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diff --git a/43247-8.txt b/43247-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 5df4f63..0000000 --- a/43247-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,9149 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Epic of Saul, by William Cleaver Wilkinson - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: The Epic of Saul - -Author: William Cleaver Wilkinson - -Release Date: July 18, 2013 [EBook #43247] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EPIC OF SAUL *** - - - - -Produced by David Edwards and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - - -[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 THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EPIC OF SAUL *** - -***** This file should be named 43247-8.txt or 43247-8.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/3/2/4/43247/ - -Produced by David Edwards and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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