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,
The Jews commissioned from Jerusalem
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;
But as not Timothy, so neither he
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,
Still the Lord Jesus will deliver me
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,
'And my persuasion is complete that He
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.
That prize he holds for me'—"Hereon," Luke said,
"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,
So much incapable of dying, lives
Forever an invulnerable life.
This Roman empire, like those empires old,
Will crumble into dust and pass away;
The temples and the palaces of Rome
Will vanish like a vision from men's eyes;
But the majestic kingdom of my God
Will stand forever and forever grow.
Within its walls, I have not built in vain;
For I have founded on a corner-stone
That never will be moved. The earth we tread
Will tremble and be moved out of its place;
The heavens above us, sun and moon and star,
Will yet be rolled together like a scroll,
Or folded like a vestment laid aside;
But what on Jesus Christ for corner-stone
I, with much prayer and many tears, in faith
Have builded to the glory of His grace,
Will still in ever-during beauty shine.