  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— 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, 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 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, 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 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, 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! 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!" 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 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: 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 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, "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 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 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 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— 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, 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 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, '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. 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! 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 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; 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, 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 |
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