  In sequel of the tragic crime and doom that had just been witnessed by him in the case of Shimei, young Stephen is drawn to resume with his kinsman Paul the topic of the imprecatory psalms, which they had previously discussed on their night ride from Jerusalem toward CÆsarea. Paul gently lets his nephew unbosom all his heart, and, point by point, meets the young man's difficulties with senior counsel and instruction. PAUL AND YOUNG STEPHEN. est of His heavenly powers!O, the depth fathomless, the starry height, The breadth, the length immeasurably large, Both of the wisdom and the knowledge, God's! Because, forsooth, we have some few steps climbed, The ladder that uplifted us so far, That might have raised us yet the full ascent? That ladder rests on earth to reach to heaven: Let us go on forever climbing higher, But not forget the dark hole of the pit Out of which we were digged, nor, more, contemn The way of wisdom thither reaching down And thence aspiring to the topmost heaven; Whereby our race may (so we stumble not Through pride, or like Jeshurun waxen fat Kick) reascend at length to whence we fell— Nay, higher, and far above all height the highest, To Him, with Him, exalted to His right, To Him, with Him, in Him, Lord Christ, Who rose For us in mighty triumph from His grave, Then reascended where He was before, Ere the world was, God with His Father God, But still for us; and, still for us, sat down Forever, in His Filial Godhead Man, Assessor with His Father on His throne, Inheriting the Name o'er every name Ascendant, King of kings and Lord of lords, Amen! And hallelujah! And amen!" As one might watch an eagle in his flight That soared to viewless in the blinding sun; As one might hearken while from higher and higher A lark poured back his singing on the ground, So Stephen gazed, listening, with ecstatic mind. "Transported with delight I hear thee speak Thus, O my reverend master, for with awe, Which is delight, the deepest that I know"— Thus at length Stephen spoke, easing his mind A little, with its fulness overfraught. "Doxology outbreaking from thy lips Becomes them so! The rapture of thy praise Is as the waving of a mighty wing Beside me that is able to upbear Me also thither whither it will soar. I am caught in its motion and I mount Unmeasured heights as to the heaven of heavens. Let me join voice with thee and say, 'Amen!' Not least I love when least I understand Often thy high discourse. Eluding me Tempts and enables, and, above myself, I find myself equalled to the impossible! But then when afterward I sink returned To what I was—no longer wing not mine To lift me with its great auxiliar sweep Upward—I grope and stumble on the ground. "Bear with me that I need to ask such things, But tell me yet, O thou who knowest, tell me, Am I then right, and is it, as thou seemedst To say but saidst not, veering from the mark When now almost upon it, so I thought, Who waited watching—did the psalmist old Commingle sometimes an alloy of base Unpurified affection with his clear All-holy inspiration breathed from God, Lading his language with a sense unmeet, Personal spite, his own, for God's pure ire? Forgive me that I need to ask such things." "Thou dost not need to ask such things, my son," Paul with a grave severity replied. "To ask them is to ask me that I judge A fellow-servant. What am I to judge Servant myself with him of the same Lord? I will not judge my neighbor; nay, myself, Mine own self even, I judge not; One is Judge, He who the Master is, not I that serve. If so be, the inspired, not sanctified, Mere man, entrusted with the word of God— Our human fellow in infirmity, Remember, of like passions with ourselves— Indeed in those old days wherein he wrote, His enemies being the enemies of the Lord, And speaking he as voice at once of God And of God's chosen, His ministers to destroy Those wicked—if so be such man, so placed, Half conscious, half unconscious, oracle Of utterance not his own, did in some part That utterance make his own, profaning it, To be his vehicle for sense not meant By the august Supreme Inspiring Will— Whether in truth he did, be God the judge, Not thou, my son, nor I, but if he did— Why, Stephen, then that psalmist—with more plea Than thou for lenient judgment on the sin, Thine the full light, and only twilight his, As thou, committed. Be both thou and he Forgiven of Him with Whom forgiveness is— With Whom alone, that so He may be feared!" Abashed, rebuked, the youth in silence stood, Musing; but what he mused divining, Paul, With gently reassuring speech resumed, Soon to the things unspoken in the heart Of Stephen spoke and said: "Abidest still Unsatisfied that anything from God, Though even through man, should less than perfect be, Or anywise other than incapable, Than utterly intolerant, of abuse To purposes profane? Consider this— And lay thy hand upon thy mouth, nay, put Thou mouth into the dust, before the Lord— That God Most High hath willed it thus to be, That thus Christ found it and pronounced it good. Who are we, Stephen, to be more wise than God, Who, to be holier than His Holy Son?" |
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