“Of all the company that left the Holy City under my leadership, Amoz alone remaineth with me.
“Again I declare my love, and send greetings to all thy father’s house!
“Peace to thee, Cassia!
“Saulus.”
On the same day that the above was written, Saulus wrote the following to Rebecca, who was now in her Tarsian home. Both letters were despatched by Amoz to the station where they would be taken by a passing caravan.
Marcheshvan, VIIIth day.
“In a Cave at Horeb,
“Sinaitic Wilderness, Arabia.
“O my dear Rebecca!
“I would fain pour out my heart unto thee! Behold, my beloved sister, thou wilt have unwonted astonishment when this epistle reacheth thine hand, to know that thy hard-hearted but now contrite brother dwelleth in a cave in the land of Arabia. But thou wilt marvel yet more greatly, when I declare unto thee that I am a disciple of the New Faith. I, Saulus! so long exceeding mad against those of that Way, am a miracle unto myself! I well nigh feel my soul to be twain in one body,—the Old and the New; but I live and move, now and henceforth, in the New.
“It is meet that thou, my sister, companion and guar[pg 334]dian of my tender years, shouldst now receive some acknowledgment of the abundance of thy gentle goodness and great patience to me-ward throughout my whole unrighteous course of life. While I persuaded myself through deceitful belief that I was faithful to the Chosen People, and even doing God service in my threatenings and slaughter among the saints of God, there was a Spirit giving utterance deep within my soul which never ceased to rebuke me. But I was stiff-necked, and would not listen to that Voice, which I now know to have been the judgment of the Most High. The Eternal Spirit was prone to touch my spirit, but in my blindness I would have none of it. In due season that inner reverberation became like the sound of thunder! I vainly strove to stop my ears and to drown its persuasion by scrupulous ceremonial service, and withal by persecuting all who were not of the straitest sect of the household of Israel.