  The two slaves, Onesimus and Syrus, bear their torture with constancy, refusing to testify otherwise than in grateful praise of Paul. The emperor, at Seneca's prompting, has secretly overheard their testimony, and, obeying a caprice of justice and of pity, he follows a further hint from Seneca to let Paul go free under bond to appear again when formal accusation shall be laid against him from Jerusalem. Paul thus released sends home to Holy Land the friends that had thence accompanied him to Rome, and accomplishes his last missionary tours, with Luke only for companion. Meantime Drusilla, in a desperate hope revived by the rumored fall from imperial favor of PoppÆa, sends Simon once more to secure for his mistress the long-postponed meeting with Nero. Simon plays Drusilla false and pretends to the emperor that she had indulgently sent him, Simon, to sue on his own behalf for the privilege of practising his art in the palace. Nero agrees that he may do this on condition that he shall first have secured from his mistress fresh consent to receive an imperial visit in her house. Simon, stung by the emperor's scorn of him, had wrought himself up to the temerity of attempting to play on Nero's guilty conscience by an exhibition that should bring up before the tyrant a dreadful recollection of one of his own most heinous crimes. The result proves suddenly fatal to Simon. Paul, brought back in due time for trial, becomes the victim not only of enmity openly working under legal forms against him, but of secret intrigue for unholy personal purposes on the emperor's part. Condemned to die, after having been permitted first to speak in his own defence, the apostle is led to a suburb of Rome, and there beheaded. Luke, enjoined thereto by Paul, gives to his kindred and friends in Palestine an account of the end, of which he was eye-witness. THE END. Onesimus and Syrus had been seized To make them swear a dreadful perjury; It was persuasion from Drusilla wrought With Tigellinus to commit this deed Of outrage against ruth and righteousness: Those bondmen should be brought, by utmost pangs Wreaked on them in the anguish of the rack, To charge Paul with the poisoning of her spouse. Drusilla first had vainly sought to bribe Poor Syrus to that lie and perfidy. Smiles, blandishments, entreaties, promises, Failing—she next, with scourgings from her tongue, Threats, thrusts from female weapons in her hands, Had striven to warp him to her wish—in vain. At last she, giving him up for torture, yet Bade him remember he need only swear, Therein supported by Onesimus, That from Paul's hand he had a dust received— Impalpable, so fine—of unknown power To work unknown effect upon a man, This secretly into some draught his lord Would drink, and watch how it would gladden him— That he had only to protest that lie, Confessing then that, in all innocence Of childish curiosity to see, He did it when his mistress sent by him A sleeping-draught to Felix in his bath— Only just this, and straight for both of them, Onesimus with Syrus, the sharp pains And rending of the question should be stayed. Syrus said sadly to Onesimus: "O, would that Paul were here to give us heart!" "Jesus is here, and He will give us heart," Onesimus replied; "let us trust Him." "I fear I shall be broken to their will," Said Syrus, "and swear whatever they desire; I am so in terror of the frightful pain!" This was while they were binding the poor slaves Upon the rack. His comrade spoke in cheer: "'Lo, I am with you alway,' Jesus said; He will not let us suffer overmuch. I shall not wonder if He take away For He abideth faithful—so Paul says, And Paul has proved it over and over again. At any rate, the promise Jesus made To Paul once, when his need was very sore, Will be as good to us in this our stead; His grace will be sufficient for us still. The dread is heavier than the pain will be." And it was so; for after the first wrench, Which well-nigh solved the jointings of their limbs, The spirit rose the sovereign of the flesh And bore those helpless victims of the rack Triumphant as in painless ecstasy. Their mortal frames became as instruments Of music underneath the player's hand; For every quivering nerve within them strung Responded to the running torture's touch In bursts of exclamation like the notes Of a song sung to some pathetic tune Wherein the pathos still keeps triumphing: "Lord Jesus, this for Thee!" "And this!" "O, joy That we are counted worthy thus to suffer!" Meanwhile to every challenge touching Paul, Though thrills of anguish broke their speech to cries, They said, and would forever only say: "He taught us nothing but to reverence Our masters with all good fidelity Of service rendered them out of true hearts As to the Lord in heaven and not to men." By secret orders from the emperor The torture-room was cunningly contrived To be a sort of whispering gallery, An ear of Dionysius, to resound Whatever might be uttered from the rack Wrung out of victims put to question there— Words, cries, sighs, groans, or moans of agony— And carry them to distance where above, If one should listen, they might all be heard. Here Nero laid a listening ear that day— Seneca's prompting, who was present too— And heard Onesimus and Syrus bear Their steadfast witness on behalf of Paul, With adjuration mingled of a Name. Of human in that indurated breast (Perhaps therewith effect of fear infused— Divinely—at such adjuration heard) Responded in a transitory glow Of something gentle that resembled ruth Toward those poor sufferers faithful against pain; Of something that resembled justice too Toward Paul so stoutly witnessed for by them. He forthwith bade release the witnesses; And hearkened to a counsel touching Paul. For Seneca adventured this to him— A farewell flicker of his influence, Ere Tigellinus overbore him quite—: "Shouldst thou think well it might indeed be well, To loose this Jewish prisoner from his thrall— He giving surety under ample bond To answer with his person at the bar Of CÆsar upon summons, to be tried Whenever shall appear accusers sent Accredited from Jerusalem to Rome." So out of darkness there sprang up a light To Paul, and for that present he went free. Soon at a meeting of thanksgiving held To celebrate with praises to the Lord His unexpected riddance out of thrall Paul to his brethren and his kindred said: "My life reprieved from threatened death in shame, I dedicate anew to Christ the Lord. I go hence, parting from you all with tears Of joyful love, and thanks for love again Mine in full measure from so many hearts That have not here my bonds in Christ despised— I go hence, in the Spirit bound, to bear Far as I may abroad in all the world The glorious gospel of the blessÉd God. Pray for me that I may be sped in peace, And that before me doors of utterance may Swing open wide wherever I am led. The time is short for all of us; for me Shorter, it may be, than our present joy Buoys us to hope. Perhaps the Lord will come And find me waking still—and not asleep— To welcome Him descending in the air. Amen! So may it be! Lord Jesus, come! "And yet, belovÉd, though these words I speak, Forewarns me I shall witness with my blood For Him who suffered unto blood for me. If so it be, amen! Lord Jesus, yea, Thy will for me is my will for myself; I spring to it with joy, or far or near— Unknown to me—enough that it is Thine! "So, farewell, ye. Watch and remember, all, That by the space of two full years in chains I have not ceased to warn you night and day, Each one, with tears. And now, behold, I know That some of you to whom I have fulfilled This ministry shall see my face no more. O, brethren, I commend you unto God! Be perfect, be of brave and hopeful cheer, Be of one mind, abide in peace, and He, The God of love and peace, shall with you be. O, how my heart is large toward you! The love Of God, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, And the communion of the Holy Ghost Be with you and abound—ever! Amen!" Therewith Paul kneeled and prayed a breaking prayer; They falling on his neck and kissing him In love and sorrow. Each one with himself 'Among them, I?' asked, and so sorrowed most Of all for that word which he spoke, "I know That some of you shall see my face no more." Paul sent his kindred and his lovers—those Who for his sake had sailed with him to Rome— Back to find home again in Holy Land, While he, with Luke for his companion sole, Should run his rounds of mission through the world. "But what ye can," he said, "before ye go, Comfort Onesimus and Syrus, sick With wounding for Christ's sake and mine; I have Already bathed Onesimus with tears Of love, and bidden him in Christ be strong: Ye will not leave him till his health be whole At least enough to take the journey back To our Philemon, bearing thanks from me. "Those here in Rome that love me I shall trust To speed both you and him with needful aid— Even as I trust them not to let me lack. That ye could not, nor I, to carry help To Syrus in his far more wretched case— Beset with household craft and cruelty. Pray ye for him; and lade Onesimus In seeking Syrus deep with love from me. Christ will not fail him, if he fail not Christ; 'It is but for a moment, all the pain,' Charge it upon Onesimus to say, 'But for eternal ages is the joy!' "Now unto such as can receive it I, Under this present imminence of woe Forerunning the return of Christ the Lord, Give counsel not to marry but abide In undistracted waiting for the Day. Yet for our Stephen and EunicÉ here, Already long betrothed and lovers true, My will is as their will is; let them wed. Stephen as husband to EunicÉ can In journeying better fend both her and Ruth Her mother; he as well can fend his own, Rachel, the only—sister of my heart!" Paul's voice a little failed him, ending thus; Broke over him, a wave of tenderness! So Stephen and EunicÉ wedded were, Paul each in turn adjuring solemnly: "Thou, O EunicÉ, wilt as wife be true, That know I well, to whom thou thus hast wed. Submit thyself to him in loyal love, And as in pledged obedience to the Lord— Less to his will so yielding than to Christ's. For God ordains it that the husband be Head to the wife, as to the church is Christ. But thou, O Stephen, judge what sanction so Is on the husband laid, to be how pure, Above self-will and selfishness how high, How full of ministration and of help, How ready ever to self-sacrifice For the wife's sake, how gentle and how kind! Thou, therefore, Stephen, love thy wife, even so As the Lord Jesus loved the church, His bride, And for her gave Himself. Be happy, ye, BelovÉd, in a love so sanctified." Paul blessed them, and they felt that they were blessed. Ruth, Rachel, and the newly-wedded pair— They wept that they had looked their last on Paul; Wept with rejoicing that, a little while, And the Lord coming would make all things glad. Now Sergius Paulus chose it for his part To fill Paul's purse, speeding him on his way; But Krishna was of mind himself to go With those who would return to Holy Land. He longed with his own eyes to see the scenes Amid which Jesus lived His life on earth And to glean up from the tradition found Haply there current in the mouths of men Concerning Him, both what He taught and what He was: the Indian's thought was he would then, Full-laden with such treasures of the West, To his own native East return and there Dispense them to enrich his countrymen. Paul bade him prosper in his wish, and go. Acquitted thus of all his natural cares, And joyful in the sense of his reprieve, And springing toward the work that he would do, And faith and love and zeal unquenchable And passion for the saving of the souls Of men, his fellows, perishing in sin— Much more, by the almighty hand of God Upon him stayed in an immortal youth— That spent old man, refusing to be spent Though spending daily like the river of God, Set forward, Luke alone companion now, To send with torch in hand a running fire Of gospel conflagration round the world. Go, Paul, forgetful of thyself, make speed! Thou shalt not be forgotten of thy God! Go, with that treasure for thy fellows fraught! Go, with the future of the world in trust! Nowhere in utmost islands of the sea, Never till time shall be no more, shall men Not owe thee debt for blessings manifold— Crowning the life that now is, frail and fleet, Crowning the nobler life that is to be— Blessings theirs but because thou wouldst not shrink From whatsoever hardship, peril, harm, Loss, toil, self-sacrifice to martyrdom. The deathless seeds of that which we enjoy In harvest of all good, civility Of morals and of manners, science, art, Fair order, freedom, progress, light and life, And, overvaulting all, the hope of heaven! While Paul his circuits was accomplishing, Paul's enemies (and ours) were not remiss, Whether in Rome or in Jerusalem. Drusilla, disappointed of her hopes With Nero to ensnare his heart and be Assumed to sit beside him on his throne, Even cheated for the moment of the glut She thought she had purchased at such cost to pride Of extreme vengeance visited on Paul, Was sullenly but more than ever bent Not to fail yet of at least that desire. She saw Octavia, sent to exile, way Make for PoppÆa's spousals; heard the shout Of shallow hollow popular acclaim That hailed her hated rival conqueror, Bearing her as on billows of applause To the high seat herself had hoped for once! But not despair; despair was not for her: Malignity was fuel still to hope. She despatched Simon to Jerusalem To blow the embers smouldering there to flame Of deadly accusation against Paul: Simon was Shimei risen from the dead, Shimei in all his pristine force unspent. The elders of the Jews commissioned him, With others to whom he was heart and head, To press at Rome for Paul the doom of death. Meantime the mouth of common fame began To whisper that PoppÆa, though a wife To Nero now—perhaps because a wife And mother of a daughter, Claudia, born To him—no longer charmed him as of old. Unholy hope flared up a flicker of flame Delusive in Drusilla's breast once more. Octavia, when her husband tired of her, Went into exile and then went to death To give PoppÆa room; PoppÆa's turn Perhaps was nearing to make room for her, Drusilla! 'Up, O heart!' she inly cried. The emperor had indeed with fickle whim, Dazed by some intercepting lure more nigh, Forgotten quite his thought of tryst with her— As her conditions too he had not met. But her conditions now were well in train, She trusted, to fulfill themselves on Paul; And if before, some trace of conscience left In Nero interfered to make him pause, Such scruple would no longer be a let To his desire, should his desire revive, Of meeting her upon the terms she fixed To satisfy at once her hate, her pride. Simon then, from Jerusalem returned Blithe with his prosperous mission and with hope, Should go once more to Nero for her cause. And Simon went, but went not for her cause. He had a purpose of his own to serve— Purpose malignant, fatuous—which, fulfilled, Would swift recoil in ruin on himself. No worship to PoppÆa's setting sun Paid by him now to win his way at court, He boldly in Drusilla's name besought Procured him instant audience. Discomposed A little by the sudden way he made Simon stood faltering, and before his wit Was ready with apt words the emperor spoke: "What will thy mistress? She perhaps has thought The emperor was a trifle slow to claim His privilege at her court? Bid her take heart; Things now begin to shape themselves aright." By this time Simon had recovered himself; He said: "My mistress is indulgent, Sire. Knowing my fondness for my art, and wish That I might entertain the emperor, She begs thou wilt appoint a time for me—" "O, aye," the emperor said; "return to her, And if thou canst bring promptly back to me Assurance of her grace that she forgives My tardiness in the past, and will receive Me yet upon the terms she fixed before— Somewhat abated, aye, but in the main Whole; for although the rabble rest she named Are scattered and not worth regathering, Paul Is under hand again, duly accused, And freely may be dealt with to our wish— And thou shalt exercise for me thine art At pleasure here within my palace halls. Go, and good speed, ambassador of love!" The sarcasm and the irony took effect To quicken in the sorcerer his resolve: For Simon his own doom was teeming now. He was infatuate with the vain conceit That he the secret in his art possessed Of a mock-supernatural power to play Upon the conscience of the emperor And fill his conscious breast with guilty fears: So once he saw Paul play on Felix's, Making him shudder on his judgment-throne; Aye, and so he himself in sequel played On the same kingly culprit with his spells. Beyond all, Simon was beside himself With suffocated hatred seeking breath In freak of demonstration on the man Who in the wantonness of despotic pride Had so despised and mocked and flouted him. Mad thus—judicially, and doubly—he, Having brought back the word the emperor wished, Dared an audacious and a fatal thing. A series of phantasmagories shown By him, he closed with a presentment, clear In outline cast upon the palace wall In shapes of shadow moving like grim life, Of the dread scene of Agrippina's death: There hung the vessel on a glassy sea; The coping timbers causelessly fell down, But missed the empress-mother figured there; There followed then the ghastly after-act Of mother-murder done in pantomime— More ghastly, that it passed in silence all. Simon mistook—it was his last mistake! He had overweened both of the power his own, And of the emperor's openness to fear. Nero sat gazing on the spectacle With heed moveless, and mute, and ominous, Till the device was acted to the end. Then still no sign he gave—save summons sent Bidding two household soldiers straight come in. To these he coldly, curtly, only said: "Crucify me this Jew; do it at once! And every day bring me report of him." Simon bethought him as he shuddering went Hustled and hurried to that sudden doom, Of his gold hoarded long for utmost need: He offered it in ransom for his life. The soldiers took it, share and share alike Between them, but it did not buy his life! Simon died miserably upon the cross. 'I have abolished him!' the emperor thought— 'The adamantine front of impudence! Whimsical way of paying a lady court, To crucify her conjurer out of hand! I hope she did not greatly care for him! Happily if she did I can repair The loss to her by putting Paul to death. Strange, they should hate that blameless man so much! But reasons of state are strong—and reasons of love; I must propitiate with a sacrifice. Jove is compelled by fate mightier than he!' The tetrarch Herod, to content the whim And hatred of his wife Herodias, Once at petition of her daughter fair— Whose dancing measures beat at festival Before him had, forsooth, the monarch pleased!— Sent to behead John Baptist in his prison: So Nero now in mind delivered Paul To death—an unconsidered pledge and pawn Of complaisance to a base woman paid. As were a star by some avulsive force Malignant sheer from out her pathway torn Where she went singing her celestial way Happy but to fulfill His high decree Who orbed her and who sped her on her course (Thenceforth to be abolished from a heaven Lighted no longer with her lucent beams!); So Paul was in his heavenly circuits stayed And wrenched thence by the hand of violent power. Rome had already round him flung the loop Of her long lasso irresistible, And drawn him home to CÆsar to be judged. No little damped because their head was gone, But more because he so had disappeared, Pressed fierce their suit against their fellow-Jew. Nero's assessors sat without their chief; For Nero was grown indolent and lax, And he deputed his judicial powers. Yet oft deigned he to give his deputies Hint of what judgment he desired from them; And they now knew the doom required for Paul. Paul was left lonely of all men save Luke; But Luke the faithful chose with him his part. Paul longed for Timothy, and wrote to him Bidding him haste and bring John Mark to Rome. But the end hasted more than these could haste, And Timothy was never in the flesh To greet again that father of his soul Who, for the son's sake more than for his own, Yearned toward the son to fix in him his faith Seen nigh to falter in the face of things Such as now fronted Paul. John Mark though once In haste of spirit sundered from Paul's part, Had long before been won again—to bide Thenceforward ever fast in loyalty; Would comfort Paul in this his last assay. So much the more Paul's lonely fortitude In witness amid storms of obloquy And under the impending threat of doom, Then against doom itself upon him fallen, Should at need brace them both to martyrdom. Most exquisitely human-hearted, Paul Could not but feel full sore his loneliness— Loneliness more for sense of being forsaken. "Demas," to Timothy he sighed, "has loved This present world, and has forsaken me. All men forsook me the first time I stood To make my answer at the judgment-bar; I pray it be not laid to their account!" Nobly repined!—yet for a moment only; Then cheerly added, this, and thankfully: "Of men not one stood with me; but the Lord, He with me stood, and cheered and strengthened me, That all the gentiles might the gospel hear; And for that time from out the lion's mouth I was delivered. Yea, and betide what may, From every machination of ill men, And to His heavenly kingdom bring me safe. To whom be glory evermore! Amen!" Enjoined thereto by Paul, Luke bore from Rome To Rachel and the rest in Holy Land— That dear companionship of kindred hearts— The tidings how all ended with his death; Yet how, before he died, and when he died, He conquered gloriously. Luke said to them: "He was not taken at all at unawares; Nothing surprised and nothing daunted him. Nay, he rejoiced in spirit that all was now Finished for him on earth; that he might lay His warrior's harness off and take his crown. He said this to his judges with such calm Clear consciousness of speaking simple truth, Such sober confidence devoid of vaunt, That something like conviction seized on them Listening; while on the listening multitude— For the basilica was thronged—I felt Fall a great hush and a pathetic awe. 'I know well whom I have believed,' he said, Is able to keep that which I have given In trust to Him against the coming day. Yea, ye will surely send me hence to die; The time of my departure ye have set; So much is in your power to do to me; But there is more, far more, beyond your power. Life ye can take, but not the good of life. The good of life is lodged where it is safe, And life indeed no power can take from me; That is committed to almighty hands, Almighty, and all-faithful, and all-wise: There it is mine, inalienably mine. So there is that in me which bides secure From any terror men can threat me with. A witness in my heart attests that I Have fought the good fight, fought it to the end; That I have run my race and touched the goal; Through all temptation, I have kept the faith. I strain my eyes before me and I see, Shining, a crown, the crown of righteousness, Held in the hand once pierced and pierced for me Of the arisen Lord and glorified, The righteous Judge who will award the prize. "Paul turned toward where I stood—O, how I wished There had been many others with me then To hear what I heard, and to take his look, That kindling look of large vicarious hope!— Paul turned toward me his heaven-illumined face, And added: 'Yea, for me holds—nor for me Alone, but with me all men also who Have loved the bright appearing of the Lord. 'I have been bound, but not the word of God; That has run freely, sped around the world. I am to die, but the quick word of God, BY THE SAME AUTHOR THE EPIC OF SAUL A COMPANION TO "THE EPIC OF PAUL" 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. "It is the great success of the poem," says Prof. John A. Paine, "to put the reader in the place of those who opposed the rising and rapidly spreading faith in Jesus, and to unfold a marvellous insight into the reasonings, motives, intrigues, and action of those actually engaged in trying to suppress the new movement; and thus, it helps to form a remarkably vivid conception of the crisis, and to gain a deeper understanding of the conflict." "Saul in the Council Stephen's face saw 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."— —From the Proem. APPRECIATIVE CRITICISMS.
8vo, Cloth, Gilt top, 386 pp. Price, $1.50, post-free. Transcriber's note:The ad page has been moved from the beginning to the end of the book. Minor typographical and punctuation errors have been corrected without note. Irregularities and inconsistencies in the text have been retained as printed. Mismatched quotes are not fixed if it's not sufficiently clear where the missing quote should be placed. The cover for the eBook version of this book was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain. |
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