glory's sake, + And for Thy suffering cause! + I thank Thee, Lord, + With joyful tears, I thank Thee, gracious Lord, + That Thou restrainedst me dumb with silence then + When Saul spake evil of me--for Thy sake. + Through Thee, Who, when reviled, reviledst not + Again, through Thee, through Thee, I, also I, + Proud foolish Rachel, then refrained from words! + No taunt retorted, no reproach, no blame, + Stung him from me to sin; I thank Thee, Lord, + For that! + "Now is there naught that I may do? + May I not warn that prophet Stephen? Saul + Wildly foreshadowed harm himself might wreak + On him; and what meant Shimei's visit here? + Mischief, no doubt of that; collusion strange, + Incredible, impossible, such twain, + That Shimei and my brother! I will go + And talk with Stephen's wife, her, what I can, + Without disloyalty to Saul, stir up + To fear for Stephen's safety; he need not, + Surely, dauntless high prophet of the Lord + Although he be, still ready-girt to die, + Rush blindfold into danger unforewarned." + + So to the house of Stephen Rachel went + With haste, and there, in darkened words to Ruth, + Perturbed her woman's breast with vague alarms: + 'Her husband must of stratagem beware, + And even of violence, aimed against his life.' + Stephen, by Ruth his wife, of all advised, + Armed him his heart to face what must befall. + + Ruth shook him to the centre of his soul + With storms of wife's complaints and love and tears: + "Nay, Stephen, many a time, bear witness thou, + My heart before she came misgave me sore; + But now, since Rachel's words, no peace I find + Concerning thee, in this thy wilful way + Wherein thou goest--whither, I know not, whence, + Too well I know, for from a home thou goest + Once happy, ere this madness came on thee!" + Sharply so Stephen's wife upbraided him. + Gravely and gently he admonished her: + "Name it not madness, woman, lest thereby + Thou sin that sin against the Holy Ghost. + No madness is it when the soul of man + Is sovereignly usurped by the Most High + To be the organ of Almighty Will. + I yield myself, nay, Ruth, I join myself, + To God--no blind unsharing instrument, + But joyful partner of His purposes." + + Solemnly chided so, Ruth quick replied: + "And what if of His purposes one be + To let thee plunge, as headstrong, so headlong, + Thy way to bloody death, thou stiff-necked man? + Thou hearest what Rachel brings us, doubtful hint + Indeed, but therefore in itself to me + Only more fearful; and how fearful joined + To what thyself confessest thou of late, + With thine own ears, hast, from the public mouth, + Heard--instigated whisper, Shimei's brew, + Accusing thee of treason to the hope + Of Israel, and purpose to destroy + The temple, and the customs do away + Which Moses left us! Stephen, all these signs + Singly, much more together, point one way-- + They threaten death to thee, if thou persist + To preach things hateful to the wise and good." + + Ruth intermitted, and her husband said: + "The danger, Ruth, I know, but I must not, + For danger, slack obedience to my Lord." + + Then Ruth said: + "But I only ask that thou + Now, for a little, prudently abide + In hiding till this storm be overpast." + + He, with a glance of irony, replied: + "And always run to covert at the first + Bluster of opposition? Yea, to some + That is permitted; but to other some, + Whereof am I, only to stand foursquare + And take the buffet of whatever storm. + And the best prudence is obeying, Ruth." + + High answered Stephen thus, but Ruth rejoined: + "Stephen, thou ever wert a stubborn will, + And overweening of the wisdom thine, + Hard-hearted and unloving never yet, + Never, till now. How canst thou bide thus calm, + And I, thine erst loved wife, beheld by thee + So tossed with tempest and not comforted?" + + Wherewith self-pity broke her words to sobs: + She fell on Stephen's neck and wept aloud. + With both his arms he folded her about, + While his heart, hugely swelling in his breast, + Forced to his eye the slow, large, rounding tear. + It was as if a cloud that wished to rain + Strongly held back its drooping weight of shower. + His melting voice at last he fixed in words: + "What meanest thou to weep and break my heart, + O thou, mine own, most loving and most loved + Of women? Flesh cries out to flesh in me + Against the purpose of my spirit set + To crucify the flesh with its desires!" + + Ruth caught her sobs and held them while she spoke: + "Flesh of thy flesh am I; thou slayest me + In slaying thyself; I will not have it so. + Not ready yet am I to die in thee; + And thee God surely needs alive, not dead: + The dead cannot praise God nor serve His cause. + Who will so preach that gospel that thou lovest + When thou art gone? Who then will silence Saul? + I tell thee, Stephen, this is Satan's guile-- + To get thee slain--and overmatch mightst thou + The arch-deceiver, easily, if thou wouldst, + So easily--only live." + + Conclusive seemed + Her argument to Ruth and stanched her tears. + She gently disengaged the fond embrace + That held her to her husband's heart, and, drawn + A little backward from his face her face, + She smiled on him like sunshine after rain. + Smiling pathetically back, he kissed, + With kisses that she felt like sacraments, + Then, and forever after till she died, + His wife's brow beautiful with hope, and said: + "Ruth, thou hast said; it is, be sure, his guile, + Satan's, whereby I presently shall die; + If so to die indeed be mine, who feel + Too young still, and too strong, too full of hope, + Too full of--shall I name it, Ruth?--too full + Of God Himself, the Holy Ghost, to die! + For He within me lives such life and power, + Death seems impossible, all weakness seems + Far off, an alien thing, and not for me; + I am immortal and omnipotent. + That, Ruth, is when I stand to speak for God, + Preaching to men the gospel of His Son. + + "But when, as now, I sit with thee and talk, + Or when my children cluster round my knees, + And I hear husband, father, from fond lips + Pressed to these lips so oft, and with such joy, + When all the dearness that is meant by home, + And all the drawing lodged in kindred blood, + And all that sense, unutterably deep, + Of oneness, soul in soul, with those we love-- + O Ruth!--but, Ruth, our tears commingled flow, + 'Tis our hearts flow together in those tears! + O wife and life, when all that I have said, + And that far more which never tongue could say, + Surges upon me, surge on surge of thought + And feeling, like an overflowing flood, + Belovéd, then, how weak I am, how frail, + How low and like to die! I lean toward thee, + As if the oak should lean upon his vine." + + Ruth took his word from him and made reply: + "So lean on me, my love, and be at rest; + Lean, and make proof how vines at need are strong. + In me no faltering purpose weakens will. + Thou speakest of flesh within thee crying out + To flesh against the spirit--warfare strange + Of elements that dwell in me at one. + My nature moves straightforward all one way. + Rebellion none, no mutiny, I find + Only resolve to thwart thy mad resolve, + Thy half resolve, say rather, half and mad-- + So proved by these compunctious visitings + Thou hast, these gracious sweet remorses wise, + Relentings toward thy children and toward me; + Divine presages, Stephen, scorn them not, + Sent to forewarn thee ere it be too late! + + "Bethink thee, Stephen, when didst thou before, + Ever, thus will and straight unwill, thus halt, + Thus parley with thyself, thus stand in doubt + Like a reed shaken with the wind, as now + I see thee here? Thou art not like thyself; + Not like that Stephen, ready, combative, + Thy stature still elastically tall + To tower and overtop and overfrown + Whatever front of menace challenged thee. + By thy changed state, I pray thee, be advised. + God teaches thee hereby. He does not wish + Thy will with thy desire to be at war. + Give up thy heady will, and let desire, + Divinely wise, the wisdom of the heart, + Guide thee; her ways are ways of pleasantness, + And all her paths are peace." + + Again well pleased + With her own argument, Ruth tearful smiled + A smile that, tenfold tender through those tears, + Was argument to Stephen more than words. + From deep within he heaved a sigh and said: + "Oh! Woman! Woman! Ruth, thou teachest me + How Adam could, by Eve's enticement drawn, + Be even beguiled to die. And now, to live, + Not die, my Eve entices me. O Ruth, + I feel, I feel, doubt not but that I feel, + The sweet, the subtly sweet, dissolving spell + Of wish infused by thee, with thee to live, + With thee and for thee, nay, in thee, as thou + In me--this twain one life, how dear, how dear! + O wife, what is there that I could not bear + And dare of hard and high, wert thou, with smiles + And tears and love, for Christ but eloquent, + As all too well I feel thee eloquent + For our sweet selves?" + + Ruth's heart sank, but she said: + "O Stephen, for our children!" Then she threw + Her head upon his bosom, there in tears, + With passionate sobs and throbs, poured out her heart. + + He mightily a mighty swell that yearned + To be a storm within him, ruled, and said: + "Nay, Ruth, but we forget. Life beyond life + Remains to us and to our children. We, + Forgetfully, desire and hope and fear + As if death bounded all. A little while + And Christ will come again. Then they that sleep + In Him will wake to Him, and they that still + Wake when He comes, but love Him, will, with those + Late sleeping in Him now awake, ascend + To meet the Lord descending, in the air: + Thenceforward all that love Him, loved of Him, + Will be forever with Him where He is, + Beholding there His glory. Blessed state! + No tears, no fears, no hearts that break, no hearts + That will not break, although they ache the more, + Perhaps, God knows, not breaking--naught of these, + And naught of any ill, but only peace, + Joy, love, security of peace and joy + And love, and fellowship in peace and joy + And love, forever, perfect, more and more, + With vision beatific still of Him + Who washed us in His blood and made us kings + And priests to God. Ruth, here is hope indeed + For us that will not make ashamed." + + But Ruth + Unhearing heard and was not comforted. + She raised her head from Stephen's breast, with act + As if to part herself in hope from him, + And, with regard made almost alien, said: + "Hug thou thy hope, thy hope is not for me. + He could not save himself, thy Christ, but died + As the fool dieth--and as die wilt thou, + If thou despise my counsel! Stephen, I + Would rather take my lot a little less, + Less large, less perfect, and less durable, + Than that thou figurest in thy fantasy, + So I might have it something different + From that, real, substantial, palpable + To sense, something whereof one could be sure. + I am no visionary. Take, say I, + With thanks the good God gives us now and here; + Not spurn His bounty back into His face, + And reach out emptied hands of wanton greed + To grasp at more He has not offered us. + We have no right to throw our life away!-- + In hope of life hereafter, only ours + Then when with patience our appointed time-- + '_All_' our appointed time, Stephen--we wait, + Till our change come." + + Ruth's chill repellent tone, + Her mask of manner hard, could not deceive + Her husband, who, through such disguise with pain + Put on, well recognized a new device + Of wife's love, versatile as resolute, + Constraining tenderness to play severe. + Yet not the less for that, more rather, he + Felt at her words a dull weight of despair + Oppress his spirit; he could only pray, + In silent sorrow not to be expressed, + "O Holy Ghost of God, pity and save!" + A hundred times so praying for his wife, + In anguished iteration o'er and o'er, + Stephen not speaking sat, and speechless she. + + At last, as if one bound with green withes rose + Rending the withes to rise, rose Stephen, sweat + Of supreme agony victorious + At dreadful cost dewing his brow; he took + His wife's hand solemnly and tenderly, + His port majestical compelling awe, + And, with tense speech, in tones that strangely mixed + The husband with the prophet, slowly said: + "Farewell, Ruth, for the hour is fully come + That I must hence. The burden of the Lord + Is instant and oppresses me. I go, + Whither I know not, but He knows, to bear + Witness once more to His most worthy name. + I thought that I should never preach again + His gospel in those temple courts, but now + Perhaps He wills even that; whatever be + His purpose, unforeshown, I welcome it. + + "Lo, Ruth, this is the last time, for full well + I know I never shall come back to thee! + Come thou to me, I charge thee that, and bring + Our children to their father. Always think + Hereafter, 'He, that last time, charged me that!' + I think my God in this has heard my prayer, + And I go hence in comfort of some hope. + Our children! Oh! My children! God in heaven, + Have mercy! How a father pitieth + His children, think of that, and pity me! + A father lays them on a Father's heart; + Father, I charge Thee, by Thy father's-heart, + Not one be plucked from out His Father's hand! + Lord Christ, see Thou to this, in session there + Forever, interceding for Thine own! + + "Ruth, give their father's blessing to our babes; + I trust that they will cheer their mother well, + When I am gone, and cheer thee to the end. + Their sweet unconscious voices now I hear + In laugh and prattle of pathetic glee! + I fain would see their faces once again, + Kiss them once more, and take a last caress! + But nay, I spare myself one pang; sweet babes, + They are too young to know! But by and by, + When they are older and will understand, + Then tell them thou what I now cannot, say, + 'Your father loved you, loves you, and will love + Forever--that was his last word to me + For you.' So, Ruth, farewell!" + + With first his hands, + Both, placed in solemn blessing on her head, + She kneeling by his knees, forth from his house + Therewith went Stephen all as in a trance. + With open eyes that saw not, yet with steps + Guided--how, he well knew, but whither not-- + In simple rapt obedience, he his way + Took absently like one that walks in sleep. + + Stephen his home had fixed in Bethany-- + Sequestered hamlet on the slope behind + The Mount of Olives from Jerusalem. + Mary and Martha, here, and Lazarus, + He knew and loved; and with them oft, their guest, + Held converse sweet of what He said and did, + And was, the Friend Who wept when Lazarus died, + The Lord of life through Whom he lived again: + But Ruth, self-sundered from this fellowship, + Abode apart, or only with them bound + In bonds of kindly common neighborhood. + These marked when Stephen, marking not, passed by, + That day, steps toward the holy city bent, + And to each other said: 'He goes once more + Bound in the spirit to Jerusalem + To preach the gospel of the grace of God. + Behold the lit look on the forward face! + Behold the gait half-buoyed as if with wings! + It is like Jesus hastening to His cross! + Lo, let us follow!' and they followed him. + But he went ever onward, slacking not + His steps, nor heeding when the brow he reached + Of Olivet and thence, across the deep + Ravine of Kedron worn with rushing floods, + Before him and beneath him saw outspread + The city of David with its palaces. + + + + +BOOK VIII. + +STEPHEN MARTYR. + + +As Stephen approaches the temple, he is suddenly arrested and brought +before the Sanhedrim. There making his defence, he is interrupted +with hostile demonstrations, instigated by Shimei. On this, he bursts +out with noble indignation, which furnishes the desired occasion +for a cry against him of "Blasphemy!" from all, and for a violent +hurrying forth of the prisoner without the walls to be stoned. A +file of Roman soldiers confronts and stays the tumultuous crowd; +but, after parley conducted by Shimei with the centurion, their +leader, the rout is suffered to proceed. Meantime, however, a little +company of sympathizing Christians, including Rachel with the three +from Bethany, have gathered round Stephen and listened to cheerful, +tranquillizing words from him. After the stoning, these friends carry +the body of Stephen for laving to the pool of Siloam, whence by +moonlight up Olivet to Bethany. Here they lay it in a room of Martha +and Mary's house until morning. + +STEPHEN MARTYR. + + The sun of Syrian afternoon, declined + Half-way betwixt the zenith and the west, + Burned blinding in the cloudless blue of heaven + And fired a conflagration in the copes + Of beaten gold hung over the august + House of Jehovah, whither Stephen now + Tended unconsciously with wonted feet. + That spectacle of splendor he, agaze + With holden unbeholding eyes, saw not, + Or, as but with his heart beholding, saw + Only as goal of his obedience due. + Down the abrupt declivity with speed, + The westward-slanting slope of Olivet, + Descending by a path stony and steep-- + The same whereon full often to and fro + Had fared the Blessed Feet, between the dust + And din and fever of Jerusalem, + And the sweet purity and peace, the cool, + The quiet, of that home in Bethany, + His refuge!--so descending, Stephen passed + On his right hand Gethsemane, that moved + Muse of the Master's agony for men, + Crossed Kedron, and thence upward pressing gained + Gate Susan, whence the temple nigh in view. + 'Perhaps,' thought he, 'perhaps, once more, against + My expectation, I am thither brought + To preach as when I answered Saul that day. + The Lord will show me, in full time, alike + What I must speak, and when, and where.' + + So wrapt + In welcome of the will unknown of God, + And full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, + Stephen with no amazement was afraid + When, suddenly and rudely, in the street, + A band in service of the Sanhedrim + Set on him, and, by their authority, + Seized him and brought him prisoner accused + Of blasphemy before their council, there + To be examined for his words and deeds. + Captive in body, he in soul was free, + Exulting in that glorious liberty, + The sense of sonship to Almighty God. + + False witnesses, by Shimei suborned, + And well their lesson taught by Shimei, + Stood forth, who, to the teeth of Stephen, swore: + "This person never ceases speaking words + Against this holy place and Moses' law; + We heard him say that Jesus Nazarene + Is going to destroy this place, and change + The customs Moses handed down to us." + + All the assessors in the Sanhedrim, + Fastening their eyes on Stephen, saw his face, + As it had been an angel's, kindling shine. + Saul marked it, and remembered how that day + The lightning of that face had blinded him! + + The high priest now, accosting Stephen, asked, + "Are these things so?" and Stephen thus replied: + "Brethren and fathers, hearken to my words. + With ears that tingle to the echoes yet, + Perchance, of that high passionate harangue + Which late from Saul ye heard concerning wounds + Intended to this Jewish commonwealth, + Ye now have heard forsooth again from these-- + How temple, law, and well-belovéd ways + Bequeathed us by our fathers from of old + Are threatened in the message that I preach. + + "But, brethren, he mistakes who deems that God + Is to one place, one race, one time, one clime, + One mode of showing forth Himself, shut up. + Consider through what phases manifold + Has passed already heretofore God's way + With men; thence learn how lightly reckons God + Of place or method. + "Unto Abraham first + Before he came to Charan, while he yet + Dwelt in the land between the rivers, God + Appeared. Nor in a place thus holy made, + And glorious, by theophany, was he, + Our father, suffered to abide. 'Arise,' + Jehovah said, 'and get thee hence and come + Into the land which I will show thee.' Then + To Charan that obedient pilgrim passed. + Nor there found he a settled rest. Again + He journeyed and in Canaan, this fair land + Wherein ye dwell, a sojourner became; + For here God gave him no inheritance, + Promising only that in after times + That childless father's children here should dwell. + + "Meanwhile another change, and now what seems + A long postponement of the purposed grace. + Four hundred years should Abraham's seed sojourn + As strangers in an alien land where they + Should suffer bondage and an evil lot: + Delivered thence with judgment on their foes, + They then should hither come and here serve God. + + "Yet when the ripeness of the time was full, + And Moses offered to deliver them, + Our fathers doubted and refused his hand: + But Moses notwithstanding led them out. + And that same Moses prophesied of One + To follow him as Prophet Whom must all + Obey. Yet Moses, mouth of God to men, + Obeyed our fathers not, but, in their hearts + Gone back to Egypt, spurned him far aloof + From them. Then followed that apostasy + To idols, by Jehovah God chastised, + On those offending, with captivity + Which beyond Babylon carried them away. + + "Albeit Jehovah gave to Moses such + Honor as never yet to man was given, + Still much that Moses wrought was cast aside. + That tabernacle, made by him express + As God Himself had shown him in the mount, + And so inwove with Hebrew history, + God suffered this to pass, and in its place + Preferred the temple built by Solomon. + + "Yet not in houses built with human hands + Dwells the Most High; as, by His prophet, God + Says, 'On the heaven sit I as on a throne, + And the earth make a footstool for My feet.' + 'What house will ye build Me,' the Lord inquires, + 'Or what shall be the place of Mine abode?'" + + So far a loth penurious decent heed + The council had grudged out to Stephen; here + The scowl of curious incredulity, + Wherewith they listened while as yet in doubt + Whither might tend his drift of argument, + Changed to a frown of deadly hate, as they + Conclusion from his use of Scripture drew + That Stephen glanced at overthrow indeed + Meant for the temple. Instantly, alert + To seize occasion, Shimei the sig + Gave to prepared conspirators, who now + Obediently framed a menace grim + Of gesture to denounce the speaker's aim; + And all the council, as one man, astir + With insurrection, frowned a vehement + Refusal to receive the word of God. + + Stephen beheld their aspect, and his soul, + Dilating to a seraph's measure, filled + With sudden prophet's zeal aflame for God. + He forged his indignation into words + Which, like bolts kindling, now he launched at them. + He said: + "Stiff-necked ye, and uncircumcised + In heart and ears! Always do ye resist + The Holy Ghost; as did your fathers, so + Do ye. Which of the prophets did they not, + Your fathers, persecute? Who showed before + The coming of the Just One, those they slew; + And of Him now have ye betrayers been + And murderers. Ye who the law, received + At angels' disposition, have not kept!" + + Cut to the heart at this, those councillors + Gnashed with their teeth on Stephen. + But that sight + Stephen, his eyes rapt elsewhere, did not see. + Full of the Holy Ghost, his face he raised, + Gazing with sense undazzled into heaven, + And saw the glory of God, and Jesus there, + Not sitting, as at ease, but, as in act + To help, standing, on the right hand of God. + He testified that vision thus to men: + "Opened see I the heavens and standing there + The Son of Man on the right hand of God." + + Thereat a loud acclaim of hatred forth + Burst in one voice from all the Sanhedrim. + Full come was Shimei's opportunity. + As started Mattathias to his feet + In honest wrath instinctive, Shimei too + Rose, counterfeiting wrath, sign understood + By his complotters, who now likewise rose + In simultaneous second and support, + Setting the council in a wild turmoil. + They stopped their ears, and all together ran + On Stephen with tumultuary rage + To thrust him forth without the city walls. + + The rush of such commotion through the streets, + A torrent madness raging on its way, + Raging and roaring, every moment more, + Roused a wide wind of rumor and surmise + Troubling the air of all Jerusalem. + Tremor of this reached Rachel's jealous sense, + On edge--she knowing that the Sanhedrim + Would that day summon Stephen to its bar-- + To fear the worst for Stephen and for Saul. + But Ruth, her home more distant, she at home + Urged by importunate cares which for her wrought + Some present respite from the strain and pain + Of that farewell with Stephen--vexing thought! + Too certain to return insistently, + In waking and in sleeping vision, soon, + At night upon her bed, unbidden guest, + And haunt her bosom with sad memories, + And vague, unhappy, beckoning shapes of fears!-- + Ruth, so precluded, nothing knew of all. + + Rachel, with other women of the Way + Like-minded with herself, pathetic group! + Drew timorous nigh the ragged rushing rim + Of that confusion pouring toward the gate + Which northward opened on Damascus road. + + The self-same path it was whereby had walked + A little while before, bearing His cross, + The Saviour of mankind toward Calvary. + Stephen remembered, and, remembering, went + Both meekly more, and more triumphantly, + To suffer like his Lord without the gate. + He said within himself, 'I follow Him; + I feel His footprints underneath my feet.' + Those women watched the martyr every step, + And with hands waved signalled him sympathy. + Such helpless help was help the more to him-- + Who had no need, but gave them back again + Their sympathy in looks of strength and cheer + Which bade them too be faithful unto death, + As they saw him that day. The peace of God, + Lodged in his heart--a trust from Christ, Whose word + Was, "Peace I leave with you, My peace to you + I give; not as the world gives give I you: + Let not your heart be troubled, neither let + It be afraid"--that peace steadfast he bore + Amid the tumult round him, the one thing + Not shaken in a shaken universe, + Like the earth's axle sleeping and the earth + Whirling from centre to circumference! + + Not yet the rout had reached the city gate, + When, lo! a sudden halt, a sudden hush, + Arrested and becalmed the multitude. + A file of Roman soldiers from the fort, + With swift, straight, sure lock-step, steel-clad, that clanged, + Flowed like a rill of flowing mercury, + Heavy yet nimble, through a street that crossed + The course of that mad progress, and, athwart + Its head abutting, stayed; the clang of pause + Rang sharper than the clang of the advance. + The leader, a centurion, sternly spoke: + "What means this uproar? Seek ye to provoke + Your rulers? Love ye, then, your yoke so well + Ye fain would feel it heavier on your necks? + Sedition into insurrection grows + Full easily, and this sedition seems. + Speak, who can tell, and say, What would ye?" + Prompt, + Then, Shimei, of the foremost, stepping forth + Said; + "This is no sedition as might seem; + A crushing of sedition rather. We, + The Sanhedrim"--wherewith a smirk and bow + From Shimei, with wave of hand swept round + Upon his colleagues in their sorry plight + Dishevelled, seemed, in sneering cynic sort, + To introduce them with mock dignity-- + "We Sanhedrim this fellow caught employed + In stirring up sedition, and our zeal + For peace and order under Roman rule + Inflamed us, following our forefathers' way, + To visit death on him without the gate. + We beg you will allow us to proceed + And put to proof of act our loyalty"-- + Hot breath, half hiss, from Mattathias here-- + "This script perhaps will help determine you." + + And Shimei handed up a tablet writ. + The Roman read: + "Let this disorder pass; + It may be useful. Watch it well." + The seal + Once more with care examined, parley had + With Shimei, whose crafty answers meet + Each wary scruple of the officer, + And sign is given to let the rout proceed. + + Meantime a different scene has quietly + Been passing unperceived. That company + Of ministering women Rachel found, + Salomé, and the Marys, blessed name! + With others who had followed and bewailed + When Jesus suffered--these, joined now by those + From Bethany, with Lazarus, prevailed + To edge their way ungrudged through the close ranks + Of idle gazers round not undisposed + Themselves to sympathize, until they stood + Nigh Stephen, and in undertones could speak + With him, and hear his words. + "Weep not for me," + He said, "ye blesséd! I am well content. + I think how short the way is, not how sharp, + To Jesus where just now I saw Him. There + He stood in heaven on the right hand of God. + He seemed to lean toward me with arms outstretched + As if at once to take me to Himself! + I spring toward Him with joy unutterable. + I shall not feel the pain, which will but speed + Me thither. He hath overcome the world. + Be of good cheer, belovéd, ye who wait + A little longer to behold His face. + For you too He hath overcome the world. + Be strong, be faithful, be obedient, + A little while--and we shall meet again + Safe, happy, in the New Jerusalem, + Forever and forever with the Lord. + + "But Ruth, my wife, yet unbelieving--care + For her and for my children! God will give + All to our prayers. And Husband He will be + To her, and Father to the fatherless." + + Rachel to Lazarus whispered: + "Tell him I, + Rachel, Saul's sister, would do something. Ask + What I may do for Ruth, to testify + A sister's sorrow for a brother's fault. + And let him not think hardly, not too hardly, + Of Saul who wrongs him so!" + + And Lazarus + Told Stephen, who, with look benign addressed + To Rachel, said: + "Thou, Rachel, thou thyself, + No other, shalt to Ruth my wife convey + Her husband's very last farewell; good-night + Call it, and bid her meet me there to say + Good-morning. Comfort her with words. To Saul + Say--when the time comes he will hear, not now-- + That all is well, is wholly well. I go-- + And that is well--perhaps in part through him, + Which seems not well, but is, by grace of Christ, + Who thus, in part through me--and surely that + Likewise is well--erelong will make of Saul, + In Stephen's room, a more than Stephen both + To preach and suffer for His name. This hope + Be thine, Rachel, and God be with thee, child!" + + Martha, her hand as ready as her heart, + Had other cheer provided than of words. + 'The willing spirit, if the flesh be weak, + May faint,' she thought, 'and angels strengthening Him + Brought Jesus succor in Gethsemane. + May I not be his angel, Stephen's, now, + And his flesh brace to bear his agony?' + She said to Stephen: + "I have brought thee here + A cake of barley and a honeycomb. + I pray thee eat and cheer therewith thy heart." + "God bless thee, Martha, for thy loving thought!" + Said Stephen; and he took the food from her + And ate it, giving thanks before them all. + And all with him gave thanks, for nothing else + Could so have cheered them in their sad estate + As thus to see their friend at such an hour + Cheering himself with food, his appetite + Not troubled by least trouble of the mind, + And he approved superior to his lot, + Not by a strain of high heroic pride, + Not by access of transient ecstasy, + But simply by the sober confidence, + Well-grounded, of the soul enduring all + As seeing Him Who is invisible. + Besides, had any deemed that Martha erred, + Inopportunely ministering to the flesh, + When spirit unsupported by the flesh + As well had conquered, and more gloriously, + Haply, too, letting this their thought escape, + Unmeant, in look or gesture, to her pain-- + Such might, in Stephen's gracious act, have heard + As if a silent echo of those words-- + Ineffably persuasive sweet reproof + At once and soft assuagement of unease-- + "Why trouble ye the woman? She hath wrought + A good work for Me." + But the Sanhedrim, + Permitted by the Roman to resume + Their way with Stephen, now to him once more + Their notice turned. Within their heart enraged, + First, to have met with such a check, and then, + Scarce less, _so_ to have had the check removed-- + Both this and that their sense of bondage chafed-- + Ill brooked it they to see what now they saw, + Their prisoner in calm converse with his friends. + + "Begone!" to these they cried. "For shame to show + Untimely softness thus to whom ye see + Your rulers judge worthy of death. Begone!" + + One churl among those councillors was found, + When Stephen gently bade his friends give way, + Even for his own sake, who could least endure + To see them suffer roughness, most unmeet + For such as they--one graceless churl was found + To raise his hand at Stephen speaking so + And smite him on the mouth. A wail at this + Broke from those women, and their hair they tore + In passion of compassion and of wrath + Holy as love. But Stephen was most meek, + And only in a shadowed look expressed + Pain at such painful sympathy with pain. + This seen by those, they soon responsively + Resumed composure like his own, and walked, + Following, molested not, at small remove + From the belovéd martyr, cheering him, + And cheered, with sense of some society. + + So, on, with going less precipitate, + And less vociferous rage, but not less fell, + Moved the infatuate multitude, repressed + And maddened, both at once, to feel themselves + Only by sufferance masters of the fate + Of Stephen, and their very footsteps timed + To regular and slow behind those few + Austere, impassive, automatic men + Armed, who, though few they might be, yet meant Rome. + + Arrived at length at the accurséd spot, + They stay. The ground about was strewn with stones, + Rejected fragments from the quarry cleft, + Flakes from the mason's chisel, interspersed + Dilapidations from the city walls + Twice overthrown and razed, or missiles thence + Once by defenders on assailants hurled. + They stay, and, Stephen stationed in the midst + Where, first, a circle of spectators round + Was ordered in disorderly array, + Prepare to act their dreadful blasphemy. + + Within, opposed to Stephen, Saul stood, pale, + Blanched with resolve, anguished, and tremulous, + But in nerve shaken, not in will, to take + His part. Saul's part was only to consent. + Perhaps the eyes, the beautiful sad eyes, + Of Rachel, dark and liquid ever, now + Unfathomably deep with unshed tears-- + Perhaps such eyes, his sister's, fixed on him, + He seeing not because he would not see, + Wrought yet some holy spell that charmed him back + Insensibly from part more active there. + But his consent Saul testified with sign + Open to all to see, and understood. + He held the outer robes thrown off of those + Who, disencumbered so, might, with main strength, + And aim made sure, the better speed to fling + At that meek heavenly man the murderous stone. + + Those witnesses malign who had forsworn + Stephen to this, were first to cast at him + The stone to slay. There Stephen stood, his face, + His glory-smitten face, upturned to heaven, + And his arms thither raised as if to meet + The down-stretched arms of Jesus from on high. + It was a sight both beautiful to see + And piteous. The angels might have wept, + Who saw it, but that they more deeply saw, + And saw the pity in the beauty lost, + Like a few drops of water on a fire + That only serve to feed the flames more bright. + + At the first shower of stones at him with cry + Of self-exciting execration flung, + Stephen, with answering cry, as if of one + Running to refuge and to sanctuary, + Betook him to the covert of the Wings + That trembled with desire to be outstretched + Once over doomed Jerusalem unfain, + And, "Jesus, Lord, receive my spirit!" said. + That his friends heard and echoing said "Amen!" + But they the flying stones saw not, nor saw + Alight the flying stones upon their friend; + For they too turned their faces upward all, + And, gazing unimaginable depths + Beyond the seen, beheld the glory there, + Wherein the scandal and the mystery + Of visible things vanished, like shadows plunged + In the exceeding brightness of the sun, + Or were transformed to make the glory more, + Like discords conquered heightening harmony. + + With the next flight of stones, unwatched likewise, + Stephen, raised far above the fierce effect, + Stinging or stunning, of the cruel blows, + Spoke heavenward once again, not for himself + Petitioning now, but pleading for his foes. + His foes already had prevailed to bring + The martyr to his knees, and, on his knees, + With loud last voice from lips inviolate yet-- + As if that angel chant at Bethlehem + Still sounded, "Peace on earth, good will to men," + Or that diviner tone from Calvary, + "Forgive them, for they know not what they do"-- + One ransomed pure and perfect human note + Threading the dissonant noise with melody-- + He prayed, "Lord Jesus, lay not Thou this sin + To their account." Therewith he fell asleep. + That holy prayer exhaled his breath away, + And on his breath exhaled to heaven in prayer + His spirit thither aspired and was with Christ. + + As Stephen fell asleep, the sun went down; + But over Olivet the great full moon + Rose brightening. 'So,' thought Stephen's friends of him, + 'His life has been extinguished to our eyes, + Only elsewhere to shine, but while we wait + For the new day to dawn that lingers, lo, + His memory instead shall give us light, + Not splendid like the sun, yet like the moon + Lovely!' + + Thus comforting themselves, they saw + The murderers of their friend above his corse + Build roughly of the stones that smote him dead + A kind of cairn in mockery of a tomb. + Melted away meanwhile the multitude + In silence, and, soon after, all were gone + Save the true lovers of the man. Then these + Gathered together round the accurséd spot, + Now hallowed, where he stood to suffer, where + He prayed, and where he fell, and whence he rose + Deathless, leaving the sacred body there, + Dead, desolate of the spirit, but still dear, + Most dear to them. And so, with many tears + Fast falling that nigh blinded them, they took + From off the body, one by one, the stones-- + Almost as if they loved them, with such care!-- + Until his face, his fair disfeatured face, + And his form marred and broken, open lay + To the mild moon that seemed to sympathize, + And touched and softened all with healing beams. + + "Let us bear hence the sacred clay," they said, + "And wash it from the pool of Siloam." + Then Lazarus, with three fellow-helpers more-- + Nathanael, Israelite indeed, was there, + Joseph of Arimathæa too had come, + Later, and Nicodemus, by nightfall, + These were the chosen four, with Lazarus-- + Making a litter of their robes, took up + The noble form that lately Stephen wore, + And gently carried it to Siloam. + With soft lustration there at loving hands, + The dust and blood were wholly washed away; + The hair and beard then decently arranged, + With skill that hid the wounds on cheek or brow, + The eyelids closed on eyes that saw no more, + The scarce cold palms folded upon the breast, + Stephen it seemed indeed just fallen asleep. + Then they were glad that Ruth would see him so, + So peaceful and so beautiful asleep, + Expecting soon to waken satisfied! + "To-morrow will be time enough," they said, + "To tell Ruth--let her sleep to-night." But Ruth + Slept not, or if she slept, slept but to dream + Of Stephen and his last hands on her head. + + Under the balmy moon, up Olivet + To Bethany they bore the holy dust, + And there, beneath the roof that sheltered oft + The Man who had not where to rest His head, + They laid the body down to dreamless sleep; + And slept themselves until the morrow morn. + + + + +BOOK IX. + +RUTH AND RACHEL. + + +Very early in the morning, Rachel, charged with this office by +Stephen, breaks to Ruth the news of her husband's death. The two then +go together to the place where the body of Stephen is laid. There, +Ruth, kneeling in prayer beside her martyred husband, repentantly +accepts his Lord for hers, becoming a Christian. Rachel, having +hastily visited her home, to find Saul gone thence with purpose not +to return, leaves the house in her maid's care and goes back to Ruth, +to whom, being requested to do so, she tells the story of Stephen's +stoning. Then the funeral of Stephen takes place, with a memorial +discourse pronounced, and an elegy recited, at the tomb. + +RUTH AND RACHEL. + + The morrow morn broke fair in Bethany, + And Ruth rose early from unquiet sleep; + Rachel likewise, who slept in Mary's house. + The sun had not yet risen, but in the west + The moon hung whitening opposite the dawn, + When Ruth, her children left asleep, went forth + To feel the freshness of the morning air + Without, and water from the village well + To draw, both for the slaking of her thirst + And for the cooling of her brow that burned + And of her throbbing temples. At the well + Rachel she met who earlier still was forth + On the like errand. The two women hailed + And kissed each other. Ruth to Rachel then + Said: "Thou art not, I trow, this morning come + Hither the long way from Jerusalem?" + + "Nay, Ruth," said Rachel, "here the yesternight + With Mary and Martha I abode a guest." + + "How fresh the wind is," Ruth said, "hither blown + From off the western sea! Us, underneath + The crest of Olivet, it lights upon + Descending, broken, like a breath from heaven. + What a delicious balm!" + "About my brow," + Said Rachel, "gratefully I feel the air, + Attempered so, soft flowing, as if one + That loved me like a mother gently stroked + My temples to undo a band of pain + Bound round them." + "And, in sooth," the other said, + Now looking narrowly at Rachel's face, + "Thou seemest sad of favor, Rachel. Thou, + Thou too, so young, hast then thy cause to grieve! + It is a sad world and a weary. But-- + Forgive me if such quick instinctive fears + Be selfish, I am wife and mother--aught + Of evil tidings bringest thou me? Spare not + To speak. Thou wilt but answer to the dreams + I had this night, portending nameless ill. + Stephen--I fear for him. He yesterday + Left me beyond his wont oppressed in spirit, + And has not since returned. Strange--yet not strange; + Sometimes the livelong night he spends in prayer + Alone upon the top of Olivet + Or in the shadows of Gethsemane." + + "Ruth," Rachel said, "the Angel of the Lord + Round His belovéd, like the mountains round + Jerusalem, encampeth ever; he + Of God's belovéd is, and guarded well!" + + But Ruth scarce listened; she insisting said: + "Perhaps of Stephen some report thou bringest, + Hint doubtless of new danger threatening him!" + + "Nay, Ruth, no longer danger threatens now + Thy husband; that is past, and he is safe." + + "Thank God," said Ruth; "but stay, I dare not yet + Thank God. Tell me, have then our rulers ceased + To frown on Stephen preaching Jesus Christ? + Or Stephen, will he cease and preach no more? + This cannot be, for Stephen is such stuff + As never yet did bend to mortal beck; + And that--our rulers surely have not changed + Thus suddenly their mind. Thou art deceived, + They have deceived thee--Stephen is not safe; + It is their guile to make us think him safe, + He off his guard will fall an easier prey + Into their hands. Rachel, it was not kind, + Not faithful in thee so to be deceived. + More love had made thee more suspicious. I + Suspect forever everybody; thee + Now I suspect. Thou keepest something back, + Or haply palterest with a double sense. + Rachel, I charge thee, I adjure thee, speak + And tell me all. Stephen is dead! Say that-- + Is dead! Thou meantest that by, 'He is safe.' + They have stoned him, stoned my husband, stoned the man + That was the truest Hebrew of them all!" + + Though by her words Ruth challenged frank reply, + Yet by her tones and by her eager looks + She deprecated more what she invoked. + This Rachel saw, and answered not a word. + Then Ruth gainsaid what Rachel would not say: + "They have not done it, could not do it, he-- + Rachel, it is not true, unsay it, quick, + It was a cruel jest to tease me so, + Thou art not a wife, thou art not a mother, else + Thou never hadst conceived so ill a jest!" + + Rachel was tortured, but she could not speak, + And Ruth, secure in sense of respite yet, + Went on invoking what she would not hear: + "Why art thou silent? Speak, and keep not back + The truth, whatever it may be; there's naught + So soothing and so healing as the truth. + But I will not believe that he is dead. + Thou didst not know my husband. Dead! dead! dead! + I tell thee, Rachel, _that_ is something past + Imagining dreadful, hopeless. To be dead + Is--not to love, and not to speak to those + Who loved and love thee, not to hear them speak, + Saying they loved and love thee and lament + They ever gave thee cause of grief and now + Are different and would die a thousand deaths + To have been different then when thou couldst know-- + Death, Rachel,--but of death what canst thou learn, + For thou art but a child and never wast, + Never, to such a husband such a wife-- + To vex the noblest heart that ever broke!" + + Rachel at first had listened with dismay, + And nothing found to answer to Ruth's words, + Whose words indeed flowed on and made no pause + For answer, as if she in truest truth + Sought not the answer that she seemed to seek, + Would fain postpone it rather, or avert. + But when at length the utterance of Ruth's thought + From converse passed into soliloquy + And the deep secret of her soul revealed, + Then Rachel caught a welcome gleam of hope. + A sign of grace she saw or seemed to see + At work for Ruth within her heart of grief, + Transmuting human sorrow to divine + Repentance, and for pain preparing peace. + + "Let us go in together," Rachel said, + For they by this were nigh to Ruth's abode, + "Let us go in where we may be withdrawn + From note of such as here might mark our speech + Or action; I have word from him to thee." + Then they went in, and Ruth bestirred herself + To make a cheer of welcome for her guest. + That momentary truce to troubled thought + For Ruth, and interspace of quietness + From her own words which could not choose but flow + With helpless importunity till then, + Gave Rachel needed chance to speak. She said: + "O Ruth, thy husband fell asleep last night, + And slept a sweeter sleep than thine or mine, + A deep sweet sleep, a happy sleep, a blest. + Thou wouldst not wake him thence for worlds on worlds. + He felt before he slept that he should sleep, + And me, whom God our Father let be nigh, + Stephen bade bear a last good-night to thee. + He did not think the night was very long + Before him for his sleeping, and his wish + Was thou shouldst meet him presently to say + Good-morning. This was his true message, Ruth." + + The ineffably serene steadfast regard + Of Rachel's eyes, that, out of liquid depths + Unsounded, looked angelic love and truth, + With pity mingled, equal measure--tears + Orbing them large, shot through and through with light + Of heavenly hope for Ruth--but, more than all + A subtly sweet insinuating tone, + Most musical, of softness in the voice, + That gently wound into the listener's heart-- + These, with what else, who knows? of help from Heaven, + Wrought a bright miracle of change in Ruth. + She had been hard and dry, a desert rock; + The rock was smitten now with Moses' rod. + Ruth gushed in gracious tears, she veiled herself + With weeping, as sometimes a precipice + Veils itself dim with mist of cataract. + And Rachel wept with Ruth, until Ruth said: + "But where is Stephen, Rachel? It might be + They, meaning death, yet did not compass death. + Such things have been; haste, let us go and see. + Monstrous it were, if he should need me--I + The while here sitting weeping idle tears!" + + "Come," Rachel said, and took her by the hand. + So hand in hand they went to Mary's house, + The elder guided as the younger led, + And neither speaking, stilled with solemn thought. + Mary and Martha met the twain, with mute, + Subdued, affectionate greeting, at the door, + And, understanding without word their wish, + Straight led them inward, with a quietude + Of gesture that spoke peace and peace infused, + To the place where in quietude reposed + That slumberer late so violently lulled + To this so placid sleep. The room was flushed + With hue of gold in hangings round the walls + And rugs of russet muffling deep the floor, + That made a kind of inner light diffused, + Like sunshine without sun and shadowless. + A golden-curtained window opened east, + And east the upturned face of Stephen looked, + Lying there motionless in that fast sleep-- + So lying that, had he his eyelids raised, + He without moving might have seen the morn. + The rest, with one accord not entering, stood + About the door without, silent, and saw + While the wife sole went to the husband's side. + That instant, lo, from out the breaking dawn + A level sunbeam through the curtain slipped + And touched the fair translucent face with light. + Ruth marked it and she testified and said, + Falling upon her knees beside the couch: + "I take it as a token, Lord, from Thee; + Even so send Thou Thy light into my heart! + Lo, by the side of him made beautiful + In death, of whom I was unworthy, here + I give myself--alas, that it should be + Too late for him to have known it!--to his Lord. + I trust to be forgiven for my sin! + I thank Thee that I was not weight enough + Upon him to prevail against Thy might + Within him and prevent this sacrifice-- + Accomplished all without my help, nay, all + In spite of my resistance! O my God, + How hast Thou humbled me! To have had no part, + Wife with her husband to have borne no part-- + Save hindering what she could!--when such a deed + Of martyrdom for Christ was possible! + Behold, O Lord, thus late I take my part! + This now is also mine, as well as his, + This sacrifice. I have offered him to Thee! + And if my share be heavier even than his-- + To live bereaved more grievous martyrdom + Than to have died--this too is my desert, + Accept the witness of my widowhood!" + + Ruth ceased, but rose not from her knees, still fixed + In posture as if grown a pillar of prayer. + Then those three women came and knelt with her + Beside her dead, a silent fellowship + Of sympathy in sacrifice; but soon + Rachel and Mary, one on either side + Of Ruth, borne by the self-same impulse each, + Each at the self-same instant borne, unto + The self-same beautiful appeal, pure love's + Pure touch, stole softly each a hand in hers. + Each plighting hand so proffered Ruth upraised + Slowly and solemnly as with a kind + Of consecrating gesture to her lips, + And kissing seemed to seal a sacrament. + Then she arose, and all arose with her, + When Martha, not forgotten, likewise shared, + She too, with Ruth the kiss of sisterhood. + So, never a word between them spoken, all + Went backward and withdrew, Ruth last, who saw + That sunshine glorifying Stephen's brow, + And bore it thence, Shekinah in her heart. + Her countenance thus illumined from within, + The mother to her orphan children went, + And moved, a light, about her household ways. + She knew that others would with holy heed + Prepare that holy dust for burial. + + But Rachel was more comfortless than Ruth. + Rest in her spirit found she none--until, + First having broken fast, but sparingly, + She hastened with winged footsteps to her home. + There her maid told her Saul went early forth + Leaving this message for his sister: "Here + Bide, if thou wilt; this house be still thy home. + But I go hence, whither I cannot tell, + Nor yet for how long absence; to what end-- + Thou knowest. Cheer thee well!" The little maid + Looked rueful and perplexed, but nothing asked, + As nothing Rachel told her, save to say: + "Quick, bring thine elder sister, thou and she + Shall keep the house together for a time. + I also go, my little maid"--wherewith + Her little maid, now weeping, Rachel kissed-- + "I also go, but weep not, I shall come + Again, I trust, in happier times. Farewell!" + Then Rachel straight to Ruth's abode returned. + + "Glad am I thou hast come once more," said Ruth, + "For I have wished to ask thee many things. + How came his dreadful chance of martyrdom + On Stephen? I can bear to hear it all, + Since all is done and past and--'He is safe,' + As thou saidst, Rachel!" + Tenderly Ruth smiled, + With tears behind her smiles that did not fall. + Then Rachel said: + "I cannot tell thee all + As having all beheld, but this I heard, + That Stephen gave a noble testimony + Before the council who had cited him; + That there his face shone like an angel's, God + Himself so swearing for His servant, while + Against him swore false witnesses suborned + By Shimei; that his enemies could not bear + The fierceness of the love with which in wrath + He burned for God against their wickedness, + And so they rushed upon him violently + And thrust him forth without the city walls. + But God beheld their threatening, and He sent + His Romans to withstand them for a while. + Then we that loved and honored him drew nigh, + And would have spoken words of cheer to him, + But he--O Ruth, thou shouldst have seen him then! + I never can describe to thee how fair + Thy husband was to look upon, while he, + As steadfast as a star and as serene, + And not less lovely-luminous to our eyes, + Stood there amid the angry Sanhedrim + And to us spake such heavenly words of cheer! + He spake of thee, Ruth, and I think God gave + His spirit comfort in good hope for thee. + For, 'God will give all to our prayers,' said he, + And added, 'Husband He will be to her, + And Father to the fatherless.'" + Thereat + Ruth's tears as from a fresh-oped fountain flowed, + And eased her aching heart, too full before + Of love, remorseful love, for perfect peace. + Rachel with Ruth wept tears of sympathy; + But with the sweet and wholesome in her tears + Mixed salt and bitter, for she thought of Saul. + Ruth at length ceased to weep and yearning said: + "And then those Romans let them work their will!" + + "On Stephen's body, yea, Ruth," Rachel said, + "But on his spirit they could have no power." + + "The stones," said Ruth-- + "The stones, Ruth," Rachel said, + "God gave His angels charge concerning them-- + So verily I believe--and strictly bade, + 'Lo, let these slay, but see ye that they do + No harm unto My prophet.' So the stones, + They slew, but hurt not. God translated him; + He rose triumphant in meek majesty. + I should have told thee, Ruth, that while he stood + Before the council, he looked up and saw + Jesus in heaven on the right hand of God-- + There standing; this he testified to all. + It was as if his faithful Lord had risen + To side with Stephen in his agony. + So, when they stoned him, Stephen upward spoke, + 'Lord Jesus, take my spirit'; then once more, + 'Lord, lay not Thou this sin unto their charge.' + This he said kneeling and so fell asleep." + + The two some space sat musing silently; + Then Ruth: + "I feel that thou hast told me all + Most truly, Rachel, as most tenderly. + Thus, then, God giveth His belovéd sleep, + Thus also! And He doeth all things well! + Amen!" + Silence once more, that seemed surcharged + With deepening inarticulate amen + From both, and Ruth, regarding Rachel, said: + "Even so! But, Rachel, us not yet doth God + Will thus to sleep. Still, otherwise to sleep-- + For His belovéd are not also we?-- + May be God's gift to us. Thou surely needest, + Body and spirit, rest." + And Rachel said: + "The words of Stephen leap unto my lips + For answering thee; and these were Stephen's words: + 'God bless thee, Martha, for thy loving thought!' + And this makes me remember that one thing + Done yesterday I missed to tell thee of. + For Martha, faithful heart, forecasting well, + Brought food for Stephen that might hearten him + To bear whatever he had need to bear, + A cake of barley and a honeycomb. + 'God bless thee, Martha, for thy loving thought!' + Said Stephen, and so took the food from her, + And ate it giving thanks before us all. + He ate it with such look of appetite, + It cheered us with a sense of freedom his + From any discomposure of the mind. + O Ruth, in His pavilion God did hide + Thy husband, and his soul had perfect peace!" + + "Was it not done like Martha?" Ruth replied; + "And done like Stephen too. For courtesy + Bloomed like a flower to grace his daily life. + I used to wonder at it--and I now + Wonder I did not see where such a flower, + Where, and where only, such a flower could find + Rooting to flourish in a world like this! + He always told me that the heart of Christ + Nourished what good in him, or beautiful, + I found--or fancied, as he smiled and said. + But I--Oh, holden heart!--I did not see. + And now it is too late, too late, for him + To have known! It may be that he knows it, yea, + But now to know it is not wholly such + As to have known it then, to have known it then! + Alas, there is not any chance of hope + Behind us, Rachel; hope is all before. + Let us look onward; we in hope were saved, + So Stephen used to say, and, 'I go hence + In comfort of some hope,' were his last words, + Or of his last, to me--concerning me, + Spoken with a sad cheerfulness that now + Breaks me with such a surge of memory! + But this is endless, let it here have end. + Come, Rachel, see, the sun rides high, come thou, + And I will bring thee to a quiet room, + Safe from the sun, where thou shalt rest a while." + + So Rachel followed Ruth, not ill content + To be alone for thought if not for sleep. + Her will was not to sleep; but weariness, + With youth and health, was stronger, and she slept. + + Already, when she woke, the sun halfway + From his high noon had down the western slope + Of sky descended, and she hearkening heard + A rumorous noise without upon the ways, + The stir of movement, steps of many feet, + With sound, muffled, of many voices nigh, + That startled her from sweet forgetfulness + To sudden sad remembrance of the things + That had been, and that were, and were to be. + Instinctive up she sprang, for, "Lo," she said, + "They gather unto Stephen's funeral; + Behooves that I be ready with all speed." + Therewith upon her knees she sank and prayed + A prayer for Ruth and for Ruth's little ones, + Widowed and orphaned by so dear a death, + And for herself--and for her brother Saul! + Then her heart swelled to a capacious wish, + And, anguished in one swift vicarious throe + Of great desire for help and grace divine, + She embraced the total church of Jesus Christ-- + Of such a guide, of such a stay, bereaved! + Then Rachel, with the Everlasting Arms + Invisibly, nigh visibly, around + Her to sustain her steps, came forth, as one + That meekly walks leaning on her beloved, + And begged of Ruth that she might sister be + To her, that day, and thenceforth ever, mourn + As sister with her in the eyes of all. + "For I am lonely," Rachel said, "O Ruth, + As thou art; lonely let us be, we twain, + Together, widows both, and mix our tears. + For also I am widow, as thou art, + Yet not as thou--since me a heavier stroke + Makes widow, who have never been a wife!" + + Ruth answered, though she did not understand, + And kissed her friend in plight of sisterhood. + + So they two, clad alike from out Ruth's store + Of raiment, clad in sad attire alike, + As sisters walked together side by side-- + Ruth's children with them, grieved, not knowing why-- + To where, from Mary's house and Martha's borne, + With grievous lamentation, by good men + Devout, the flower and choice of Israel, + Was laid the sacred dust of Stephen down + And sealed within a rock-hewn sepulchre. + + Joseph of Arimathæa, he who sought + And gained from Pilate leave to take away + The body of Jesus crucified, had sent + To Bethany, betimes, before the hour + Of burial, rich spices, a great weight, + Aloes and myrrh, with linen pure and fine, + To wrap the body of Stephen for his tomb. + Mary, the mother of the Lord, with John + Beloved of Jesus, loving her as son, + Came to that feast of sorrow bringing tears, + To Ruth medicinal more than any, wept + By one who had so learned to weep. So there + With sackcloth worn and ashes on the head, + They wailed aloud, that Hebrew company, + Women and men, they beat the breast, they rent + Their raiment, until one stood forth who said: + "Enough already has to grief been given. + Us it befits not here, for Stephen dead, + To mourn as mourn others who have no hope. + He was a burning and a shining light, + And we a season in his beams were glad. + Glory to God who kindled him for us! + Glory to God who hath from us withdrawn + His shining, and now hides him in Himself! + We thought we could not spare him, but God knew. + Let all be as God wills Who knows. Amen!" + + "Amen!" they solemnly responded all, + And he who spake these things went on and said: + "The Lord anointed Stephen with the oil + Of gladness in the gift of speech above + His fellows. How he flamed insufferably, + In words that leapt out of his mouth, like swords + Out of their sheaths, enkindled to devour + The wicked! When he spoke, flew seraphim + And bore from off the altar living coals + Of God which, laid upon his lips, purged them + To utter those pure words that purified. + What zeal, what wisdom, what fixed faith, what power! + He stood our bulwark, he advanced our sword, + And single seemed an insupportable host. + Yet this puissant soldier of the truth, + To disobedience so implacable, + How gentle and how placable he was + To all obedience! He was like his Lord, + That Lion of the tribe of Judah, named + Also the Lamb of God. No words had he + Save words of vivid flame, sudden and swift + And deadly like the lightning, for God's foes; + But for the little flock of Jesus, balm + His speech--into those lips such grace was poured! + + "Nor less in him for mighty work than word + The Holy Ghost a fountain was of power. + From him or through him what a plenteous stream + Flowed like the river of God in miracle! + Signs, wonders, gifts of healing, heavenly powers, + Innumerable flocked about his hand, + Like doves unto their windows flying home, + Waiting there eager to perform his will. + + "A prophet of the elder time, reborn + Into the spirit of this latter age, + Was Stephen. Thanking God for him, let us + Together and steadfastly pray that He + Who made the great Elijah live again + In John the Baptist, give us Stephen back + In resurrection from his tomb with power. + Thus shall we pray as himself prophesied-- + For Stephen, you remember, glanced at this + In prophecy; unless not prophecy + It were, but only generous hope, with wish + To comfort Rachel, when he spake to her + Of grace to come upon her brother yet-- + We shall so seek what seems it he foresaw, + If we ask Jesus to make captive Saul!" + + That speaker ceased, and then a prophetess + Among the women there took up a wail, + Which triumphed into gladness as it grew: + + "Is fallen, is fallen, a prince in Israel! + Woe, while it yet was day, his sun went down! + Daughters of Judah, mourn for Stephen slain! + + "Mourn for a candle of the Lord put out, + A torch of noble witness quenched in blood; + Wear sackcloth of thick darkness and bewail! + + "Repent, O daughters of Jerusalem, + Repent, forsake your wickedness of woe; + Look up, look up, the quenched torch burns a star! + + "Is risen, is risen; behold, at the right hand + On high sits he of his ascended Lord; + Rejoice, rejoice, for Stephen could not die! + + "Comfort ye Ruth; thrice among women she + Lives blesséd, who, from wife to him, became, + Widowed, partaker of his martyrdom! + + "Hosanna to the Son of David, Who, + Beheld of Stephen standing in the heavens, + Received His servant's spirit to Himself! + + "The Resurrection and the Life is He; + He will not leave this body in its tomb; + Stephen and we shall meet Him in the air. + + "Descending with the sound that wakes the dead, + Ten thousand of His saints attending Him, + He comes! He comes! Even so, Lord Jesus, come! + + "Salvation, worship, blessing, glory, power, + Forever and forever unto God, + Our God; He never will forsake His own." + + Uplifted high in heart, they went away. + + + + +BOOK X. + +SAUL AT BETHANY. + + +At the funeral service for Stephen, Shimei was a skulking attendant. +He catches at a mention there overheard by him of the name of Saul in +connection with that of Stephen, to plot an instigated persecuting +visit on Saul's part to Bethany; Shimei hoping that Saul will thus +encounter his own sister identified as a Christian. Saul takes a +band of men and makes the visit. He finds his intended victims all +together at the house of Ruth condoling with her--Rachel indeed +among them. After sharp inward conflict, and much effort put forth +without success to make his victims abjure their faith, Saul finally +takes them to prison. But Rachel, she vainly entreating to share her +companions' fate, he leaves behind. She takes upon herself the charge +of Ruth's children in their own home, where Saul, month after month, +secretly sends to her supply of every need. + +SAUL AT BETHANY. + + Among the sons of God, when these one day + Came to present themselves before the Lord, + Satan came also; and so Shimei, + Amid the throng that mourned at Stephen's death, + Intruded. With smooth face of sanctimony, + Skulking to be unseen or heeded not, + He hovered furtive on the outer edge + Of audience, when those words of praise were said + To hearten--eye and ear alert to mark + All that befell. His thought was, 'Here perhaps + I shall learn something to the true behoof + And profit of our cause--right aim secure + For the next blow of vengeance to be struck.' + The name of Saul mysteriously conjoined + With Rachel's, in abhorrent prophecy + As seemed--this, Shimei caught at eagerly + And said, 'Aha!' + Then, as the throng dispersed + All to their several homes, straight Shimei + Went to seek Saul. Him found that spy malign + With the chief priests in council, plotting deep + To hunt the sect of Jesus to the death. + These had armed Saul with writ and warrant sealed + Empowering him to enter where he would, + House after house, and whomsoever found, + Man be it or woman, guilty of belief + In Jesus as Messiah, such to seize + And drag to prison. + Instantly conceived + Shimei a subtle snare to enmesh the feet + Of Saul. The proud young zealot Pharisee + Should be set on to visit first in search + Those homes of Bethany; where, unadvised + Perhaps, so Shimei guessed, the brother might, + To his dismay, find his own sister one + With the disciples of the Nazarene. + Then to make prisoner his own flesh and blood, + Or openly spare Rachel for kin's sake-- + This, scandal against scandal doubtful weighed, + Would be the hard alternative to Saul. + + "Belovéd brother Saul," so Shimei spoke, + "_I_ mourned at Stephen's funeral to-day. + Not loud, you know, but deep, my mourning was; + Not loud, for I am modest, and my wish + Was less to be seen than to see; but deep, + For there was cause, to one that loved you, Saul, + To be sincerely sad on your behalf. + Incredible it seems, they spoke your name, + Not, as might honor it, with hate and dread, + But very ambiguously, to say the least. + In fact, I fear you may be compromised, + Unless you take prompt measures in the matter. + Hark you, a certain orator stood up + Who, after praising Stephen to his worth, + Distinctly hinted Saul was looked upon + As hopeful future pervert to their cause + Predestined to fill Stephen's vacant room. + The fellow founded on some prophecy + Which, as I gathered, Stephen had put forth. + Now this preposterous notion, with such folk, + Is far more like to prosper, and thus be + Noised undesirably, than you might guess, + As a report injurious to your name. + You will be tainted with disloyalty, + In general esteem--to our great loss. + + "What I propose is that you strike a stroke + So sudden and so ringing and so aimed + As shall decisively and neatly nip + This precious piece of prophecy in the bud, + And put you out of reach of calumny. + You have your warrant and commission; good, + Use them at once, sleep not upon them; now, + This very night--for domiciliary work + Like what you purpose, night is the best time, + Birds to their nests, you know, at night come home-- + This very night, take you a trusty band + And make a bold foray at Bethany. + There Stephen lived, and there a hotbed yet + Thrives of this pestilent heresy. No place + Fitter than the abode and vicinage + Of your late overmatch in controversy + To make first theatre of the exploits + You aim at in this different field--field where, + With odds so in your favor, you should win. + Easier far, given the right support, to drag + To dungeon and to death a hundred men + Or praying women, all as tame as sheep, + Than one impracticable fellow like + That Stephen manage in fair controversy! + + "You have my best kind hopes and all good men's. + Ask for the house that harbored Stephen's corpse + And whence the funeral issued--quarry there + You cannot fail to find. The widow too + Of Stephen, I watched her, and what I saw + Makes me misdoubt her Hebrew orthodoxy. + Sound her--an ounce of thorough work done now, + Unquestionably thorough, will be worth + A hundred weight of paltering by and by. + Despise the fear that now and then a man + May call you cruel; the worst cruelty, + As you and I well know, is ill-timed softness. + This thing must be stamped out; it is a plague, + It creeps from house to house, no house is safe. + Your house, Saul, mine--that sister fair of yours, + Yes, treat the thought with scorn, but some fine day, + Why not? Saul wakes to find his sister lost." + + How far unconsciously, Saul could not guess, + But Shimei, in that last home thrust of his, + Either by pure fortuity, or else + With malice the most exquisitely wise, + Had hit the quivering quick of Saul's sore pride. + Saul winced visibly, and Shimei, satisfied, + Left him alone the prey of his own thoughts. + + Saul's thoughts were visions rather; first, he saw + His sister as in that farewell with her + Bowed beautiful beneath a brother's scorn, + Like a meek flower broken with tempest; then, + Stephen he saw, his face with God in him + Afire, before the council; next, that face + Toward heaven upturned, he, far within the veil + Agaze, beholding there the glory of God; + Once more, the martyr lifting holy hands + On high, with his last breath praying for those + That slew him, praying also then for Saul! + Rachel the while--she rather felt than seen-- + With tears that did not gather, but that made + Her deep eyes deeper than the soundless sea, + Looking at him. Swift then the vision changed, + And he saw Stephen in the temple court + Turn suddenly round on Saul his blinding face + To threaten him with promise that, one day, + He, Saul himself, should grovel in the dust + Before the feet of Jesus crucified! + Those visions were as when the lightning-flash, + By night, fast following lightning-flash, reveals, + One instant and no more, the world, but prints + Its image on the eye intensely bright. + + The final vision wrought a fierce revolt + In Saul from that relenting which, before, + The earlier visions almost made him feel. + As with a mortal gripe, his vise-like will + Clutched at his heart and held it fast and hard. + Scorning to be diverted from his path + Because, forsooth, the meddling Shimei + Pointed it out to him offensively, + Saul moved at once to go to Bethany. + Seven servitors he chose, strong men whom use + Had, hand and heart, seasoned to such employ-- + With these a guide--and started on his way. + Again the moon shone, as the yesternight, + And flooded heaven and earth with glory mild. + But her mild glory now was a rebuke + To human passion, not a balm to pain. + With swords and staves armed, as that night came they + Who looked for Jesus in Gethsemane-- + The needless lamps and torches in their hands + With flare and smoke affronting the moonlight-- + They marched, those seven, following the guide with Saul. + At first these chattered lightly as they walked, + But soon the stern, stark, wordless mood of Saul, + And his grim purpose in his pace expressed, + Urgent and swift, taxing their utmost strength + To follow and not fall behind, quite quelled + The social spirit in all, and on all went + In sullen silence like their chief. Like him, + Insensibly each moment more and more, + While thought and feeling they shut strictly up + Within them from all vent in speech, they these + Changed to brute instinct of vindictiveness; + Insensibly, like him, with every step + Of vehement ongoing, vehement + Propulsion gathered they in mind and will + To reach and grapple with their task. So on + And up with speed they pressed toward Bethany. + + At Bethany, meanwhile, the flock in fold + Abode the coming of those prowler wolves-- + Unweeting, in sad sense of safety lulled. + The sisters, with the brother Lazarus, + Had to Ruth's house at eve repaired; they there + With Rachel sat together, in the court + Under the open sky, and spake with Ruth, + Or spake for Ruth to hear, comforting her. + + "'I am the Resurrection and the Life'"-- + Thus Martha--"how the very words to me + Were spirit of life, were resurrection power, + So spoken, from such lips, at such a time, + When Lazarus lay sleeping in that swoon + Which we call death! I did not need to wait + Until my brother should indeed again + Arise, obedient, at His word, to feel + The utterer of that saying was the Christ." + "But when He wept, when Jesus with us wept," + Said Mary, "I felt solace in His tears + Such that almost I would have always grieved, + To be always so comforted." A pause, + Then eyes on Lazarus turned, and he: "From where + I was--but where I was, although I seem + Well to remember, yet could not I tell + In any words, or show by any signs, + However I might try--I heard His voice + Say, 'Lazarus, come forth.' Those round me heard, + I thought they heard, with me, that potent voice, + And they were not surprised, as was not I, + Seeming to know it and to understand. + That voice goes everywhere and is obeyed, + To all the perfect law of liberty, + And I obeyed as naturally as I breathe; + And I am here, in witness of His power, + Whose power is universal through all worlds." + "His power is great," said Ruth, "and wide His sway, + Yet seems His grace the sovereign of His power." + "Yea," Rachel said, "for doth not power in Him + Bend to the yoke and service of His grace?" + "We easily err," said Lazarus, "seeking here + To comprehend the incomprehensible. + All difference is in us, for all in Him + One and the same is; power is grace and grace + Is power, in Him, nay, power and grace is He. + And He is ours and we are His, and one + Are we with Him and in Him one likewise + Each with the other, all." "How blest!" they said, + "And the whole family in heaven and earth + Are one, and Stephen is with us or we + With him, and heaven is here or here is heaven!" + + A little while in silence and deep muse, + And, by the Holy Spirit, fellowship + With the Almighty Father and His Son. + Then, "Lo, let us join hands," they said, "and sing + That psalm which breathes of unity like this." + With braided tones, in unison they sang: + 'Behold, how good it is for brethren here, + 'How pleasant, thus in unity to dwell + 'Together! It is like that costly chrism + 'Upon the head which overflowing ran + 'Down Aaron's beard and down his garment's folds, + 'Abundant as the dew of Hermon drops, + 'Distilled, upon the heights of Sion where + 'Jehovah fixed the blessing, life, even life + 'Forevermore.' + "A sweet strain and a rich," + Said Lazarus; "David touched it to his harp, + Taught by the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, + Something it lacks to fill the measure up + To that deep sense of oneness which we feel + In Jesus, since He came, since Jesus came + And spake, then went, but came again, in us + Forever to abide. Cannot we sing + Some words of His, as tunable, more deep? + Such words He spake in a celestial rhythm + That night before He sought Gethsemane. + They sat as in the Holy of holies with Him, + And John leaned on His bosom where He sat. + I have heard John rehearse the heavenly words + Until at length I too have them by heart." + Then Lazarus gave them sentences, which all + Chanted in simple measure low and sweet: + 'Let not your heart be troubled, ye believe + 'In God, also in Me believe. Within + 'My Father's house there many mansions are. + 'I should have told you, had it not been so, + 'Because I go to fit a place for you. + 'And if I go and fit for you a place, + 'I shall return and take you to Myself, + 'That where I am there ye may also be.' + + Was it a premonition, or did grief + Surge up through peace and joy to claim its own? + Said Lazarus: "Yet He told us, 'In the world + Ye will have tribulation, though in Me + Ye shall have peace.' With tribulation, peace!" + + His closing words they took from Lazarus' lips, + "With tribulation, peace!" and of them made + A musical refrain half sad, half glad, + Or wholly glad in sadness, which they sang. + When ever were there cadences more sweet, + More sweet or more pathetic? Thrice sang they + Those words together; but, at the fourth time, + Just in that breath between the rise and fall, + Before from 'tribulation' they touched 'peace'-- + A shock as of a mace struck on the door, + Which yielded, and abrupt there strode in--Saul! + + Saul was alone; his men he left without. + The band had first the sisters' dwelling sought, + To find the inmates gone--fled, as Saul guessed. + Without delay, they came to Ruth's abode, + Fiercer from disappointment Saul. But though + Ruthless he came, he now, arrested there, + Ruthful a moment stood at gaze. He saw + Four women and one man in simple sort + Sitting together in communion still. + They did not look like culprits, nay, a light + Purer than purest moonlight seemed to shine + From out their faces underneath the moon. + It was a feast of comfort that they kept, + Those four, with Ruth the widowed--this Saul saw, + And his heart thawed to pity and sheer shame. + He would have turned and left them, but--his men + Without! The chief priests and the Sanhedrim! + And Shimei! And Saul, with all Saul owed + To Saul's fair fame, his conscience, and his God! + + This all was in an instant, while he yet + Only the group and not the persons saw + Who made the group, and so before he knew + His sister in her sombre different garb + Disguised and in the half light of the moon. + As Rachel now he fully recognized, + Dismay almost unmanned him once again. + Then anger to dismay succeeding made + His brother's heart in him against her burn + The hotter that it was a brother's heart. + Speechless he hung, because he could not speak + For anger; but when she, adventuring, drew + Near him and said, "Brother, I pray thee let + Me speak with thee apart a moment," then + The vials of his speech he broke on her: + + "'Brother'! Thou shalt not 'brother' me. Thou hast + No brother more, no sister I. Once, yea-- + But that is long ago, and she is dead, + My sister, and in _her_ name will I hear + No woman speak henceforth. Thou hast missed thy mark + In that appeal. Better hadst thou bode dumb. + Go, woman! Thither! Sit thee with thine own!" + + Saul, with his finger pointing to her seat, + Just left, in added scorn, spurned her from him. + Then Lazarus spoke: "With me do what thou wilt; + But these are women, let me stand for them." + "Stand for thyself," said Saul, "and answer me. + Thou art called Lazarus, I trow?" "Thou hast said," + Lazarus replied. "Well, friend, with thee," said Saul, + "I have to speak. Disciple art thou, then, + Of Jesus Nazarene, late crucified?" + "Of Jesus," full confessing, Lazarus said, + "Of Jesus, whom, not knowing what they did, + Men crucified, but whom God glorified, + Raising Him from the dead and seating Him + At the right hand of glory in the heavens-- + Of Him I am disciple. Bless His name!" + + "Thou art young to utter blasphemy," said Saul; + "Sure unadvisedly thou hast spoken this. + Unsay it instantly, and swear it false, + Or, by the warrant of the Sanhedrim, + Thou goest with me to prison, perhaps to death, + The way of Stephen and all heretics!" + + "Thou speakest idly," Lazarus said to Saul; + "Prison and death no terrors have for me. + The Lord I serve is Lord of life and death." + + "Yea, I have heard," said Saul to Lazarus, + "Thou boastest to have been from death itself + Called back to life by whom thou namest Christ. + Let him, once more, call thee from out the tomb + To which I shall consign thee--if he can. + Saul then perhaps will his disciple be! + Poor fool, fanatic, what shall I call thee? + Persist not in this folly. Be a Jew, + A Jew indeed, nor fling thy life away. + Anathema be Jesus!' say but that, + Thou, Lazarus, and all the rest, with thee, + And I go hence taking the sword away, + The sword of just authority, undrawn, + Asleep within its scabbard, ye all safe, + All Jews indeed, and I given back again + A sister, Rachel mine, won from the dead! + 'Anathema be Jesus!' say those words." + + Saul ceased, awaiting what those five would do. + They did not look at one another; all, + As with one will to all--their eyes upraised, + And their hands clasped in ecstasy of awe-- + Together "Alleluia Jesus!" said. + On Saul a power like lightning fallen from heaven + Fell, at that adoration from their lips. + A moment he stood stupefied, and then, + With a great wrench of scornful will, he freed + Himself and summoned his retainers in. + + These entered rudely, but abashed they hung, + And wondering saw their master half abashed, + Before that little company clothed on + With virtue like a dreadful panoply. + Half with the air of one subdued, or one + Feeling he acts by sufferance not by power, + Saul bids bind all--save Rachel--and forthwith + Lead them to prison. + "Also me, bind me," + So Rachel to the men said eagerly, + And offered her fair wrists. They looked at Saul, + But Saul vouchsafed to them nor word nor sign. + Still, 'No,' they gathered from that cold aspect + In him which seemed to say, 'That which I bid, + Do, further, naught.' Rachel to Saul himself + Beseechingly then turned and said: "O Saul, + Full well I know thou doest this, constrained + By conscience. Then by conscience be constrained + To let thy men bind also me, who am + As guilty as these are and with them should share + One lot." + "I did not come here to be taught + My duty," Saul said, "least of all by thee. + And least of all from thee will I abide + To be adjured as by my conscience. Once + I had a sister, she was conscience to me, + But, as I told thee, that was long ago, + And she is dead, my sister!" + Sadness mixed, + Unmeant, resisted, irresistible, + With Saul's enforced hardheartedness, which broke + His tone to pathos, and, despite himself + With those last words he burst in tears. He shook + In shudders of strong agony, while all + Wondered, but Rachel did not wonder, she + Knew far too well her brother, far too well + Knew their joint past, the two pasts they had had + Together, long and happy one, and one + So brief, so bitter,--and she pitied Saul. + She pitied him, but strongly did not weep-- + Though afterward, alone, remembering, + She wept as if her eyes were fountains of tears-- + With him now Rachel would not weep, for she + Knew far too well her brother, that he scorned + Himself for weeping those hot tears, and would + Be vexed to see tears wept in sympathy + As if with will he let his mood relent. + So Rachel held her pity hard shut up + Within her heart, which ached the more denied + Its wished-for vent in tears, and Saul soon curbed + His passion and in other passion veiled. + "Haste, there!" he said, sharp turning on his men, + "The night flies, while ye loiter." + Now the men + Already had bound Lazarus. He, ere yet + The shameful needless bonds upon the wrists + Of those four gentle women were made fast, + Said: "Saul, what evil have these women done + That they deserve roughness like this? I go + Willingly with thee, albeit innocent, + For I a man am and can well endure + Bonds, stripes, dungeon, or death, having such hope + Within me as makes all afflictions light, + Whatever they may be, compared with that + Eternal weight of glory nigh at hand. + Like hope have also these, and they will bear, + Doubtless, supported, whatsoever ill + Unmerited thou choosest to inflict. + But wilt thou choose to inflict indignity + And pain on such as these?" + "I do not choose," + Said Saul; "I without choosing do, not what + I would, but what I must. I too wear chains, + Am bond of conscience, heavier chains wear I + Than these light manacles that bind the hands + But leave the heart free and one's will one's own. + Chained am I and driven. Conscience drives me on, + Both will and heart in me under the lash + Cower, and I here as but a galley-slave + Do what my conscience bids, joyless, and fierce + From lack of joy, more miserable far, + Binding, than ye are bound, with your fool's joy + Of windy hope! For me, I only know + That, in whatever way, this thing accursed, + This craze to think _that_ man the Christ, must be + Curbed, checked, stopped, crushed, brought to an utter end, + Forever. All the future of our race + Hangs on it. Woman, tempted, fell, she first, + In Eden, whence is all our woe, and now + Women it seems are the peculiar prey + Of this new trick of devilish subtlety; + And, as of old, woman deceived becomes + Deceiver, and through her the mischief spreads + Ungovernably. So women, too--the cause + In part of the disease--must in part pay + The price of cure. For remedy this is, + Not punishment. Ye for the general health + Suffer--for your own health not less, if ye + Yield wisely, and not foolishly resist. + Yield wisely now, and let me hence depart + Cheered to have healed a little here the hurt + With which the daughter of God's people bleeds!" + + How little prospered this his new appeal, + Saul learned, when Ruth, as not having heard even, said: + "At least let me, if I indeed must leave + My children double orphans so, let me + Now go and see them in their helpless sleep, + And take a farewell of them with my eyes. + But who will care for them when I am gone? + I cannot, will not, go away from them. + Nay, ye may bind me, ye may slay me, drag + Me hence may ye, alive or dead, but make + Me go with my own feet away from them, + My children, in their innocent infancy, + And leave them to pine motherless, forlorn, + And perish in their innocent infancy-- + That is beyond your strength--I will not go-- + A mother may defy the Sanhedrim!" + + Ruth spoke dry-eyed, with holy mother's wrath, + Sublime in her indignant eloquence. + Saul, not unmoved, although inexorable, + Said: "Woman, as thy wish is, thou shalt go + Freely to see thy children. May the sight + Dispose thee to a better mind! Come back + Ready to say, 'For their sake, I renounce + My folly, I will be true Jewish mother + To them, so let me stay,'--and thou shalt stay. + + Ruth going, Rachel thought, 'Shall I too go + With her, that I may help her bear to part + From her dear babes?' Quickly resolved behind + To tarry, she, Ruth gone, went up to Saul, + And said: "I pray thee, Saul, let Rachel go + Instead of Ruth to prison. Let Ruth bide + To nurse her children. I will take her place + Gladly in her captivity, and be + A surety for her. Young and strong am I, + And I will be a firm good surety, Saul, + Not fleeing and not complaining, always there,-- + And if, hereafter ever, it should seem + Needful to have Ruth come herself to prison, + Why, she will still be here, under thy hand, + As now, so then, to be hence thither led. + Be kind, and have me bound straightway, before + Ruth comes again, that she be left no choice + But to let Rachel have her wilful way, + Perceiving that I have my bonds on me + To go to prison with her, if not without, + While much I wish to go without her--wish, + And, by thy kind permission, have the power. + Dost thou not think, Saul"--wherewith Rachel smiled + On Saul a starlight smile, which made him feel + How high she was above him in her sphere + Unconsciously--"Dost thou not think that I + Will make as good a prisoner as Ruth?" + + Had she not smiled that smile, Saul might have thought, + 'Infatuated child!' and thought aloud. + But that bright smile of almost humor sad + Showed him how sanely her true self she was, + And he was baffled, sudden-smitten dumb. + He could not answer her; much less could he + Bid bind those slender wrists with manacles + And send his sister to imprisonment! + So there Saul stood before her, marble-mute. + Not long--for Ruth soon now came back, more calm, + She having prayed beside her sleeping babes, + And trusted them again to the Most High + As Father, and from the Most High received + Grace to bear graciously her testimony, + Even by imprisonment, and children reft, + For Stephen's Lord and hers. The others marked + Ruth's placid changed demeanor, and gave thanks + Silent to God who thus their prayer had heard. + "I go," she said to Saul, "for Jesus' sake + Wherever thou mayst lead. My babes I trust, + As Stephen trusted them before he suffered, + Unto the Father of the fatherless. + Lo, I am ready--bind me--for His sake!" + + Never so ruefully had those hard men + Bound any hands for prison as they bound hers; + And scarcely Saul found steady voice to say: + "Thy children shall be cared for tenderly, + Till thou return to them in sounder mind; + The fathers of our tribes will see to this." + + Then Rachel said, and saying it wept at last: + "They would not bind me, Ruth, to take thy place, + Though I entreated them while thou wert gone. + I shall be left, unworthy to be left, + If ye, beloved, are worthy to be taken! + But, Ruth, if thou wilt let me, I shall stay + And myself be a mother to thy babes, + Nurturing them most lovingly, alike + For thine, their father's, and their own sweet sakes. + And I will daily bring thee word of them, + Treasuring for thee each little syllable + They lisp from day to day of loving speech + Concerning father or mother gone away. + They shall not lack whatever I can give + Of mother's tendance, so as yet to feel + That I am not their mother, only one + Less wise, less good, less loving, and less fair + Than she, who for their mother's sake loves them! + All this, I trust, will not last very long, + This motherlessness for them, this childlessness + For thee--thou wilt come back--but, O Ruth, pray"-- + Thus Rachel softly for Ruth sole to hear-- + "For surely now thou understandest well, + Too well! what then I meant when once I told thee, + 'I too am widow as thou art, yet not + As thou, since me stroke heavier has bereaved!'-- + O Ruth, pray thou and never cease to pray + For Saul, my brother!" + + So they went away, + And, lodged in prison, those four captives sang, + A silent melody making in their hearts, + "With tribulation, peace!" until they slept. + But Rachel having followed at remove + Behind them, saw where they were put in hold, + Then, hedged about meanwhile with purity, + With convoy doubtless too of angels hedged, + Gladly on such an errand earthward come, + Invisible bright legion hovering round!-- + Safely returned to sleep in Stephen's house. + + There she abode, and thence, an angel she! + Went daily to and fro between Ruth's house + And Ruth in prison, bearing messages, + Refections often bearing, food or drink, + Her own housewifely skill and instinct nice, + With other comforts portable, sometimes, + Pillow or cushion, rug or robe or shawl, + Such as might serve to cheer the homesick heart + In any there imprisoned, with sweet sense + At least of loving thought from one for those + In bonds, as herself with them bound; the while + That for the orphaned children she made home. + Nor ever failed to Rachel full supply + Of all whatever need there was to her. + Month after month, her cruse was brim with oil, + With meal her measure, large replenishment. + God put it in the heart of Saul to send, + Diverted like an irrigating rill + Full all its season from the affluent Nile, + A secret stream of various providence + For Rachel and for Rachel's fosterlings + Fed from the fountain of his patrimony. + + + + +BOOK XI. + +SAUL AND HIRANI. + + +Saul, ill-content with his own prosperity in persecution, retires +gloomily, late at night, to his desolated home. He vainly tries to +sleep, and, rising very early, goes to consult Gamaliel. Returning, +he encounters Shimei, who, with gibes, instigates a further act of +persecution on Saul's part, cunningly contriving it to make refusal +impossible. Saul attempting the arrest proposed by Shimei meets with +opposition, which the latter has secretly inspired. The persecutor +in consequence narrowly escapes violent death, being rescued at the +critical moment by Shimei; who himself, with a band of servitors, +makes the arrest unsuccessfully attempted by Saul alone. The man +arrested confesses Jesus before the Sanhedrim, constant against every +inducement to deny his Lord. He is scourged, at the instance of +Shimei, and finally, at the instance of Mattathias, stoned; Saul in +both cases giving his vote against the man. + +SAUL AND HIRANI. + + With large prosperity and little joy, + Thus the first stage of that 'straight path' foreseen + By him to Rachel, 'traced in blood and tears,' + Saul had accomplished, and the night was late; + He parted from his men and was alone. + Alone and moody, by the westering moon, + His face downcast turned absently toward what + Late was his home, home longer not to him, + With footstep slow suspended by sad thought-- + Which had no goal, but ever round and round + On one fixed centre hopelessly revolved-- + Saul paced the still streets of Jerusalem, + Like a soul seeking rest and finding none. + Before the door at length he finds himself + Of his own house forsaken yesterday. + + For an uncertain absence, but for long + As he supposed, Saul thence that morn had fled + In haste and bitterness. He could not bear + To think of meeting Rachel day by day, + And that great gulf impassable between + Her and himself yawning! he hands imbrued + Perhaps in blood of those she counted dear + But he most hateful counted bringing home, + Her innocent white hands to touch, and feel + The difference! Therefore he fled because + 'Rachel,' thought he, 'must bide, and bide we twain + Cannot.' But now Rachel was gone, and Saul, + Alone and lonely, sojourner might be + Where brother and sister late had shared a home. + He enters noiselessly, and unperceived + Steals to his chamber; there upon his couch + To restless thought, he, not to rest, lies down. + Restless and fruitless, save that, morning yet + Pearl-white, untinted with that ruddy flush + Of color in the east before the sun, + Saul rose, and, after joyless orisons, + Went to Gamaliel's house, sure him to find + Already on his roof to greet the dawn. + + "In anguish sore and sore perplexity + Of spirit, master," Saul said, "lo, I come + To thee, not knowing whither else to go, + For solace, and the solving of my doubt." + + "Welcome thou comest ever, even or morn," + Gamaliel said; "but what disquiets thee? + When in the council last I heard thee speak, + Thou wert all firmness, as one wholly clear + In purpose, and thou hadst that glad aspect, + Though serious, which befits the mind resolved. + Whence, Saul, the change in thee?" + + "Thou knowest," said Saul + "How prospered my attempt, ventured upon + Without thy counsel, in that issue joined + With Stephen." + + "Yea, my son," Gamaliel said; + "But I, meantime, after my counsel given + Dissuading thee, had learned myself to feel + How failed the hand of brute authority + Against this strange faith of the Nazarene. + Thine undertaking I less disapproved + After our hearing of the Galilæans. + Something perceived in them, or through them felt, + Disturbed me with a strange solicitude, + Which the ill fortune of thine own assay + Did not relieve. But thou, thou still wert clear, + Wert thou not, Saul? Thine action did not halt; + Promptly in Stephen's stoning thou took'st part." + + "I acted promptly, that I might be clear + In thought," said Saul; "this, rather than because + I was so clear. My halting urged me on. + Yet now, O master mine, I might perhaps + Be clear, but that my coadjutorship + Offends me so, torments me with such doubt. + In the right way how can I be, and be + In the same way with Shimei? My soul + Sickens at him, at all his words and ways + Sickens, and still he dogs me every step, + Clings to me like my shadow, whispers me + Over my shoulder, pointing me out my way, + Until I hardly can do that which else + Freely I should, because he bids me do it!" + + "Yea, Saul, my son, trust thou thine instinct there," + Gravely Gamaliel said, with slow reserve + That warned how more than he would say was meant; + "Our brother Shimei is a dark man, + Whose public zeal is edged with private spite; + Him well, son Saul, it thee behooves beware. + Since when thou scornedst him in those high words + Before the council, Shimei hates thee, Saul, + And hate like his is sleepless till revenge. + Ill for a cause that must be served by him! + But some are tools, and others ministers, + Of God, Who works His holy will with all!" + + Unwarned by warning, but in conscience pricked, + And following his own tyrannous thought, Saul spoke: + "Those infamous false witnesses of his-- + Say, master, did I on my conscience take + The guilt of their suborning, when consent + I gave to Stephen's death thereby procured? + My conscience like a scorpion stings me on, + But whether a good conscience before God + It be, or rather a conscience violated, + Which I must quiet by not heeding it, + And by confusing it with din of deeds + Forever doing--this I cannot well + Resolve me, and--but, nay, for that were false, + I do not wish thou shouldst resolve me it. + Forgive me, and farewell! But pray for Saul!" + + Therewith, and pausing not, like one distraught, + Or one goaded, and wildly seeking fast + Enough before the goad to fly, which flies + Only the faster, following, for his speed, + And pricks the harder--so Saul broke away + And left Gamaliel on his roof alone + Astonished. + Swiftly now, yet with a haste + As of one wishing to leave far behind + Some spot abhorred, much more than as of one + Eager a goal before him to attain, + Say rather as of one insanely fierce + Somewhither, anywhither, from himself + Pursuing hard himself, to fly, Saul flew + Back toward his dwelling. At the door arrived, + He well-nigh stumbled--for his hasting feet + Against some shapeless heap struck that alive + Seemed, for it moved, and from the threshold, where + He in a kind of ambush crouching lay, + Slowly into the semblance of a man, + Under Saul's eyes down bent, upgrew--Shimei! + + 'Sin coucheth at the door!' thought Saul; he thought + Half of himself, as half of Shimei, + For, 'If thou doest not well, thou Saul!' thought he, + Then, "Reptile! How beneath my heel should I + His serpent head have bruised!" hissed hotly out + Between his set teeth, and perused the man. + Half under breath this, then to him aloud: + "What art thou? Imp of hell spawned hither new + Up from the pit? Avaunt! I loathe thee hence!" + + "Nay, brother Saul," grinned Shimei, therefore pleased + Thus spurned to be, because the spurning was + With anguish of disgust to him who spurned, + Malevolently yet storing reserve + Of hatred and revenge therefor, to be + Afterward feasted when the time should come, + "Nay, brother Saul, you look with eyesight dazed + From undersleeping, and from rash surprise + At this encounter. I am Shimei, + Your special coadjutor tried and true. + I am a little early, I confess-- + Or late, which shall I call it? early and late-- + Like moral good and evil, Saul--ofttimes + Change places with your point of view--become + The one the other, as you look at them. + + "You see I hardly slept myself this night, + Thinking of you, and pleasuring my mind + With fancies of the odd coincidences + That might be happening you at Bethany. + I got prompt information how it all + Fell out, and hastened hither to advise + With you. Upon your sleep, already much + Cut short, I would not thoughtlessly break in, + And so I dropped me at your threshold here, + To wait a proper hour for seeing you, + And yet not let you pass out hence unseen. + I must have fallen asleep, and, brother Saul + Be sure I was no less surprised than you, + When you just now came on me unaware. + Ha! ha! How naturally you mistook your friend + For something not so pleasant from the pit + Vomited suddenly up under your feet! + Another might have taken it amiss + To be so little courteously greeted, + But I--why, give and take, say I, in joke, + You have bravely evened up the score between us!" + + "I do not bandy jokes with such as you, + Suborner of false witnesses!" gnashed Saul. + Saul's look, his tone, had withered any man + Save Shimei, who grew blithe in sultry heats + Of human scorn as in his element. + So Shimei flourished lustier hearing Saul + Despise him with the question further asked: + "What is there common between you and me?" + + "Oh! Ah!" sneered Shimei; "I had thought you dazed + In eyesight only, but distempered mind + You show now, taking this high strain with me. + 'What common 'twixt us?' Yea, yea, very good! + 'Suborner of false witnesses'--hence base, + Shimei, but very, very virtuous, Saul, + Who, with much flourish of disdain, his hands, + His lily hands, washes, for all to see, + Quite white and fair of all complicity + With 'lies,' 'devilish lies,' 'lies damnable,' + You know, and so forth, and in due course then, + His moral indignation unabated, + Takes profit of said lies to make away + With Stephen, through more weighty argument + In stones found than conveniently to hand + Came when he crossed words with that heretic!" + + The mordant sneer corrosive of such speech + Ate through the thin mail of Saul's scornful pride, + And bit him in his wincing sense of truth. + Against these thrusts in no wise could he fence, + Having the foothold lost whereon he stood + Firm in the conscience of integrity. + Unbidden would those words of Stephen, "Pricks + To kick against!" returning come to him + In memory, while ever, with each return, + Fiercer waxed Saul's resistance, fiercer wound + Infixing in his secret-suffering mind-- + As should the bullock battle with the goads + Behind him, shrinking flesh on sharpened steel. + So now his wild heart Saul pressed sternly up + Against the cruel points of Shimei's jeer, + And suffered them in silence. + Shimei + Felt his own triumph, and at feline ease + Leisurely played with his proud captive. "Saul," + He added, "you and I are men too wise + To waste strength here in mutual blame. Forgive + Me that I was so far led on to speak + As if retorting word for word unkind. + I should have made allowance for your state, + Devoid of that just self-complacency + So needful to a happy health of mind. + Now you and I at bottom are such twins, + We ought to understand each other well; + It is a shame that this has not been so. + Here we are one in aim, and unity + In aim--what deeper unity than that + Joins ever man and man? Let us strike hands + Together, since our hearts beat unison." + + Not less revolted at these words was Saul, + More, rather, that he knew how insincere + They were, how hollow, as how void of truth, + Spoken in pure malicious irony. + The sense of difference his from Shimei, + Browbeaten in him, badgered, stunned, ashamed, + Could not rejoice in thought, in speech far less, + Against that flourished claim of unity. + He stood silent, ignobly helpless, while + Maliciously his pastime further took + With him his captor, who then, sated, said: + "Well, Saul, I shall excuse it to a mind + In you disordered through late loss of sleep, + That you do not invite me in to sit + A little at my ease while I disclose + The thought I had in coming to you now. + Nay, nay"--for Saul, broken in self-command + False shame to feel, and false self-blame, as found + Defaulting dues of hospitality, + Instinctive moved toward making Shimei guest-- + "Permit me to decline the courtesy. + You are tired, you are very tired, and you should rest. + Once within, seated, I might stay too long, + Bound by the charms of your society. + + "I pray you be not overmuch disturbed, + But really you should know it, Saul, the chance + You fell in with this night at Bethany-- + I mean your meeting of your sister there + Confessed a bold disciple of the Way-- + Is likely to engender consequence. + It was a noble chance, Saul, from the Lord, + Pushed to your hand--would you had used it nobly! + Alas, at the extreme pinch, your virtue failed! + I can excuse it, while regretting it, + I myself, Saul. Not every one, I fear, + Is naturally so lenient as I am. + My sympathy is facile, but the most + Will say, 'Why did not Saul send _her_ to prison?' + Now what you need is, to forestall such talk + By giving people something else to say. + Fill their mouth full with daily fresh report + Of other, and still other, great exploits + Achieved by you in the same line, and then + They either will forget that one lapse yours, + Or cease, from the perversion of a sister, + Connived at or colluded with by you, + To accuse a taint and pravity of blood + Inclining you yourself to heresy. + + "I give myself no end of trouble for you, + And I have made discovery of the man + You must not fail to move for as next prize. + He is a notable fellow, full of quip, + Quaint turn of phrase, and ready repartee, + Each trick of tongue to catch the common ear, + And mischievous accordingly; for he + Boasts everywhere how, having been born blind + And grown to forty years of age in blindness, + He one day met Jesus of Nazareth, + When that deceiver spat upon the ground + And mixed an unguent of the clay, therewith + Smearing his sightless balls, and bidding him + Go wash them in the pool of Siloam; + He went and washed, and came a seeing man. + + "Such is his story, and so plausibly + He tells it that a wide belief he wins. + 'Hirani' is the name by which he goes; + Name self-assumed since his pretended cure, + A kind of label that he boldly thrusts + In people's faces to placard his lie. + 'He made me see'--he, to wit, Jesus, mind-- + As were no other 'he' in all the world! + Well, this Hirani to be weaver feigns, + Mere cover to that other trade he drives-- + A famous flourishing one with him, they say-- + Proselyte-making for the Nazarene. + Clap him in prison, Saul, let him repeat + His marvel to the unbelieving walls. + At present, many of the Way are fled + Hither and thither through the countryside, + But this man tarries to rehearse his tale. + So there your plan is, ready-wrought for you; + Now, Saul, go sleep upon it, and farewell." + + Man through malicious mind more miserable, + More miserable man from every cause + Of inward sorrow save malicious mind, + Never were met and parted than when there + Shimei found Saul and left him thus that morn. + Once more Saul visited his couch in vain; + Sleep could he not, could not but round and round + Tread the treadmill of painful barren thought, + On this fixed only, with resentful will, + _Not_ to do that which Shimei pressed him to. + So, having eaten, without appetite, + He flung forth in the street dispirited-- + Aimless, nor on the way through hope to aim, + Hopeless, nor on the way through aim to hope-- + Irresolute, deject, energiless, + Therefore the destined prey of whatso snare + Should sudden first waylay his nerveless foot-- + Forth in the street flung, at his door to meet + An ambushed messenger of Shimei's, + Who from his master gave him written word: + "The Sanhedrim to sit this afternoon + In council on the case you will present. + All feel the utmost flattering confidence + That Saul will promptly bring his prisoner in. + The bearer of this can guide you to your man." + + 'Himself false witness now become, the wretch!' + Thought Saul. 'This buyer of false witnesses + Has falsely told my brethren that I put + Myself in pledge to do a special task, + His bidding, and has got the council called + In expectation on their part from me + That I will bring them in this man to judge-- + Death doubtless meant, instead of prison, for _him_! + The wretch, the perjured wretch, and damnable! + Yet for me what escape? Alternative + None offers. Yea, denounce might I the man + Even to his teeth before them all a liar-- + But to what profit? He could truly say + I listened, not demurring, when he broached + This his new plan, as I had done before + Concerning the arrests at Bethany + By him projected, meekly made by me! + I should seem caviller, than he more false, + And trifler with the ancient majesty + Prescriptive of the Sanhedrim.' + Saul writhed + With all the frail remainder of his force, + Writhed--and submitted. With the guide he went, + And the man found whom he, under duress + Resented, sought. The invisible chains which then + That captive captor wore, far worse galled him + Than those whereof he plained at Bethany. + Master more cruel yet the devil can be + Than vehement conscience blinded by self-will. + Pride driving makes an intimate misery, + But a more intimate misery pride driven! + + At his loom seated--there his handicraft, + Late learned by him after sight given him late, + Busily plying--Saul's intended prey, + With his hands weaving, as the shuttle flew, + A fabric of coarse cloth, wove with his tongue, + That subtler shuttle in the loom of thought, + Discourse simple yet sage, for those to hear, + A goodly audience, who had gathered round + Him in his place of labor out-of-doors + Under an awning stretched that fenced the sun-- + Drawn thither by the fame of what he told, + A strange experience never man's before. + + "Thou art disciple of the Nazarene?" + Abruptly so, intruding, Saul inquired. + The accent of authority that spoke + In him, the masterful demeanor his, + All felt, and of the listeners some, afraid, + Withdrew in silence; but the sifted more + Who stayed clouded their aspect, and, with grim + Mutter in undertone exchanged between + Them, each with other, asked or answered who + This was that rudely thus and threateningly + Broke in upon them. Saul! the Sanhedrim! + Were dreaded names, but red runs Jewish blood, + And hot, and quick, and those affronted men + Scarce waited for their neighbor seen thus scorned + To answer yea to his stern challenger, + Ere they together moved in mass about + Saul unattended, naked of all arms + Save his authority, and, hustling him, + Seemed on the verge of using violent hands + To thrust him forth--nay, to Saul's ears there came + That pregnant word, ready on Jewish tongues, + Yet readier hardly than to Jewish hands + The deed, word full of instant menace, "Stones!" + + Saul knew his danger and his helplessness; + But, far from terror, though not void of fear, + Blanching not blenching, he a tonic breath + Drew, in an air that to another man + Had softened all his fibre or dissolved. + Vanished that mood of feebleness he brought, + And in its place a resolute, alert, + Defiant sense of self-sufficing strength + Supported him, nay, buoyed him almost gay, + As thus, with bitter words, he taunted them: + "Yea, now ye show what lessons ye have learned + Of unresisting meekness at the feet + Of this your teacher--_then_ not to resist + When ye are certain to be overpowered! + But twenty of you to one man are brave! + Nay, but one man may twenty of you scorn. + Back, there! Stand back! This man my prisoner is. + I, Saul, commissioned by the Sanhedrim, + Summon and seize him to appear this day + Before their just tribunal to be judged + As self-confessed disciple of the Way. + Follow me thou! Make way before me there!" + + The peremptory tone, the audacity, + The prompt aggressive movement, with the proud, + High, lordly speech disdainful, the assured + Serene assumption of authority + Enforced by personal will as strong as power-- + These for a moment's space surrounded Saul + With that inviolable immunity, + The nameless spell which perfect courage casts; + Nay, so far gave him full ascendant there + That he quite to his man his way had made + And on a shoulder laid the arresting hand. + But stay! not quelled, suspended only, seems + The indignant angry humor of the crowd. + Scarce has Saul uttered his last scornful words + And turned to front the men about him massed-- + Not doubting but, with only the drawn sword + Of his fixed forward countenance, he shall + This side and that before him cleave a way + Wide from amid them forth to pass--upon + Such hinging-point scarce poises Saul, when they, + With many-handed violence, seize him + And, irresistibly uplifting, bear + Helpless, headforemost, ignominiously, + Whither they will. + + In vain Hirani cries, + By turns rebuking and beseeching them; + In vain he follows, warning them beware + To involve themselves in risk fruitless for him; + In vain implores them even for Jesus' sake, + Whose name will be dishonored by their deed; + Presents himself in vain a prisoner + Willing to go with Saul unmanacled; + In vain avouches he, in any case, + Shall yield his person to the Sanhedrim, + Doubtless to suffer but the heavier doom + For what is doing, unless they refrain. + Hirani had adjured them by the name + Of Jesus, but those heady men, that name, + That mastership, owned not, Jews only still, + Still in the changed new spirit all unschooled. + So by their own mad motion ever mad + Growing, they hurtle Saul along the way-- + He the while musing, with mind strangely clear, + How like to Stephen's lot his own is now!-- + Till chance unlooked-for their wild turbulence stays. + + All had been teemed from Shimei's fruitful brain. + First, he had mixed the listening crowd around + The weaver at that moment with base men, + His creatures, who, for hirelings' pay, should stir + Their neighbors up to wreak indignity + Upon Saul's person, wounding to his pride, + And in the public view disparaging. + Then, at the point of need, to succor Saul, + Bringing his haughty colleague under debt + To himself, Shimei, for his very life-- + This was that crafty plotter's next concern. + A band accordingly of men-at-arms, + Sworn in the service of the Sanhedrim, + He had made ready; and these now appeared + Confronting that tumultuary crowd. + Saul rescued--not without some disarray + And soil of rent apparel, hair and beard + Dishevelled, and disfigured countenance, + His person thus disparaged to the eye, + Hirani, as ringleader of the rout, + Chained and brought forward, while go free, but blamed + For being misled, the others--Shimei then + To view emerges. He addresses Saul: + "Well met! That fellow, with his crew of like, + Treated you badly, Saul. You might have prayed + To be delivered into Stephen's hands + From tender mercies such as theirs! I trust + You have not suffered worse than what I see, + Some slight derangement of apparel shown, + Your hair and beard less sleek than might beseem, + With here and there a scratch scored on your face-- + Nothing more serious, let me trust? Our men + Were at the nick of time in coming up. + It was not pure coincidence. You see, + Both knowing your mettle and the vicious ways + These sanctimonious ruffians have at times, + I had misgivings that you might be rash, + And suffer disadvantage at their hands. + So, as in like case you would do by me, + I, with these faithful servitors of ours, + Run to your rescue here, and not too soon! + A little later would have been too late. + You were well started down the steep incline, + Which, very happily, as I learn, you styled + 'The way of Stephen and all heretics.' + Droll, very, with of course its serious side, + Queer irony, you know, of will Divine, + Supposing they had really stoned you, Saul! + Well, well, it turns out better than your fears. + You will not, true, and I lament it, make + Quite a triumphal entry with your man + Before the Sanhedrim, leading him in, + With air of captain fresh from glorious war, + Who brings proud trophy of his single spear + Redoubtable; but the main point is ours, + The man we want is safe in custody." + + Thus Shimei with his devilish sneering glee + Nettled the heart of Saul and cheered his own. + + Before the council Shimei stood forth, + Instead of Saul, to accuse the prisoner. + With plausible glib mendacity, he said: + "Not only is this fellow heretic + After the manner of those Galilæans, + But myself saw with mine own eyes just now + How he the idlers in the street stirred up + To most unseemly act of violence + Against our brother Saul, worthy of death, + As being aimed at death, unless that I + Had ready been at hand with force enough + To rescue one of our own number thus + To the most imminent brink of stoning brought. + Saul, if he would, might show himself to you + In lively witness of the things I say." + + Hereon to Saul he signed with hand and eye; + But Saul arose and calmly, with disdain, + Thus spoke: "The man here present prisoner + Is, out of his own mouth, disciple proved + Of Jesus Nazarene. As such I sought + To bring him hither before you to be judged. + This my attempt, most unexpectedly, + A crowd of idlers round about him drawn + Vacantly listening to discourse from him, + Resented; they, resisting, thrust me back-- + I had ventured single-handed and alone-- + And, borne to madness, might perhaps have wrought + Some harm to me--I know not; but one thing + I know, and that I freely testify, + This man, our prisoner, did nought of all, + Contrariwise, with all his eloquence + Endeavored to dissuade those violent, + Constantly saying and averring he, + In any case, should, of his own free will, + Give himself up to you--thereby to clear + The Name he sought to honor of reproach + For wild deeds done as in defence of him." + + A moment, having heard Saul testify, + The Sanhedrim sat silent in fixed thought. + Then Shimei, ever easily equal found + To his occasion, when need seemed to him + Of whatsoever fraud in word or act, + Said that of course from brother Saul was heard + Never aught other than he deemed was true; + But the fact was, as would by witnesses + Be amply proved, that all this culprit's show + Of zeal to stay those rioters back was show + Merely, dust in the eyes of Saul to cast, + Or rather sport to make of him, the prey + Secure supposed of his, the prisoner's, + Malicious machination through the hands + Of his confederates, or tools, who knew + Better their master's purposes, his real + Purposes, than his feigned dissuasive words + To heed, and let his victim go. Saul's state + Was at the moment such, so ill at ease + His mind--why, even his body in that vile + Duress was hardly to be called his own-- + Saul--and without offence would Shimei say it-- + Might be regarded as not competent + On this particular point to testify. + At all events, here were good witnesses + Who, from a safer, steadier point of view + Than Saul's, and longer occupied, could tell + Both what the prisoner's wont had been to teach, + And what he instigated in this case. + + With such preamble to prepare their minds, + Minds used to guess the drift of Shimei's wish, + This arch-artificer of fraud produced + As witnesses the men whom he had late + Mixed with Hirani's audience to foment + That lawlessness. Such serviceable tongues + Failed not to swear, in all, as Shimei wished. + + Saul, in his secret mind with anguish torn, + Gazed at the man forsworn against, maligned, + And almost envied him. A look of peace + Was on him like a light of fixéd stars, + So constant, and so inaccessible + Of change through jar, through stain, so clear, so fair! + He listened to the voices round him loud, + As if some softer voice from farther sent + Made ever an inner music to his mind + Charming him with a melody unheard. + He saw the things, the faces, and the forms, + About him nigh, as if he looked beyond + Or through them, and beheld far, far away + Or whom or what to others was unseen. + + So when the high-priest, from his middle seat + Among the councillors, accosted him, + Asking, "To all these things what sayest thou?" + The prisoner, like one absent-minded brought + To sudden sense of present things, replied: + "I hardly understand what 'these things' are, + For otherwhither I was drawn in thought. + But if it be inquired concerning Him + Whom lately they not knowing crucified, + Why, this I answer for my testimony: + 'Let there be light,' said God, and light there was. + Almost thus did that Man of Nazareth, + Creative, speak for me, and changed my world + Of native darkness to this cheerful scene + Above, beneath, about me, sudden spread, + And sun and moon and stars for me ordained. + I praise Him as the Lord of life and light, + And Giver of light and life to dead and blind. + All glory to His ever-blesséd Name!" + + The simple ecstasy from which he spoke, + Illuminated, and the holy power + Of truth, in witness such, meekly so borne, + Wrought even upon the jealous Sanhedrim + An influence which they could not resist, + And a pang shot to the inmost heart of Saul. + A faltering of compunction close on shame + Made the high-priest half-tenderly, with tone + As of a father toward a child in fault, + Say: "Nay, my son, deceived art thou; of will + Surely thou dost not utter blasphemy. + If so be demon power had leave from God + To give thee back one day what demon power + Had erst one day from God had leave to take + Away, thy sight--be glad indeed, but fear + To yield wrongly thy praise to demon power + Permitted; all to God permissive yield. + Glory belongs to God alone. My son, + Bethink thee now betimes and save thy soul. + 'Jesus of Nazareth anathema!' + Those words repeat for all to hear, and go + Acquitted hence of that thy blasphemy." + + So the high-priest to him, but he replied: + "Blinded again I should expect to be, + My eyeballs blasted to the roots of sight, + Nay, worse, my inner seeing quenched in dark, + Forever and forevermore past cure, + Were I to speak that Name except to praise. + Glory to God and glory to His Son, + Forever and forever in the heavens, + The heaven of heavens, seated at His right hand!" + + "A bold blasphemer!" so, discordant, shrieked + Suddenly Shimei, the spell to break + He feared those simple, solemn, holy words + Again might cast upon the Sanhedrim. + + The chance for heaven precarious is on earth + Ever, and now the heavenly chance was lost, + Such counter breath unable to withstand. + Those half-rapt souls reverted to themselves, + And brooked to listen--nay, assent gave they, + Even Saul too gave assent wrung out!--when, next, + "Stripes for his back!" sharply shrilled Shimei; + "Good forty stripes less one may save his soul! + He loves his blasphemy, give him his fill, + Whet him his appetite, make him blaspheme + His own Lord God, the man of Nazareth. + For that thrice damnéd name require from him, + At every lash, an imprecation loud, + On pain of instant death should one curse fail!" + + So there with cruel blows was scourged the man, + At every blow he crying out aloud + Joy that he might thus suffer for that Name, + And, baffled, they gnashing their teeth on him. + "His madness has infected all his flesh," + Screamed Mattathias; "cure there is but one. + Destroy his flesh with stones, let his flesh rot!" + + This also they, beside themselves with rage, + Rage rabid from the sight of bloodshed vain, + Resolved--resolving with them likewise Saul! + Without the gate they thrust their victim forth, + And there stoned him calling upon the name + Of Jesus to his last expiring breath. + + That night, the violated body, left + There where it fell by those his murderers + To be of ravening beast or bird the prey, + Was thence, with reverent rite, by unseen hands + Borne to a sepulchre, with spices wrapt + In linen pure and fine, and laid away + In secret, not unwept or unbewailed + Of such as loved him for the love he bore, + Quenchless by death, to the Belovéd Name. + + + + +BOOK XII. + +SAUL AND THE APOSTLES. + + +Again deeply distressed in heart, Saul at set of sun withdraws +to the top of Olivet for solitary thought. There falling asleep, +after pensive soliloquy, he dreams that Shimei has followed him +thither, and that he now pours a characteristic strain of sneer and +instigation into his ear. This rouses him, and he goes moodily home. +After a long, deep slumber there, he resolves on undertaking what he +dreamed that Shimei proposed, namely, the arrest of the apostles. +His men fail him at the pinch, and Saul bitterly upbraids them, +declaring strongly that their renegade behavior only determines him +the more sternly to root utterly out the pestilent Galilæan heresy, +at whatever cost of exertion and blood and tears. + +SAUL AND THE APOSTLES. + + So one day more of bitterness had spent + Saul, and the night, the solemn night, came on, + Grateful to him, for he would be alone. + Whether the thought of home, no home, repelled, + Or longing toward his sister unconfessed + There in that banishment at Bethany + Bright with her presence in it--whether this + Drew him, or wish of lonely room and height + Where more he might from human kind be far-- + However listing, Saul to Olivet + Turned him, and slowly to the summit climbed. + + The moon not risen yet, the hemisphere + Of heaven above him was with clustered stars + Glittering, and awful with the glory of God. + Upward into those lucid azure deeps, + Withdrawn, deep beyond deep, immeasurably, + Gazing, Saul said: "Deep calleth unto deep! + Those deeps above me unto deeps within + Me cry, as infinite to infinite. + The spaces of my spirit answer back; + I feel them, empty but capacious, vast + And void abysses of unfed desire, + Hunger eternal and eternal thirst! + Upward I gaze, and see the steadfast stars + Unshaken in their station calmly shine, + I listen to the silence of the skies + And yearn, with what desire! for peace like that, + Vainly, with what desire! for peace like that! + Beneath the pure calm of the holy heaven, + So nigh! here am I seething like the sea, + That cannot rest, casting up mire and dirt + Continually! O state forlorn! Where, where, + My God, for me is rest? For me, for me! + 'Great peace have they,' so sang that psalmist taught + By Thee, 'Great peace have they that love Thy law + And nothing shall offend them.' Answer me, + Lord God, do _I_ not love Thy law? Then why + This opposite of peace within my breast? + Am I deceived? Do _not_ I love Thy law? + Answer me Thou!" + But answer came there none, + Or Saul was deaf, and the great sky looked down, + With all its multitude of starry eyes, + Impassible, upon a human soul + Wretched, unrespited from long unrest. + + The weary man upon a spot of ground + Bare to the heaven had thrown himself supine; + Lying diffuse, his wistful face upturned, + And poring on the starry-scriptured scroll + Above him, he such thoughts breathed out in words. + He had deemed himself alone, aloof from men; + But seemed had scarce his murmurous monotone + Died on his lips, he skyward gazing still, + When he was conscious of approaching feet, + Feet all at once so nigh, they in the dark + Touched him ere he could rouse himself to stand. + + 'Why, brother Saul! I stumble on you here, + Much as this morn you stumbled over me!' + Such, to the sleeping man, a voice seemed borne. + + 'Those odious false-cheery tones once more! + Shimei has watched, and, hither following me, + Lurked overhearing my soliloquy; + Then, stealthily retiring a few steps, + Comes back, as with the brisk and frank advance + Of one somewhither walking at full speed, + And stumbles against me of purpose rude!' + + So Saul divined dissembling Shimei, + Who said, or to Saul, dreaming, seemed to say-- + Vision as life-like as reality: + "How naturally appear our paths to cross! + I thought that I would take a casual stroll + Alone, and you the same thought had, it seems, + At the same time, directed both, odd too, + The self-same way--another proof, you see, + What kindred spirits we are! + "You must have marked + How fine the night is! What a wealth of stars! + Do you not sometimes wish, Saul, you could be + As comfortably calm at heart as stars? + How wonderfully quiet all is there, + Up in the region of the firmament! + Probably stars have nothing else to do + Than to be calm like that, and smile at us + Fretting ourselves down here with worry and work. + Worry is worse than work to wear us out. + But worst of all is having huge desires + That nothing in the world can satisfy. + Some men moon sighing for they know not what, + Mainly great hollow hungry mouths and maws, + Like void sea-beds; abysses of desire, + You know, that not the world itself could fill. + Better close up your heart than stretch it wide + And never get enough to make it full. + Adjust yourself, say I, to circumstance, + Hard work adjusting circumstance to you! + There's nothing better than to go right on + Doing the obvious duty next to hand, + And let the stars pursue their peaceful way, + As hindered not, so envied not, by you. + The sky is calm, no doubt--the upper sky-- + But happens we do not live in the sky, + But on the earth, a very different place, + And man's work we, not star's work, have to do; + So let us be about it while we may. + + "For instance now, to bring the matter home + (I trust I shall not seem officious, Saul, + I really must make one suggestion more), + Your pristine prestige has been much impaired + Through slips and ill-successes on your part. + No mean advantage to a man, repute + For what the godless Romans call 'good luck,' + Piously we, 'the favor of the Lord'; + This is forsaking you, I grieve to find, + On all sides round, wherever I inquire. + Up, and recover it with one bold push, + Push that dares hazard all upon a cast. + You know twelve men there are in special sort + Dubbed the 'apostles' of the Nazarene, + Who play a part assigned as witnesses + To testify that Jesus rose again, + After his crucifixion, from the dead. + These fellows boldly in Jerusalem + Stay, while the rest run scattering far and wide. + Some kind of superstitious charm or awe + Surrounds them--that is, in their own conceit + And fond illusion of impunity. + Boldly arrest them, Saul, and spoil the spell." + + Thus far, as oft in dreams will chance, Saul lay + And helpless heard what irked him sore to hear; + But now, the loathing irrepressible + Excited by such hateful speech, roused him + To spurning that asunder broke the bonds, + The nightmare bonds, of sleep. He, full awake, + Groped with his hands about, dreading to feel + Shimei indeed couched nigh, as he had dreamed, + Breathing into his ear. No Shimei there! + He sprang upon his feet, and in the light + Of the waned moon, now risen, still large and fair, + Looked round and round--to find himself alone. + + "A dream, then," Saul said, "only a hideous dream! + Thank God! How horribly real it seemed! How like + Must I have grown to _him_, to have had his thoughts! + What demon's doom only to have such thoughts! + Perhaps a demon whispered these now to me! + I could even pity Shimei, to be haunt + And harbor of his ceaseless evil thoughts-- + Could pity, save that I detest too much. + I cannot be like him and loathe him so; + Or does he haply also loathe himself? + Then were I like, for sure I loathe myself! + What travesty it was of those my thoughts! + And not ignoble thoughts, though vain, they were. + The mad pranks that our dreaming brains will play!" + + So musing, there Saul, on the mountain's brow, + Statue-like stood some moments in suspense; + Then slow descending to his house repaired. + A deep, deep draught of pure oblivion + In sleep drowned him until the morrow noon. + + Prayer then, and then fast broken, and calmly Saul + The ill dream of his yesternight revolved. + What better project for fresh act than that + Which, gladly now he pondered, Shimei + Did not propose, but only Shimei's + False lively mimic counterfeit in sleep? + Yea, he would next, with prompt but circumspect + Audacity, the audacious head and front + Smite of this growing mischief, in those men + Styled the apostles of the Nazarene. + + Saul knew within his heart that secretly + He dreaded this adventure; therefore he, + With will sardonically set, moved on + To undertake it. Twenty men of tried + True mettle, men with muscle iron-firm, + And mind seasoned, through many hazards run, + And long wont of impunity, to scorn + All danger--such a score of men chose Saul, + And, from them veiling yet his purpose, took, + With indirection intricate, his way + Toward where, as he, by diligent quest, had learned, + The twelve apostles used each day to meet + In secret from their prowling enemies; + But to the common people, loving them + For manifold miracles of beneficence, + Their secret meeting-place was not unknown. + + As, gradually, Saul with his retinue + Drew near the spot, so large a following + Of arméd men, led by a chief whose fame + Was rife now through Jerusalem for deeds + And purposes of uttermost revenge + Against the Galilæan heresy, + Gathered about their course a growing crowd, + Who, urged by various thought and feeling, watched + What might that minatory march intend. + Reached thus at length the place, Saul stays his steps, + And, turning to his men in halt to hear, + Speaks, with that dense clear voice which tense will breeds: + "Here hide the twelve arch-heretics of all. + Ye come to take them hence bond prisoners, + For lodgment in a hold whence no escape, + That they may cease sedition to foment. + Duly the fathers of the Sanhedrim, + Wise warders of our Hebrew commonwealth, + Will thence adjudge them to their doom of death. + No waste of words in parley now, leave asked, + Terms offered, naught of that, no paltering pause, + Instantly, stroke on stroke, down with the door!" + + But pause they did, those picked, use-hardened men; + They stood as struck with palsy or with fear. + "Traitors be ye, or cravens, which?" cried Saul-- + Amazement, indignation, ire, disdain, + Effacing exhortation in his tone. + Then, mastering himself, less fiercely he + Chode them: "Whence and whereto is this? Mean ye, + Ye surely mean not, mutiny? Rouse, then, + With will; obey, your loyalty retrieve!" + + But still they hung there moveless, until one, + Seeming the spokesman of his fellows, said: + "No mutineers, no traitors, cravens none, + Are we. But look around, and judge what means + This concourse of beholders"--"'Look around'? + _Around_ look?" thundered Saul. "Nay, straight-on looks, + These sole, become stout hearts, staunch wills. 'Around' + Cease looking ye, and all right forward stare + To where yon door fronts you and you affronts. + Batter it down, and, staring forward, on!" + + The vehement, vindictive, dense onslaught + Of that impatient, proud, imperious will + Smote like the missile of a catapult + Against the clamped immovable dead wall + Of fixed inert resistance to Saul's wish, + Which strangely, as one man, those men opposed. + That impact did not shake that stubborn strength, + Nor shiver back in staggering recoil-- + Absorbed, annulled, annihilated, waste! + + One infinitesimal instant, Saul a blind + Mad impulse felt--which, that same instant, he + Quenched in a simultaneous saner thought-- + To rush single upon the door, with blank + Ridiculous demonstration of balked will + Indignant. "Me, then, seize, your chief contemned," + Said Saul, "contemned, since not obeyed, and me + Deliver captive to the Sanhedrim, + Denounced unworthy of your trust, and theirs!" + + As, saying this, around he glanced, he saw, + With unintending eyes, a spectacle + Which well had awed him, but that he was Saul. + The frequence of spectators serried nigh + Had armed themselves with stones, and imminent stood, + A thunder-cloud of menace on each brow, + Ready those bolts of vengeance to let fly, + In hail-storm that no mortal might withstand, + At whoso dared defy their angry mood; + Portent so dire Saul could not but peruse. + + "It was but question which should overawe, + Ye, or this rabble of sedition here, + And ye have solved it like the cowards ye are!" + So, with his passion humored to its height, + And javelin looks shot at his men in shower, + Cried Saul; "I had deemed otherwise of you. + And yet, even yet, once wake the dormant man + Within you, and, from hands through fear relaxed, + Harmless will drop those miscreant stones which now, + With your poltroonery, ye invoke to fall + In well-deservéd doom upon your heads!" + + Upbraided thus, they, by that spokesman, said: + "Stoning may lightly be despised by men + Like us, whose trade it is at need to die; + And bloody death were meet for men of blood. + But we are of the people, as are these + Whom here thou seest around us, stone in hand; + And we, the people, love for cause those men, + Our benefactors, whom thou seekest to slay-- + Wherefore, we know not, save perhaps it be + Some ill persuasion thine that slanders them + As enemies of our race, seditious men, + Conspiring to do evil and not good. + But, if we should as lief, as we should loth, + Offer them violence, and if we could, + As we could not, hope then to escape the stones + Here seen uneasy in so many hands + At only brandished threat of harm to them, + Know, there is more than mail enduing these + Inviolate against what human touch + Might mean them wrong. Something intangible, + Invisible, inaudible, unknown, + A might as irresistible as strange, + Not only arms them proof against assault, + But issues from them in dread strokes of doom, + Silent like lightning, and like lightning swift, + And instantaneous deadly more than that. + What prison-walls can prisoners hold these men? + Hast thou not heard how Ananias fell, + Sapphira too, his wife, dead at their feet, + Fell at their feet stone-dead, when they but charged + A lie unto the Spirit of the Lord + On those twain twinned in judgment as in crime? + A dreadful visitation, as from God; + But, whencesoever issuing, dreadful yet! + No panoply have we against such stroke, + Against the authors of such stroke, no power. + Slay us, or get us slain, we can but die; + But die like Ananias will we not!" + + Saul listened with illimitable scorn; + And scorn incensed his rage thus crossed to be, + Hopelessly crossed, by crass perversity. + In rage and scorn, he scourged those men with words: + "There is no reasoning with minds like you!-- + Too ignorant to guess how ignorant + Ye are, and self-conceited in degree + To match. Such ignorance, with self-conceit + Such, renders blind indeed. What boots it I + Should tell you superstition clouds your brain? + Your superstition would not let you hear. + Your very senses, given by God to be + The avenues of knowledge to your mind, + Satan has clogged to truth, and made of them + But open thoroughfares for lies from him + To enter by and capture you his own. + Mere Satan's lies those tales are that ye tell, + Of prison-doors thrown wide mysteriously + To let these men go free, and of deaths dealt + By magic sentence weaponless from them-- + Mere Satan's lies those tales, or, were they true, + Yet tokens only of Satanic power + And craft permitted to disport them here + For their destruction who to be destroyed + Prove themselves greedy by such act as yours. + Dupes of the devil, go, I pity you! + This is your weakness, not your villainy. + I thought to make you helpers in my strife + To save the souls of others, but your souls + Themselves need saving first and most of all-- + If souls like yours of saving worthy be, + Or capable! Some different make of men + From you, seems I must seek, to serve my need. + Yet you I thank at least for this, that ye + By your behavior show me what a sore, + How seated, and how wide, into the heart + Eats of my nation! Lo, I take the cup, + The full, the overflowing cup of shame + Which ye this day wring out for me, that cup + Take I with thanks from you, and to the dregs + Drain it, in pledge, in pledge and sacrament, + That I hereafter give myself more whole, + More absolute, more consecrate, to one, + One only, pure endeavor and desire, + The utter rooting out--at cost how dear, + No reckoning, mine or other's, toil, and tears, + And blood--wherever Jewish name be found, + Of this foul creeping rot and leprosy, + This blight, this blast, this mildew, on our fame!" + + Saul, in the light of luminous wrath, foresaw + Nigh, and saluted, that career, which thence, + After Judæan cities overrun + With havoc at his hand to Jesus' name, + Will bear him ravening on Damascus road! + + + + +BOOK XIII. + +SAUL AND SERGIUS. + + +After further persecution accomplished by him in Judæa, Saul, with +spirits recovered, sets out for Damascus to carry thither the +persecuting sword. Pausing on the brow of hill Scopus to survey +Jerusalem just left, he soliloquizes. At the same moment, there rides +up a troop of Roman horse escorting a man who turns out to be Sergius +Paulus, an old-time acquaintance of Saul's, also bound to Damascus. +The two pursue their journey together, highly enjoying their ride in +that charming season of spring weather, and delightedly conversing +on the way. They talk over Greek literature, and in particular by +starlight at the close of the first day's journey, Sergius Paulus +having by occasion recited an apposite passage of Homer, Saul +matches and contrasts this first with a psalm of David, and then +additionally with a strain from the prophet Isaiah. This gives rise +to conversation on ensuing days, in which religious questions are +discussed. Sergius declares himself an atheist of the Epicurean sort, +and he plies Saul with incredulous inquiries about the religion of +the Jews--Saul answering with Hebrew conviction and earnestness. The +two part company at Neapolis (Shechem) because Sergius Paulus halts +there, and Saul, in the spirit of true Jewish strictness, will for +his part not rest till he has quite passed the bounds of Samaria. + +SAUL AND SERGIUS. + + Not yet his fill of slaughter supped, though forth + Afar the timorous flock of Jesus now + Were from before his restless, ravening, fierce, + Rapacious sword out of Judæa fled + To alien lands remote, beyond the heights + Of Hermon with their everlasting snows, + And farther to the islands of the sea-- + Not yet, even so, his fill of slaughter supped, + Saul had from the high-priest commission sought + To search among the Hebrew synagogues + Of Syrian Damascus, and thence bring + Bound to Jerusalem whomever found, + Woman or man, confessing Jesus Christ. + + The season was fresh flowering spring; the earth + Was glad with universal green to greet + The sun once more, returned in his blue heaven + After his winter's sojourn in the south. + How blithe the welcome of the morning was, + Forth looking from his east across the Hills + Of Moab on the just awakening world! + Saul met it with a sense as if of spring + And morning linking hand in hand for dance + Together in the courses of his blood, + As, mounted on a palfrey fresh and fleet, + With servitors attendant following him, + He issued jocund from Damascus gate. + The animal spirits of youth and health in him, + The joy of new adventure, the fine pulse + Of life felt in the buoyant, bounding step + With which his steed advanced him on the road, + The secret pleasure of release at last, + Release and long secure removal, won, + Through growing leagues of distance interposed, + From the abhorred access of Shimei-- + These, with the season and the hour so bright, + Brightened the darkling heart of Saul to cheer. + He was a radiant aspect, fair to see, + Fronting his future with that sanguine smile! + + The acclivity surmounted of a hill, + Whence downward dipped his road, declining north, + And farewell glimpse gave of Jerusalem, + Saul rein drew on his foamy-flankéd steed, + And, about winding him, paused, looking back. + His retinue, far otherwise than he + Mounted, part even on foot, with sumpter beasts + Bearing camp equipage, behind were fallen. + These, presently come up, he lets pass on + Before him in the way, while still at gaze, + There on the back of his indignant steed + Resentful to be curbed in mid-career-- + Companion hoofs heard leaving him behind-- + Saul sits, perusing, with an inner eye, + Yet more than with his outer, what he sees. + Half-shadow and half-light, Jerusalem + He sees, smitten athwart her level roofs + With sunshine from the horizontal sun, + The temple of Jehovah in the midst, + As if itself a sun, so dazzling bright + With its refulgence of reflected beams; + While, round about, the warder mountains stand, + Bathing their sacred brows in sacred light. + Saul's heart distends immense with patriot's joy, + Yet joy pierced through and through with patriot's pain. + + "O beautiful for situation, thou, + Jerusalem!" he fervently bursts forth. + "Peace be within thy walls, prosperity + Within thy palaces! Yea, yet again, + Now for my brethren and companions' sakes, + Say I, 'Within thee, peace!' Lo, my vow hear: + For that the temple of the Lord my God + Is in thee, I henceforth thy good will seek. + And Thou, Jehovah in the heavens! behold, + Saul for himself that ancient promise claims: + 'Prosper shall he Jerusalem who loves.' + For love not I Jerusalem, with love + To anguish, for her anguish and her tears? + Take pleasure in her stones, favor her dust, + O God, my God! Is not the set time come? + Do I not hear Thee say: 'Awake, awake, + Put on thy strength, O Zion, long forlorn, + And beautiful thy garments put thou on, + Jerusalem! Henceforth no more shall come + The uncircumcised into thee, nor the unclean!'" + + "Amen!" Saul added, with a gush of tears, + The light mercurial feeling in his heart + Less to sad sinking, weighted down, than all, + With fluent lapse, to pleasing pathos changed. + Into that strain, so ardent and so true, + Of patriot prayer, deeply had braided been, + Half to himself unknown, a silent strand + Of subtle self-regard, vague personal hope + That would have spurned to be imprisoned in words: + 'The new Jerusalem that was to be, + Should she not Saul her chief deliverer hail!' + + Musing, and praying, and beholding, so, + Saul suddenly a sound of clanging hoofs + Heard, and, his eyes quick thither turning, saw, + Between hill Scopus, on whose top he stood, + And the Damascus gate through which he came, + Advancing toward him on the Roman road-- + Cemented solid with its rutted stones, + Like an original stratum of the sphere-- + A turm of horse, large not, but formidable, + Caparison and armor gleaming bright, + And with a nameless air forerunning them + Of wide-renownéd might invincible + Expressed in that momentous rhythmic tread + Four-footed, underneath which from afar + With pulse on pulse now rock to iron rang. + The cavalcade, by slow degrees more slow, + Moved up the acclivity till, reached the brow, + Sank to a walk their pace, when Saul perceived + An arméd escort was convoying one + Thereby betokened an ambassador, + Somewhither posting on affair of state, + Or haply citizen of high degree + Honored with ceremonious retinue. + + This man regarded Saul with curious look + Respectful, which almost admiring grew; + And gravely, as their mutual glances met, + The youthful Roman to the youthful Jew + Inclined in distant salutation meant + For natural courtesy due from peer to peer. + Saul, in like wise, his greeting gave him back; + Whereon the Roman, reining to one side + His horse, and halting, said: "Peace, but methinks + I saw thee late, months since it may have been, + Where that fanatic Stephen suffered death + With stoning at your angry elders' hands." + "I, in that act of punishment," said Saul, + "As loyal Jew befitted, took my part." + "Nay, but as now I read thy features nigh," + Sudden more earnest grown, the Roman said, + "Labors my brain with yet a different thought. + Somewhere we twain must earlier still have met. + In Tarsus I some boyish seasons spent; + I there, by chance full well-remembered, knew + A Hebrew-Roman boy whose name was Saul." + "Then Sergius Paulus is thy name," said Saul, + "And Saul am I--and Saul to Sergius, peace!" + Who but as man and man just now had met + Greeted again in sense of comradeship. + + "Thy face is toward Jerusalem," to Saul + Said Sergius; "but thy look is less of one + Arriving, journey finished, than of one + Forth setting on adventure planned abroad." + "I journey to Damascus," Saul replied: + "And thither also I," said Sergius. + Damascus-ward turned Saul his horse's head, + And slowly, with the Roman, now resumed + His onward way, while further Sergius said: + "Having a brief apprenticeship at arms + Accomplished, to Jerusalem I came, + Centurion still, urged by desire to see + Thy capital city, famed throughout the world. + Since witnessing--by lucky hap it fell + My military duty to be there-- + Since witnessing that spectacle so strange + Of Stephen's stoning--strange to Roman eyes, + Yet to eyes Jewish doubtless quite as strange + Our Roman fashion, hanging on the cross-- + All various ways of various tribes of men + From clime to clime, delights me to observe-- + What comedy to the gods must we present!-- + Since I saw Stephen slain with stones, I say, + Good fortune, and some interest made for me + At Rome, have given me this my welcome chance + To travel and more widely see the world. + Now to Damascus I as legate go." + "And of our Sanhedrim as legate, I," + Said Saul, "if so without offence I may + From Jewish mode to Gentile dare my speech + Conform--legate, or hand executive, + Say rather, in some certain offices + Deemed needful, to consult my nation's weal." + + With mutual question asked and answered, vein + Of old-time boyish reminiscence shared + Between them as together on they rode-- + Their horses pricking each the other's speed-- + The two soon overtook their retinues, + Who, seeing their chiefs adjoined in comradeship, + Themselves in comradeship dissolved their sense + Of race and race to mix as men and men. + + So all day long together, side by side, + Riding, or resting in the noontide shade, + Sergius and Saul, a frank companionship, + Immixed their minds in speech of many things. + Young life, young health, glad sense of fair emprise, + High-hearted hope of boundless futures theirs, + Delicious weather and blithe season bland, + Blue cloudless heaven forever overhead-- + By the sole sun usurped his tabernacle + Whence sovran virtue beaming into all-- + Sweet voice of singing-bird, sweet smile of flower, + Sweet breath exhaled from tender-fruited vine, + Joy, a full feast, through every flooded sense-- + And, heightening all, that billowy onward sway + Of motion without effort on their steeds, + Made, to those lord possessors of the world, + Their talking like the coursing of their blood, + Self-moved, or like the running of a brook + That laughs and sparkles on its downward way, + As ceasing never from its hope to drain + The fountain, brimming ever, whence it flows. + + Of arms, of art, and of philosophy, + They spoke, and letters; spoke, too, of the fame + Of ancient Grecian masters of the mind, + Who ruled, and rule, by charm of prose or verse. + First, Homer, hoar with immemorial eld, + Pouring his epics in that profluent stream + Which, like his ocean, wandered round the world; + Bold Pindar, with his lyric ecstasies, + On throbbing wings of exultation borne + Into the empyrean, whence his song + Broken descends in showers of melody; + Father of history, Herodotus, + "Half poet, epic, or idyllic, he"-- + So, Saul thereto assenting, Sergius said-- + "With his Ionic strain mellifluous + Of wonder-loving artless narrative"; + Thucydides, the soul of energy; + Æschylus, Titan; happy Sophocles; + With soft Euripides unfortunate; + Then Socrates, "Who wrote no books," said Saul, + "Or wrote most living books in living men; + Plato, the chiefest book of Socrates, + Yet mind so large and so original + That, in him reading what his teacher taught, + One knows not whether Socrates it be, + Or Socrates's pupil, that one reads"-- + "Knows not, and, for delight, cares not to know, + Full-sated with the feast of such discourse, + So wealthy, wise, urbane, harmonious!"-- + Stung to enthusiasm, thus Sergius, + Continuing what from Saul ceased incomplete. + "Our Tully," added he, "from Plato's well + Deepest his draughts drank of philosophy, + And, thence inspired, wrote such sweet dialogue, + Latin half seemed delectable as Greek." + "Yea, and a man of fine civility + In manners as in mind, your Tully was," + Said Saul; "Cilicia keeps his memory green + For virtues long in Roman rulers rare. + His too a sounding, stately eloquence, + And copious; but Greek Demosthenes + Pleases me better, with that stormy stress + Of passion in him, reason on fire with love + Or hatred, that indignant vehemence + Which overwhelms us like a torrent flood, + Or, like a torrent flood, upon its breast + Lifts us, and tosses us, and bears us on! + He is more like our Hebrew prophets rapt + Above themselves in sympathy with God." + + In talk like this the livelong day was spent; + Hardly the talkers heeding when they passed + Meadows of flowers pied rich in colors gay, + Poppy, anemone, convolvulus, + Bright marigold wide yellowing belts of green + Into a vivid gold that dazed the eye; + And heeding hardly if upsprang the lark + From almost underneath their horses' hoofs, + Startled to leave her humble hiding nest, + And, soaring, better hide her otherwise + Amid the blinding lightnings of the sun; + Such sights and sounds and glancing motions swift + Scarce heeded--yet, as subtle influence, + Admitted, each, to infuse insensibly + Into their mood an added joyousness-- + The afternoon declined into the eve. + Passed now a fountain on the wayside cliff, + Coyly, through ferny leafage, shedding down + Its weeping waters shown in fresher green, + Up a long glen they mounted to a crest + Of hill where opened a soft grassy plain-- + Inviting, should one wish his tent to spread-- + And here they twain their double camp bid pitch. + + Supper soon ended, Saul and Sergius, + Ere sleep they seek, a hill, not far, ascend, + The highest neighboring seen, less thence to view + The landscape round them in the deepening dark + Glooming, or even the heavens above their heads + Brightening each moment in the deepening dark, + Than youth's unused excess of strength to ease + With exercise, and to achieve the highest. + But there the splendors of the firmament, + Enlarged so lustrous through that Syrian sky, + Hailed such a storm of vertical starlight + Downward upon their sense as through their sense + Inward into their soul beat, and a while + Mute held them, hushed with wonder and with awe, + Awe to the Hebrew, to the Roman, joy. + Then said the Roman: + "This is like that place + Of glorious Homer where he hangs the sky + Innumerably bright with moon and stars + Over the Trojan host and their camp-fires: + + 'Holding high thoughts, they on the bridge of war + 'Sat all night long, and many blazed their fires. + 'As when in heaven stars round the glittering moon + 'Shine forth exceeding beautiful, and when + 'Breathlessly tranquil is the upper air, + 'And in their places all the stars are seen, + 'And glad at heart the watching shepherd is; + 'So many, 'twixt the ships and Xanthus' streams, + 'Shone fires by Trojans kindled fronting Troy.'" + + "The spirit of Greece, with Greek simplicity, + A nobleness all of Homer, there I feel," + Concession checking with reserve, said Saul; + "Our Hebrew, to us Hebrews, rises higher. + Homer, unconscious of sublimity, + Down all its dreadful height above our sphere + Brings the august encampment of the skies-- + To count the number of the Trojan fires! + Our poet David otherwise beholds + The brilliance of the nightly firmament, + Seeing it mirror of the majesty + Of Him who spread it arching over earth, + And who yet stoops His awful thought to think + Kindly of us as Father to our race, + Nay, kingdom gives us, glory, honor, power, + And all things subjugates beneath our feet. + Let me some echoes from that harp awake + To which, with solemn touches, this his theme + Our psalmist David chanted long ago: + 'Jehovah, our dread Sovereign, how Thy Name + 'Is excellent in glory through the earth! + 'Upon the heavens Thy glory hast Thou set; + 'The heart of babe and suckling reads it there, + 'And, raised to rapture, utters forth Thy praise, + 'That mute may be the adversary mouth + 'Which would the ever-living God gainsay. + 'When I survey Thy heavens, Thy handiwork, + 'The moon, the stars, Thou didst of old ordain, + 'Man, what is he? that Thou for him shouldst care, + 'The son of man, that Thou shouldst visit him. + 'For Thou hast made him hardly lower than God, + 'And dost with glory him and honor crown. + 'Dominion over all Thy works to wield + 'Thou madest him, and underneath his feet + 'Put'st all things, sheep and oxen, roaming beast, + 'And winging fowl, and swimming fish, and all + 'That passes through the pathways of the seas. + 'Jehovah, our dread Sovereign, how Thy Name + 'Is excellent in glory through the earth!'" + + Recited in slow solemn monotone, + As with an inward voice muffled by awe, + Those new and strange barbaric-sounding notes + Of Hebrew music shut in measured words + Smote on some deeper chord in Sergius' ear + That, trembling, tranced him silent for a while. + Then he said, rousing: "What a sombre strain! + From the light-hearted Greek how different!" + + "Sombre thou callest it, and solemn I, + Who find in such solemnity a joy; + But different, yea, from the light-thoughted Greek." + Less as in converse than soliloquy + Deep-musing so to Sergius Saul replied. + "Our bard Isaiah modulates the strain + Into another mood less pastoral. + He pours divine contempt on idol gods, + On idol gods and on their worshippers; + And then majestically hymns His praise + Who made yon host of heaven and leads them out. + 'To whom then will ye liken God?' he cries, + 'Or what similitude to Him compare? + 'The skilled artificer an image forms, + 'And this the goldsmith overlays with gold, + 'And tricks it smartly out with silver chains: + 'Or haply one too poor for cost like this + 'Chooseth him out a tree judged sound and good, + 'And seeks a cunning workman who shall thence + 'Grave him an image that may shift to stand! + 'But nay, ye foolish, have ye then not known? + 'Not heard have ye? You hath it not been told + 'From the remote beginning of the world? + 'From the foundations of the ancient earth + 'Have ye indeed so missed to understand? + 'He sits upon the circle of the earth + 'And they that dwell therein are grasshoppers; + 'He as a curtain doth the heavens outspread, + 'And makes a blue pavilion of the sky. + 'To whom then will ye liken Me? saith God; + 'Whom shall I equal? saith the Holy One. + 'Lift up your eyes on high, the heavens behold-- + 'Who hath these things created? who their host + 'By number bringeth out, and all by names + 'Calls? By the greatness of His might, for that + 'So strong in power is He, not one star fails.'" + + The deep tones ceased, and once more silence fell + Between those two amid the silent night. + But Sergius, lightly rallying soon to speech, + Said, with a ready, easy sympathy: + "There seems indeed to breathe in such a strain + Some solemn joy, but the solemnity + Is greater, and my spirit is oppressed. + Not less your poets differ from the Greek + In matter than in manner, when they sing. + How high you make your deity to be, + Beyond the stature of the gods of Greece! + Homer has Zeus compel the clouds, forth flash + The lightnings, and the thunderbolts down hurl; + The mightiest meddler with the world, his Zeus, + Yet of the world the mighty maker not. + But your Jehovah reaches even to that, + As with his fingers fashioning yonder heaven, + And fixing in their station moon and stars. + And he in human things concerns himself! + The Epicurean gods are cold and calm; + On high Olympus far withdrawn they sit, + And smile, and either not at all regard + Our case, or, if so be regarding, smile + Still, unconcerned, our case however hard. + Your Hebrew God is much more amiable, + But much more probable that Olympian crew; + Nay, probable not at all is either; dream, + Fond dream, the fable of divinities + Who either care, or care not, for our case. + We are the creatures and the sport of chance, + Puppets tossed hither and thither in idle play, + A while, a little while, fooled to suppose + We do the dancing we are jerked to do-- + And then, resolved from our compacture brief + Into the atoms which once on a time + Together chanced and so were we, we drop + Plumb down again into the great inane + Abyss, and recommence the eternal whirl! + There is that Epicurean cosmogony, + An endless cycle of evolution turned + Upon itself, in worlds forevermore + Becoming, out of worlds forevermore + Merging in their original elements: + No god, or gods, to tangle worse the skein + Inextricably tangled by blind chance!" + + Saul was affronted, but he held his peace, + Brooding the while his jealousy for God. + At length, with intense calm, he spoke and said: + "The Hebrew spirit is severe and says, + 'The fool it is who in his secret heart, + Rebelling, wills no God.' 'The Hebrew spirit,' + Said I? Forget those unadviséd words; + For to speak so is not the Hebrew spirit. + God is a jealous God; His glory He + Will to another not divide; and God + Himself it is, the Living God, and not + What, Gentile fashion, my rash lips miscalled + 'The Hebrew spirit,' that charges atheism + With folly. God His prophet psalmist bade + Write with a diamond pen on adamant + That stern damnation of the atheous soul: + 'The fool hath in his heart said, God is not.' + This tell I thee my conscience so to cleanse + Of sin in saying 'The Hebrew spirit' for God." + + With tolerant wonder, Sergius heard and said: + "A strangely serious race you Hebrews are; + I do not think I understand you yet. + I shall be glad to-morrow, if so please + Thee likewise, to renew this night's discourse." + So they descended from the hill and slept. + + The herald Dawn, white-fingered, from the east + Had signalled to the stars, 'He comes! He comes!' + And these, veiling themselves from view with light, + Had all into the unapparent deep + Retired, and left the hemisphere of heaven, + Late glowing with their fixed or wandering fires, + One crystal hollow of pure space made void + To be a fit pavilion for the sun, + When forth from their encampment rode the twain, + Fresh as the morning from the baths of sleep, + And keen with hunger for the forward road. + "The allotment of my tribe," said Saul--"my tribe + Is Benjamin--in measure such, bare rock + And rugged hill, hardly through age-long toil + Of tilth so clothed as we have seen them clothed, + In terrace above terrace of won soil, + With verdure--that, we leave behind, to cross + This day the fatter fields of Ephraim." + Then Saul to Sergius rehearsed in short + The tale of Hebrew history, how God, + Having his fathers out of Egypt brought, + With sign and wonder thence delivering them + And hither led them through the parted sea, + And past the smoking top of Sinai-- + Touched by the finger of God to burn with fire + And thunder and lighten more than man could bear + To see or hear, in sanction of His law-- + Had lastly parcelled out this land to them + In portions by their tribes to be their rest. + + While Saul to Sergius so discoursing spoke, + Over their right the sun, long since uprisen, + Climbed the steep slope of morning in the sky. + And now the summit of a ridge those twain + Reach, whence, straightforward looking, they behold, + In light so bright, through air so fair, a scene + Of the most choice the eye can rest upon. + A wide and long champaign of fruitful green, + On either side hemmed in with skirting hill, + Stretches before them to the bounding sky, + Where Hermon, scarce descried through distance dim, + Silvers with frost each morn his crown of snows. + Descended, they therein, through billowing wheat + Wind-swayed, might, to a watcher from the hill, + Seem laboring like two swimmers in the surf, + And hardly, in the fluctuation, way + Making whither they went; yet swiftly borne + Were they, and easily, onward. Soon Saul said-- + And therewith pointed to two mountain peaks, + Seen towering on the left to lordly height, + Twin warders of a lesser vale between, + In stature twin and twin in symmetry-- + "Ebal and Gerizim yon mountains are, + And these between the vale of Shechem lies, + Theatre once of oath and sacrament + Enacted by my nation with dread rite. + 'A strangely serious race', thou yesterday + Calledst us Hebrews, strangely frivolous race + Surely were we, if somewhat serious not, + For we are heirs of serious history. + Yon natural amphitheatre thou seest, + Circled and sloped against those mountain sides + With spacious interval of plain enclosed; + There was the oath of our obedience sworn. + On Ebal half our tribes, and half our tribes + On Gerizim, stood opposite, and midst, + The tribe of Levi, God's peculiar tribe, + Stood in the vale about the ark of God, + Whence Joshua, our great captain, read the law-- + He and the Levites, ocean-like the sound-- + With blessing or with curse by God adjoined + As disobedient or obedient we. + This was when scarce our fathers had set foot + Hitherside Jordan in the promised land; + They from their stronghold camp came here express + To swear such solemn covenant with God. + Six hundred thousand souls of fighting-men, + With women and with children fourfold more, + Ranged on the one side or the other, joined + To them that mustered in the middle vale, + All heard the threatening or the gracious words, + And all, in multitudinous answer, said + 'Amen!'--the tribes on Ebal to the curse, + And to the blessing, those on Gerizim, + Replying--choral imprecation dire + Upon themselves of every human ill, + If disobedient found, of promised good + Acceptance at the price, acknowledged just, + Of whole obedience to God's holy law. + It was as if Jehovah had adjured + All things, above, below, His witnesses, + 'Hear, O ye heavens, and thou, O earth, give ear, + While thus My people covenant swear with Me.' + The host of Israel, though such numbers, heard-- + These mountain-sides redouble so the voice." + + "Theatric sacramental rite most weird," + Said Sergius, "thou hast described to me. + Sure never elsewhere did lawgiver yet, + With ceremony such, a people swear + To obedience of his laws. The laws, I trow, + Subscribed and sealed with signature so strange, + Strange must have been. Example couldst thou give?" + + "Of all those laws," said Saul, "doubtless the law + To Gentile ears the strangest, is the first; + That law it is which makes the Jew a Jew: + 'Other than Me no god shalt thou confess; + 'Image, resemblance, none, molten or carved, + 'Of whatsoever thing in heaven, or earth, + 'Or hidden region underneath the earth, + 'Fashion to thee shalt thou, or bow thee down + 'In service or in worship unto them; + 'For I the Lord thy God a jealous God + 'Am, and I visit the iniquity + 'Of fathers upon children, chastisement, + 'In long entail, on generation linked + 'To generation, following hard the line + 'Of such as hate Me, endless mercy shown + 'To such as love Me and observe My law. + 'Curséd be he who dares to disobey'; + And Ebal, with its countless multitude, + Thundered to Gerizim a loud 'Amen!' + While heaven above and the wide world around + Hearkened in witness of the dreadful oath." + + Saul ceased as mute with awe of memory; + And something of a sympathetic sense, + Communicated, also Sergius made + Silent in presence of such history. + Not long, for, rousing from his reverie, + And looking up before him nigh, he sees + A city with its walls and roofs and towers. + "Neapolis!" exclaims the Roman voice, + The Jewish, in tone different, "Sychar!" said. + "Neapolis! And here I halt," said Sergius; + "Sychar! And forward through Samaria, I, + Not pausing till this hateful soil be passed," + Said Saul; "perchance to-morrow met again, + Beyond, we may together forward fare." + + So there they parted with such slight farewell; + Nor after met, until, two morrows more + Now spent in separate travel, they had reached + The bursting fountain of the Jordan, where, + Forth from between the feet of Hermon born + Forever--in the joy and anguish born, + The certain anguish and the doubtful joy + Tumultuous of an everlasting birth-- + Leaps to the light of life that famous stream, + Like many another child--from Adam sprung-- + To run his heedless, headlong, downward course + And lose himself at last in the Dead Sea! + Here was what life, all-welcoming, lusty life, + Doom of what deadly worse than death was there! + + A city here the tetrarch Philip built, + Or raised to more magnificent, which then, + In honor of dishonorable name + Imperial, Tiberius Cæsar, he + Called Cæsarea, and Philippi too + Eponymous therewith for surname joined; + But Paneas, earlier name, clung to the place, + As to this day it clings in Banias. + + + + +BOOK XIV. + +FOR DAMASCUS. + + +Coming together again at Cæsarea Philippi (Paneas, Banias) after an +interval of days, Saul and Sergius cross the southern spur of Hermon. +A violent thunderstorm comes slowly up during the afternoon, which +gives Sergius occasion, by way of mask to his own secret disquietude, +to quote his Epicurean poet Lucretius on the subject of Jupiter's +control of thunderbolts. As the storm increases in violence, the +fears of Sergius overpower him, and he breaks down at last into a +deprecatory prayer and vow to Jupiter. Saul then, the storm still +raging, rehearses from Scripture appropriate fragments of psalm, +timing them to the various successive bursts of tempest. The sound of +a tranquil human voice has a quieting effect on Sergius, and even on +the frightened steeds of the two travellers. The storm ceases, and +they pass the night under a serene sky, ready to set out the next +morning for the last stage of their journey to Damascus. + +FOR DAMASCUS. + + The splendor of the morning yet once more + Was a theophany in Syria, + When Saul and Sergius, met, from Paneas + Started, with mind to overpass that day + The spur of Hermon interposed between + Them and Damascus. + "Strange the human bent," + Said Saul, "the universal human bent, + Toward worship of unreal divinities! + 'Paneas!' The very sound insults the name + And solitary majesty of God, + Jehovah, Ever-living, Only True. + Think of it! 'Pan', forsooth! And God, who made + These things which we behold, these waters, woods, + And mountains, glens, and rocky cliffs, and caves, + Who these things made, and made the mind of man + Capacious of Himself, or capable + At least of knowing Him Creator, such + A God thrust from His own creation forth, + By His own noblest creature thus thrust forth, + That a rough, rustic, gross, grotesque, burlesque, + Goat-footed, and goat-bearded, horned and tailed + Divinity like Pan, foul caricature + At best of man himself who fashions him, + And out of wanton fancy furnishes him + His meet appendages of brute wild beast-- + That this deform abortion of the brain + Might take the room, made void, of God outcast, + And, with his ramping, reeling, riotous rout + Of fauns and satyrs, claim to be adored! + I feel the Hebrew blood within me boil + At outrage such from man on God and man! + Phoebus Apollo seems an upward reach + Of human fancy in theogony; + Some height, some aspiration, there at least, + Toward what in man, if not the noblest, yet + Is nobler than the beasts that browse, or graze. + Apollo, too, I hate, but I loathe Pan!" + + "We Romans are more catholic than you + Hebrews," said Sergius, "more hospitable + To different peoples' different gods. Our own + Synod of native deities we have, + But we make room for others than our own. + From Greece we have adopted all her gods, + And all the gods of Egypt and the East + Are domiciled at Rome--all save your god, + Jehovah, his pretensions overleap + The bounds of even our hospitality, + Who not on any terms of fellowship + Will sit a fellow with his fellow-gods. + Him sole except, it is our policy + To entertain with wise indifference + In brotherly equality all gods + Of whatsoever nations of the earth. + A temple at Rome have we, Pantheon called, + So called as to this end expressly built + That there no human god might lack a home. + Such is our Roman way; your Hebrew way + Is different; different races, different ways." + Sergius so spoke as if concluding all + With the last word of wisdom to be said; + He paused, and Saul mused whether wise it were + To answer, when thus Sergius further spoke: + "I marked late, when 'Neapolis!' I said, + 'Sychar!' saidst thou, in tone as if of scorn; + 'Hateful,' thou also calledst Samarian soil-- + Wherefore? if I may know." "'Sychar,'" said Saul, + "Imports deceit, and there deceit abounds. + From the Samaritans we Jews refrain; + Corrupters they of the right ways of God. + Across their soil we either shun to go, + Or, going, hasten with unpausing feet." + + "Those also have their ways!" said Sergius; + "Such humors of the blood thou wilt not cure. + Worship Jehovah ye, it is your way, + And let us Gentiles serve our several gods, + Or serve them not, be atheists if we choose-- + I, as thou knowest, an atheist choose to be-- + Of comity and peace the sole safe rule. + This therefore is the sum--I say it again-- + Ways diverse worship men, or worship not, + All as our natural bents may us incline. + Keep your Jehovah, you, He is your God, + Chosen, or feigned and fashioned to your mind-- + Keep Him, but not impose your ethnic dream, + Or guess, of deity on all mankind." + + "No dream of ours," said Saul, "Jehovah is. + Nay, nay, alas, far otherwise than so, + Our Hebrew dreams of God have, like the dreams + Dreamed by all races of mankind besides, + Grovelled to low and lower, have bestial been, + Or reptile, nay, to insensate wood and stone + Descended; we have loved idolatry, + We, with the rest, and hardly healed have been, + Though purged with hyssop of dire history, + Constrained--against the subtly treacherous soft + Relentings of our heart, oft yielded to, + Then punished oft full sore, which bade us spare + Whom God to spare forbade--constrained to slay + With our own swords, abolish utterly, + The idolatrous possessors of this land, + In judgment just on their idolatry, + And lest we too be tainted with their sin; + Yet foul relapse despite, and after, stripes, + Stripes upon stripes again and yet again, + Suffered from the right hand of God incensed, + Defeat, captivity, long servitude, + With the probe searched, with the knife carved until + Scarce left was life to bear the cautery + Wherewith a holy and a jealous God + Out of our quivering soul throughly would burn + That clinging, deep, inveterate human plague + Inherited from Adam in his fall, + That devil-taught depravity which prompts + Apostasy to other gods no gods-- + Hardly so healed, with dreadful chastisement, + Has been my nation of her dreadful crime. + Loth, slow, ingrate, rebellious pupils, we + Taught have been thus to worship only God-- + Jehovah, only God of the whole earth!" + + Those last words as he spoke, Saul his right hand + Swept round in waving gesture--for they now + A height of goodly prospect had attained, + Wherefrom, pausing to breathe their laboring steeds, + They backward looked beneath them far abroad-- + Swept round his hand, as if the circuit wide + Of the whole earth might there his words attest; + Their fill they gazed, then upward strained once more. + At length a stage of smoother going reached, + Sergius, abreast of Saul, took up the word: + "Yea, might one deem thy Hebrew race indeed + Had been the subjects of such history, + So purposed, then sound were thine argument + And thy Jehovah would be very God, + And God alone, and God of the whole earth. + But other races too besides thine own + Have had their chances, their vicissitudes; + Fortune to all has served her whirling wheel, + And every several race has had its turn + Of rising now, now sinking in the dust. + Wherefore should we you Hebrews sole of all + Reckon divinely taught by history, + Taught to be theists in an atheist world, + Or in a world idolatrous, of God + The True, the Only, only worshippers?" + + "The other nations all," so Saul rejoined, + "Followed the bent of nature, had their will, + What they chose did, and were idolatrous, + God gave them up to their apostasy; + Us God withstood, His Hebrews He forbade; + With the same bent as others, as headstrong, + We Hebrews strangely went a different way, + And upward moved against a downward bent. + A fiery flaming sword turned every way + Forever met us on the errant track, + And forced us right though still found facing wrong. + God's prophets did not fail, age after age-- + Until for that we needed them no more-- + To warn us, chide us, threaten, plead, conjure, + Against our passion for idolatry. + Yet, as defying all that God could do, + Such was the force of that infatuate love + Fast-rooted in the sottish Hebrew heart + For idol-worship, that King Solomon, + The greatest, wisest, wealthiest of our kings, + Mightiest, most famous, most magnificent, + The glory and the crown of Israel, + The wonder and the proverb of the East-- + This king, at point of culmination highest + To the far-shining splendor of our race, + The son of David, Solomon, turned back + From God who gave him his pre-eminence, + From God, the Living God, turned back, and sold + His heart, his spacious, all-experienced heart, + To gods that were no gods. + "Against a will, + A set of nature, a prime pravity + Stubborn like this, and tenfold impulse given + Through such example in our first of kings, + That, conflagration of infection round, + _We_ should escape and not idolatrous be, + We only of all nations on the earth, + This, without miracle, were miracle, + A miracle of chance, confounding chance, + Monstrous, incredible, impossible! + Nay, miracles on miracles were for us wrought, + The manifest finger of God unquestionable, + Yet to ourselves ourselves, to all men we, + Wisely looked on, are chiefest miracle, + Witness from age to age that God is God." + + With Hebrew heat, thus Saul to Sergius; + The frequent steep ascents meanwhile, the halts + For rest, for prospect, or for dalliance + Under some cooling shade of rock or tree-- + Shield from the waxing fervors of the sun-- + Slack pace, due to the humors of their steeds + Unchidden while their masters held discourse, + Left the twain still below the topmost crest + Of Hermon when the noontide hour was on. + Large leisure to refection and repose + Allowed, with converse, and mid-afternoon + It was, before to horse again were got + The horsemen, and their forward way resumed. + As, lightly, they into the saddle sprang, + Out of a purple-dark dense cloud that slept + Wakefully now along the horizon's rim + Under the flaming sun in the deep west, + There came a roll of thunder to their ears, + Remote, and mellow with remoteness, rich + Bass music in long rumbling monotone; + They listened with delight to hear the sound. + + Then Sergius, as the vibration died + In low delicious tremble from their sense, + Said, coupling this with that in Saul's discourse, + Fresh, or remembered from the days before: + "That thunder and this mountain bring to me, + Imagined, the wild scene on Sinai + When your lawgiver gave his laws to you. + He schemed it well to have a thunder-storm + Chime in and be a brave accompaniment + To enforce his ordinances upon the awe + Of the unthinking timorous multitude. + Popular leaders and lawgivers have + Always and everywhere their tricks of trade, + To impress, hoodwink, and wheedle vulgar minds. + Our Sabine Numa, he Pompilius named, + Had his mysterious nymph Egeria + To bring him statutes for all men to heed; + And that Lycurgus got an oracle + From famous Delphi to approve his laws, + Which having sworn his Spartans to observe + At least till he returned from whither he went + Abroad, he, after, masked in such disguise + That never thence to have returned he seemed. + The herd of men still love to be cajoled, + Trolled hither and thither about with baited lies; + Frighten them now with brandished empty threat, + And now with laud as empty tickle them. + Augustus taught the art to tyrannize + Through forms of ancient freedom false and vain, + The stale trick since of all our emperors. + Your Hebrew Moses in his rude grand way + Well plied his shifts of lead and government." + + Thunder, a rising mutter, broke again, + And Sergius in his saddle turned to look; + But Saul, with forward face intent, replied: + "Nay, but our Moses thou dost misconceive. + All was to lose and naught to gain for him + Then when he left the ease, the pomp, the power, + Of Pharaoh's court--of Pharaoh's daughter son + Esteemed, and to imperial futures heir-- + This left, and loth his brethren led, slaves they, + Out of the realm of Egypt to the sea-- + For such a multitude impassable, + Yet passed, through mighty miracle, by all-- + Beyond the sea, into that wilderness + Led them, where neither food nor water was, + Yet food found they, and water, in the waste, + Full forty years of error till they came + Next to a land set thick with bristling spears + Against them--though land promised them for theirs-- + And land that Moses never was to see, + Save as afar in prospect from the mount, + Because unworthy judged to enter there, + Who unadviséd words in haste let slip, + Unworthy judged, and meekly by himself + Recorded judged unworthy--such a man, + To such a people, so long led by him, + Through such straits of extremity, not once + Spake words to humor or to flatter them; + Thwarted them rather, balked them of their wish, + Upbraided, blamed, rebuked, and punished them, + Each art of selfish demagogue eschewed. + To rule and leadership like his, nowhere + Wilt thou find precedent or parallel; + One key alone unlocks the mystery--God!" + + At that last word from Saul, like answer, came + A deep-mouthed boom of thunder from the west, + After a sword of lightning sudden drawn + Then sheathed within the scabbard of the cloud, + Which now, spread wide, had blotted out the sun. + A vagrant breath of tempest shook the trees, + And the scared birds flew homeward to their nests. + Sergius remarked the stir of elements + Uneasily the more that he alone + Remarked it, Saul, involved in his own thought, + Seeming unconscious of the outward world. + The Roman, groping in his secret mind + Vainly to find support of sympathy, + Faltered to feel himself thus fronted sole + With danger he could neither ward nor shun, + In presence yet forbidding sign of fear. + + In this distress he buoyed himself with words, + Cheer seeking in the sound of his own voice: + "A merry place that in Lucretius + Where this bold poet rallies Jupiter-- + The whole Olympian crew, Jupiter most-- + In such a rattling vein of pleasantry, + On his plenipotence with thunderbolts! + Lucretius, thou shouldst know, interpreter + Of Epicurus is to Roman minds; + From whom we moderns learn the truth of things + And generation of the universe. + 'If Jupiter,' Lucretius sings and says, + 'If Jupiter it be, and other gods, + 'That with terrific sound the temple shake, + 'Shake the resplendent temple of the skies, + 'And launch the lightning whither each one wills, + 'Why is it that the strokes transfix not those + 'Guilty of some abominable crime, + 'As these within their breast the flames inhale, + 'Instruction sharp to mortals--why not this, + 'Rather than that the man of no base thing + 'To himself conscious should be wrapt about + 'Innocent in the flames, and suddenly + 'With whirlwind and with fire from heaven consumed? + 'Also, why seek they out, the gods, for work + 'Like this, deserted spots, and waste their pains? + 'Or haply do they then just exercise + 'Their muscles, that thereby their arms be strong?'" + + Sergius so far, from his Lucretius, + When the cloud, cloven, let out an arrowy flash, + And, following soon, a muffled muttering threat + Prolonged, that ended in a ragged roar-- + As if, with angry rupture, violent hands + Atwain had torn the fabric of the sky. + A shuddering pause, but again Sergius, + Flying his poet's gibes at Jupiter: + "'Why never from a sky clear everywhere + 'Does Jupiter upon the lands hurl down + 'His thunderbolts, and thunder-booms outpour? + 'Or, when the clouds have come, does he descend + 'Then into them that nigh at hand he thence + 'The striking of his weapon may direct?'" + + One sheet of flame the bending welkin wrapt, + And a broadside of thunder roared amain. + With mortal strife against a mortal fear, + Hidden, the Roman struggled, not in vain-- + As, faltering yet from his feigned gayety, + He, in a forced voice almost grim, went on + With that Lucretian blasphemy of Jove: + "'Why lofty places seeks out Jupiter, + 'And why most numerous vestiges find we + 'Traced of his fires on lonely mountain-tops?'" + + No farther--flash on flash and crash on crash, + Chaos of light and universe of sound!-- + For the wind roared a tumult like the sea + Which the gulfs filled between the thunder-peals. + + One mighty blast, frantic as battle-charge + When, mad with last despair, ten thousand horse + Headlong into the hell at cannon-mouth + Plunge--such a blast rushed down the rent ravine + Whereby, along a shaggy side, the twain, + Now nigh the utmost mountain summit, climbed. + The glacial air, as in a torrent rolled + Precipitous or vertical sheer down + Some dizzy height in cataract, so swift! + Unhorsed them both; but, crouching, man and steed, + With one wise instinct instantly to all, + Which equalled all--supreme desire of life-- + They huddling crept transverse to where a rock + On their right hand lifted its moveless brow + And, safely founded in the mountain's base, + Made, leaning, an impendent roof which now + Proffered a dreadful shelter from the storm. + + Hardly this refuge gained, the tempest, loosed, + Hailstones and coals of fire commingled, fell. + The wind, with such a weight oppressed, went down, + And, with the sinking wind, a water-spout, + Whirled roaring in its spiral from on high, + Those watchers saw peel off, with one steep swoop + Descending, a whole mountain-top and roll + Its shattered forest into the ravine + Suddenly thus with foaming torrent filled. + Therewith, as weary were the storm, a lull; + Lull only, for the welkin seemed to sink + Collapsed about them, and what was the sky + Became the nether atmosphere on fire, + Enrobing them with lightning fold on fold + And thunder detonating at their ears. + + Sergius, ere shut had seared his eyes the glare, + Saw a gigantic cedar nigh at hand, + Under a flaming wedge of thunderbolt, + Riven in parted halves from head to foot, + Fall burning down the frightful precipice. + Spite of himself, his terror turned to prayer: + "O Jupiter," he said, "it was not meant, + What I spoke late against thy majesty! + Spare me yet this once more, and I a vow, + A pledged rich vow, will in thy temple hang, + Then when I first shall safe reach Rome, inscribed + 'From Sergius Paulus to King Jupiter, + Lord of the lightning and the thunderbolt.'" + + "'Give ye unto Jehovah,'" so at last, + Fragments of psalm responsive to the storm-- + As in antiphony of worship joined, + He and the elements!--chanting, Saul burst forth, + At intervals, between the swells of sound, + And varying to the tempest's varying phase, + "'Give ye unto Jehovah, lo, all ye + 'Sons of the mighty, to Jehovah give + 'Glory and strength; unto Jehovah give + 'The equal glory due unto His name; + 'Worship Jehovah in fair robes of praise!'" + + "'Deep calleth unto deep at the dread noise + 'Made by Thy waterspouts. The earth, it shook + 'And trembled; the foundations of the hills + 'Moved and were shaken for that He was wroth. + 'The heavens moreover bowed He, and came down, + 'He His pavilion round about Him made + 'Dark waters and the thick clouds of the skies. + "'Jehovah also thundered in the heavens, + 'And therein the Most High gave forth His voice, + 'Hailstones and coals of fire! + + "'Jehovah's voice + 'In power! + "'Jehovah's voice in majesty! + + "'Jehovah's voice is on the waters! God, + 'The God of glory thunders! + "'Lo, His voice, + 'Jehovah's voice, the mighty cedar breaks, + 'Jehovah's voice divides the flames of fire! + + "'Praise ye Jehovah, heavens of heavens, and ye + 'Waters that be above the heavens, Him praise! + 'Praise ye Jehovah, from the earth beneath, + 'Thou fire, thou hail, thou snow, and vapors ye, + 'Thou, stormy wind that dost fulfil His word!'" + + So Saul, in dialogue with the elements, + That heard him, and responded voice for voice. + Sublimity into sublimity + Other, immeasurable heights more high, + Was lifted and transformed, the terror gone, + Gone or exalted to ennobling awe-- + In converse such, God, with His image man! + The thunder, and the lightning, and the hail + Falling in power, the pomp of moving clouds, + The sound of torrent and of cataract, + The multitudinous orchestra of winds-- + Trumpet and pipe, resounding cymbal loud, + Timbrel and harp, sackbut and psaltery-- + The majesty of cedars prostrate strewn + In utmost adoration, the veiled sun, + The kneeling heavens, face downward on the earth, + In act of penitence as found unclean + By the white-burning holiness of God-- + All this wild gesture of the elements + And deep convulsion of the frame of things, + Appalling only erst, interpreted + By interjections such from Saul of phrase + Inspired, seemed from confusion and turmoil + Transposed and harmonized to an august + Service and symphony of prayer and praise + And solemn liturgy of the universe. + + Sergius was charmed insensibly to peace, + And a calm human voice had subtle power + To soothe to breathing rest the trembling steeds. + And now began the cadence of the storm; + Lifted the sky was from the burdened earth, + The lightnings flashed less imminent, less thick. + The thunder dulled his stroke, retired to far + And farther in the muffling firmament, + The hail ceased falling in a fall of rain, + Through which at last the low descending sun + Smiled in a rainbow on the opposite cloud. + "God's sign," said Saul, "His seal of promise set + Oft on the clouds of heaven when storm is past, + In radiant curve of blended colors fair, + That He with flood no more will drown the world." + + Therewith they got them to their path again, + And, forward hastening, on the farther slope + Of Hermon overpassed, were met by some + Returning of their escort companies + Who sought their laggard masters left behind. + These had crossed earlier, and, before the storm, + Housed them in covert, where all now with joy + Welcomed their chiefs from threatened scath escaped. + They slept that night beneath a starry sky + Fair as if wrinkled never by a frown; + To-morrow they would see that paradise, + Renowned Damascus, pearl of all the East. + This their sleep filled with dream of things to be, + Until the morning breaking radiant made + The desert seem to blossom as the rose + Wherein Damascus sat an oasis. + + + + +BOOK XV. + +SAUL AND JESUS. + + +The scene of the poem changes, being transferred to Paradise. Here +a group composed of those who had come to their death by the hands +of Saul assemble, privileged by special grace to witness from their +celestial station the happy overthrow and conversion of their late +persecutor. Sergius applies his interpretation of the occurrence, +and Saul finishes his journey on foot, blind, led by the hand into +Damascus. + +SAUL AND JESUS. + + Without the limits of this earthly sphere, + Immeasurable distances beyond + The region of the utmost fixéd stars, + Nay, high above all height, transcending space, + Transcending time, subsists a different world, + Invisible, inapprehensible + To whatsoever power of human sense, + All unimaginable even--so far + Removed from aught that ever we on earth + Have seen, or heard, or felt, or known, or guessed. + Believed in only, and not otherwise + Than to the vision of meek Faith revealed + (Though indefeasible inheritance + Reserved for her fruition after death), + Yet is that world unknown substantial more + Than all this solid-seeming universe + Of matter round about us that assaults + Our senses daily with its imminence, + Its impact, as if nothing else were real! + But till the destined moment, we must deem, + Much more, must speak, of that transcendent world, + And of our human brethren there insphered, + In figure borrowed of our mortal state. + + While those things nigh Damascus so befell, + And now the night was almost waned to morn, + Its different morning in that different world + Dawned to the saints forever summering there + In bliss and glory with their glorious Lord. + Morning in the celestial Paradise + Is not as morning here, new-springing day + Crescent the same out of eclipsing night: + No night is there, and therefore no vicissitude + Of dark and bright to separate the days. + Yet condescends our Father to their frame, + Still finite though immortal, still in need + Of changes to diversify their state, + And punctuate into periods the smooth lapse, + Else cloying with prolonged beatitude, + Of that eternal dateless life serene + Lived by the happy souls in Paradise; + Our Father condescends and gives them days + And days, with difference of each from each, + That they may reckon up and date their bliss; + No night is there, but without night a morn. + Morning in Paradise is perfect light + Ineffably more fair become to-day + Than yesterday, forever, through more fair + Disclosure, dawn on dawn, eternally + Made of the glory of the face of Him + In whom to His belovéd God still shines. + + Morn such had risen once more in Paradise, + When there a group elect together drawn, + Wearing a brow of expectation each, + Stood on a flowery hill enringed around + To be almost an island with a loop + Of river, the river of life, that lucent flowed + Mirroring ranks of trees along its banks + Ruddy or gold in gleams of fruitage seen + Glimpsing against the rich green of their leaves-- + Here stood a chosen group who waited now + Tidings a messenger to come should bring. + These were those all who lately on the earth + Had suffered death for Jesus' sake through Saul-- + All saving Stephen; he, at point of dawn + That morning, had been summoned by his Lord + To bear from Him some embassy of grace. + The man born blind was there whom Jesus healed + To double seeing, seeing of the soul, + As of the body, and whom not the threat + Of stripes, of stones, and not the blandishment + Of gentle words from lips with power of death + Could bribe to live at cost of least unfaith + Toward his Light-giver and Redeemer Lord-- + He, and a little company besides, + Women with men, who like him lightly recked + Of loss but for a moment then and there + Compared with that far more exceeding weight + Of glory now, in over-recompense, + Forever and forever sealed their own. + + This little group, beyond their happy wont + Beatified with hope that heavenly morn, + Soon greet one coming whose irradiate brow + Bespeaks him fresh from audience with the King; + Stephen it was, whose earthly-shining face + Was shadow to the brightness now it wore. + The martyr to his fellow-martyrs brought + Glad tidings; they were all that day to see + Break forth in power the glory of the Lord. + "Saul," Stephen said, "still breathes his threatening out + And slaughter aimed against the church of Christ; + He journeys to Damascus in this mind. + But the Lord Christ will meet him in the way + And overthrow him with resistless light. + Ours is to tarry on this pleasant hill + Of prospect, and, hence gazing, all behold, + Tasting a sweet revenge of Paradise, + To see our prayers fulfilled, in Saul become + From persecutor brother well-beloved, + And builder from destroyer of the church." + + So these there sat them down upon the mount. + Here, gaze turned ever earthward, they in talk + Of earthly things that still were dear to them + Consumed the happy heavenly hours, until, + To those their native Syrian climes, drew nigh + Noontide; then, in a new theophany, + The transit of a shadow!--seldom seen + There where was neither sun, nor moon, nor star, + But all was equal universal light-- + Came sudden notice to their eyes to watch + The Messianic dread procession forth, + Christ in the majesty of solitude, + Swifter than meteor's fall, from Paradise. + + HE, purposed not to slay, only cast down + Saul from the top of his presumptuous pride, + And break him from his disobedient will, + Would not in His essential glory meet + His creature, lest he be abolished quite, + But dimmed Himself with splendor which, more bright + Than the supreme effulgence of the sun + At mid-day in a crystal firmament, + Fixed, but more vivid than the fleeting flash + Of lightning when its beam burns most intense, + Was splendor yet of ray less luminous + Than the accustomed radiance of His face, + And showed as cloud against that shining sky. + + For, in that unimaginable world + Of perfect, purged from sin and sin's defect, + The senses of the blest inhabitants, + Their organs and their faculties, are all + Inured to bear with ease, with pleasure bear, + Continuance and intensity of light + That mortal frames like ours would quite consume. + Those there from light need neither change nor rest, + Their proper substance is illuminate, + And their bliss is to bathe themselves in light, + And light, more light, drunk in at every pore + From the bright omnipresence of the Lord, + Revealed each day brighter forevermore, + Makes their eternal life eternal joy. + + But on this day select of many days, + The happy people all of Paradise + Saw Jesus as a darkness of less light, + A glancing shadow, pass from out their sphere-- + The most unweeting whither or why He went; + But those knew who kept vigil on the mount. + These had their sense for sight and sound that day + Exalted to seraphic keen and clear + Beyond the glorious wont of Paradise; + While a circumfluous ether interfused + For their behoof between where thus they stood + And where they earthward looked, a subtile air, + A discontinuous element rare like space, + Was now such vehicle, so voluble, + For lightest appulse to both eye and ear + Supernal, thrice sevenfold refined, as made + Seem nigh things seen or heard, however far. + + Fixed to behold and hearken thus at ease, + They saw afar two pilgrim companies, + Where, near Damascus, these a shady tuft + Of grove or thicket, in the arid waste + Of burning sand, at noontide hour had found, + For rest and coolness ere their goal they gained. + Those pilgrims just in act, as seemed, to start + Anew upon the way for their last stage + Of going, one, well recognized for Saul-- + Remounted not from halt, but some few steps + Leading his horse with bridle-rein remiss + Along his destined path--comrade beside, + Was by this comrade asked, as in discourse + After suspense renewed: "How was it, then, + Through what offence, that he deserved his death? + Since atheist not, and not idolater, + Nor yet of those Samaritan heretics, + Wherein did Stephen fail of loyalty?" + "Traitor was he," said Saul, "to our chief hope, + He taught that Jesus Nazarene was Christ; + Nay, that impostor, he, blaspheming, made + Coequal partner of the eternal throne + And solitary majesty of God; + Worst of idolatry such blasphemy! + Jesus of Nazareth anathema!" + + Almost, at this, a shudder of horror ran + Chill through the spiritual pure corporeal frames + Wherein were housed those blessed essences, + Hearing from earth such words in Paradise! + They then considered at what cost were bought + Perpetual consciousness of things terrene! + + Watched they meanwhile that cloud of glory go + Darkened wherein the Lord of light was hid. + Incredibly though swift its far descent, + Yet answerably swift their vision was, + As swift likewise the motion of their mind; + And so they plainly saw how, by degrees, + What shadow was, in the celestial sphere, + Became a growing brightness as it went, + Until, within the bounds of sunshine come, + That mild beclouded glory, still unchanged, + Paled with its bright the brilliance of the sun. + Hardly those watchers dare keep looking, pierced + With a redeemed fine sympathy for Saul, + And marvelling, "Such light can he bear and live?" + + To Saul himself no interval there seemed; + Instant, with his anathema, down smote + That awful light on him, and straight to earth + Prostrate as dead he fell, yet heard a Voice, + Awful not less, speak twice his name, "Saul, Saul," + And, "Wherefore dost thou persecute Me?" ask. + Then further these deep searching words to him: + "Hard findst it thou to kick against the pricks!" + "Who art Thou, Lord?" came trembling forth from Saul, + Whereby their brother yet alive those knew. + "Jesus I am, Jesus of Nazareth, + The crucified, whom thou dost persecute," + They heard Messiah say, and thrilled with joy + Of gratitude to feel afresh that He + Suffered when any suffered for His sake, + And bled in wounds that made His brethren bleed, + Joining Himself to them, by fellowship + Of passion, they in Him and He in them, + The living members with the living Head + Mysteriously incorporate in one. + Thus a sweet thrill of grateful love to Him, + Their Saviour, trembled in those heavenly breasts, + While in suspense of balanced hope and fear-- + The fear but such as made the hope more bliss-- + They waited what their brother next would say. + + But in the prostrate man, at such reply, + Felt from amidst that imminent light descend, + "I Jesus am whom thou dost persecute," + Thought following thought, a fleet succession, flew + The boundless blank astonishment was brief + Which, as with wing world-wide of hurricane, + Shadowy, his mind bewildering overswept. + 'Such power of splendor his, the Nazarene's! + Jesus had launched that thunderbolt of light! + The Lord of Glory then the crucified!' + The momentary hurricane was past, + But passing it had overturned the world. + + Saul vividly saw Stephen as that day + He shone Shekinah in the temple court + Effulgent with a milder light like this; + 'And this was that which Stephen prophesied! + How madly had he kicked against the pricks!' + Next, Stephen martyr stood before his eyes + Uplifting holy hands to heaven in prayer, + On poise for that translation to his Lord + Wherein his, Saul's, the murderer's part had been! + And Rachel flashed in vision on his mind, + Pathetically beautiful, once more, + As on that moonlit eve at Bethany! + The sisters there, and Lazarus--with Ruth + Exalted in her mother-majesty! + Hirani, then, in his simplicity + Perplexed before the Sanhedrim, but borne + In ecstasy above them far away, + Thence looking down upon them all, a light + Fair on his forehead like the light of stars; + All these things in his past, with many more-- + Instant, at sudden summons of his mind, + To swear against him his own blasphemy-- + Shot through Saul's spirit, as the lightning leaps, + Rapid, one leap, from end to end of heaven. + 'This dreadful splendor was not vengeance all, + It had not slain him, he was thinking still! + A grace was in the glory, oh, how fair!' + The features of a Face began to dawn + Upon him in the darkness of that light; + As the sun shineth in his strength, it shone, + An awful Meekness mild with Majesty! + + The outward light light to his soul became-- + A light of knowledge of the glory of God + To Saul, seen in the face of Jesus Christ! + 'It would be freedom to serve such a Lord!' + The passion of rebellion all was gone, + A passion of obedience in its place; + The will that hated had dissolved away, + And will no more was left, but only love. + This love which was obedience spoke and asked, + "Lord Jesus, what wilt thou have me to do?" + + The Brightness of the Father's Glory said: + "Rise thou, and stand upon thy feet, for I + Have to this end appeared to thee, to make + Thee minister and witness both of what + This day thou hast beheld and of those things + Wherein I after will appear to thee, + Delivering thee from Jewish enemies + And from the Gentiles unto whom I now + Send thee, their eyes to unseal and them to turn + From darkness unto light, and from the power + Of Satan unto God, that they of sins + Forgiveness may receive, and heirs become + Among those sanctified through faith in Me." + + Saul heard, and in his heart of hearts obeyed; + And his whole life thenceforth obedience was-- + Whereof the greater song remains to sing, + If so be God vouchsafe such grace to me. + + But Jesus to His servant further said, + "Hence now into Damascus city go; + There fully shall be shown thee all thy way." + + A way indeed stain-traced in blood and tears, + As Saul foresaw to Rachel; but in tears + And blood his own thereafter to the end, + Even to the end of that apostleship. + + Yet glorious end! Already then afar + Will kindle the dark earth with many a ray, + Never to be extinguished, of heaven's light + Caught from the torch that this world-wandering man, + This flying angel fledged with wingéd feet + Tireless, this heart of love unquenchable, + Has borne abroad, when, now the good fight fought, + Finished his course, the faith full kept, he, last, + With aged eagle eyes strained forward, sees + The crown of righteousness laid up for him + Which Christ, the Righteous Judge, will give him then, + Give him in that forever-imminent Day-- + Nor him alone, as his vicarious soul + Swells to remember, but all them likewise + Who shall have loved the appearing of the Lord. + + The transit of a thought athwart the brain-- + What computation for such speed in flight! + What reckoning of the number of the thoughts + That in an individual instant will + Chase one another through a human mind + In never-sundered continuity + Of change! The measureless diameters + Of being that a mortal man may cross + From one pulse to another of the blood! + How, in the twinkling of an eye, become + The spirit its own polar opposite! + Between his Lord's reply, "I Jesus am," + And his own further question instant asked, + "Lord Jesus, what wilt Thou have me to do?" + That prostrate proud young Hebrew penitent + The utmost stretch of longitude traversed + That can divide two different selves in man-- + He from rebellious to obedient passed, + Blasphemer was adoring worshipper, + The Pharisee was Christian, Saul was Paul. + + At witness of the wondrous change, the joy, + The grateful joy, within those friendly minds + Above who saw it, borne to ecstasy + Of gladness, was triumphal, and broke forth + In singing such as heard in Paradise: + "Glory to God, and to our Saviour Lord, + For one more captive to the heavenly thrall; + For one more human soul to heaven reclaimed + From hell, and star set in Christ's diadem! + For one more witness, an apostle new, + Like angel flying through mid-heaven, to fly + And wing the Gospel wide throughout the world! + Thanks to thee, Christ, for that his name is SAUL!" + + Heard was this quiring song afar, and heaven + Her other joy suspended at the sound: + And every echoing hill of Paradise, + Each grove, each grotto, every fountain-side, + With every bank of river, every glen, + And every bowery, flowery wide champaign + Where angels bask in bliss, took up the strain + And rang it swelling to the highest heaven; + While harpers harped it to their harps, and palms + Were rhythmic waved in music to the eye, + And the trees clapped their hands, and God was pleased. + + So they in Paradise, who saw and heard + Truly; Saul's fellow-pilgrims nigh at hand + Vacantly wondered, who, though they the light + Beheld, and heard the voice speak, missed the sense. + Sergius, recovered from his first surprise + And terror, mused within himself, and found, + Remembering words from Saul against the gods, + Easy solution of the mystery; + 'Pan roared at him from out the copse-wood nigh, + With wholesome punishment of fear infused + Avenging his despised divinity; + While lord Apollo twanged his silver bow + And shot at him a shaft of blinding light; + The gods of right are wroth to be reviled!' + + Saul from the ground arose a sightless man; + The glory that not slew had blinded him. + His steed he would not mount again to ride, + But chose, humbly, and guided by the hand, + Footing to go among his followers. + Who, that blithe morning, as the morning blithe, + Forth for Damascus from Jerusalem + Rode breathing threat and slaughter quenchless sworn + Against the church of Jesus Nazarene, + Entered the city walking, led and blind, + Bondslave thenceforth to the One Worthy Name. + +THE END. + + +Transcriber's note: + +Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). + +Small capital text has been replaced with all capitals. + +Variations in spelling, punctuation and hyphenation have been +retained except in obvious cases of typographical error. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Epic of Saul, by William Cleaver Wilkinson + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43247 *** |