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ST PAUL.1

FAREWELL, Rome. A nobler gospel
Stirs my soul and shapes my song,

March of love divinely fervid,

March of truth divinely strong.

I will sing a mighty marvel,

How the lordly Roman drew
Fountain of new life pure-blooded

From the mean unvalued Jew.

1 "In Klopstock's 'Messiah,' the truths, the glorified facts being connected with more than historic belief, in the minds of men, the fictions came upon me like lies."-COLERIDGE, Brandl., p. 364.

This has been my maxim throughout, specially with regard to St Paul.

How the Greek, the subtle-thoughted,

With his cunning fence of wit,

At the feet of Hebrew teachers

Learned with greedy ear to sit.

In Jerusalem's holy city,

Where grave judgment loves to dwell, Wisest of the seventy wise men,

Sate the wise Gamaliel.

Near him sate a youth observant
Of the wise words of the men,
Noting all their sharp decisions
With quick ear and faithful pen,

SAUL of Tarsus. Short of stature,
Slight of limb, and with an high-
Mounting forehead, and beneath

Well-massed brows a piercing eye.

Quick to learn what statutes Moses
Gave from God, and memoried well

In the best lore of the Talmud,
Taught by wise Gamaliel.

Bold to plan and swift to venture,
Counting danger for a jest,

When strong love, or mighty hatred,
Flowed like spring-tide in his breast.

He had seen unlettered preachers
Bred in Jesus' lowly school,

With a loose unlicensed doctrine

Spurn the high priest's lawful rule.

He had seen its foremost spokesman
With a death of heavy stoning,

For his rude-mouthed contradiction,
Give the Law its due atoning.

And he vowed with words of fiery

Vengeance, and with purpose fell,

In the holy city's cincture

Nevermore such brood shall dwell.

And he chased them as a hunter

Chases with a keen-nosed hound,

To Gerizim, to Mount Tabor,

To Mount Hermon's utmost bound.

And he seized both men and women Where the hated sect prevailed, Old and young, and to the prison's Gloomy den of durance haled.

And he journeyed to Damascus
In the fever of his wrath—

When, behold! a flash from Heaven
Flared across his blinded path.

And he heard a strange voice crying,

"SAUL, O SAUL! what moveth thee

With hot breath of persecution

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Sharply thus to follow me?

Rise, and get thee to Damascus ;

Thou shalt learn there what to do.

Thine old life is dead. My servant

There shall shape thy course anew."

Paul hath bied him to Damascus,

Where the white-walled splendour gleams Through the wide-spread green, the dowry Of the many-branching streams.

He hath entered fair Damascus ;
And the servant of the Lord
Touched him there with spirit-piercing
Power of truth and healing word.

And he rose as one that riseth

From long death, into a new Stretch of blissful life, with warmer Pulse of love and larger view.

And he went into the desert,

There with searching thought to pray

O'er the purpose of the Lord,

That led him in a wondrous way.