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.
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.
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.
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.