"Why, Saul," cried she, "what canst thou mean? Thou shamed?
How shamed?"
"Rachel, I lost, and Stephen won."
"What didst thou lose?" said Rachel, wonderingly;
"And what did Stephen win, that also thou
Won'st not? I cannot understand thee, Saul."
Such crystal clearness of simplicity
Became a mirror, wherein gazing, Saul
Beheld himself a double-minded man.
How should he deal with questioner like this?
"Why, Rachel, canst thou then not understand,"
He said, "how I should wish to conquer?"
"Yea,"
Said she, "for truth's sake, Saul. And still, if truth
Conquered, though not by thee, thou wouldst be glad,
Wouldst thou not, Saul? Here sad I see thee now,
As if truth's cause were fallen—which could not be,
Since truth is God's—and yet thou sayest not that,
But, 'Saul is shamed!' and, 'Saul has lost!' Not truth,
But Saul. I cannot understand. Thou hadst
Perhaps, unknown to me, some other end
Than only truth, which also thou wouldst gain?"
It was his sister's single-heartedness
That helped her see so true and aim so fair.
Saul was too noble not to meet her trust
In him with trust in her as absolute.
"Rachel," he said, his reverence almost awe,
"Never did burnished metal give me back
Myself more truly, outer face and form,
Than the pure tranquil mirror of thy soul
Shows me the image of my inner self.
The truth I see by thee is justly thine,
And thou likewise shalt see it all in all.
"The law of God was ever my delight,
As thou knowest, sister, who hast seen me pore
Daily from boyhood on the sacred scroll
Of Scripture, eager to transfer it whole
Unto the living tablets of my heart.
And I have sought, how earnestly thou knowest
To make my life a copy of the law.
No jot or tittle of it was too small
For me to heed with scruple and obey.
With all my heart was I a Pharisee,
Born such, bred such, and such by deep belief.
"But more, my sister. Musing on the world,
I saw one nation among nations, one
Alone, no fellow, worshipper of God,
The True, the Only, and by Him elect
To be His people and receive His law;
That nation was my nation. My heart burned,
Beholding in the visions of my head,
The glory that should be, and was not, ours.
Think of it, sister, God Himself our King,
And bondmen we of the uncircumcised!
I brooded on the shame and mystery
With anguish in the silences of night.
I saw the image of a mighty state
Loom possible before me. Her august
And beautiful proportions, builded tall
And noble, rested on foundation-stones
Of sapphire, and in colors fair they rose;
Her pinnacles were rubies, and her gates
Carbuncles—I beheld Jerusalem,
The city of Isaiah's prophecy;
Her borders round about were pleasant stones.
She sat the queen and empress of the earth;
The tributary nations, of their store,
Poured wealth into her lap, and vassal kings
Hasted in long procession to her feet.
The throne and majesty of God in her
Held capital seat, or his vicegerent Christ
Reigned with reflected splendor scarce less bright.
Such, sister, was the dream in which I lived,
Dream call it, but it is the will of God,
More solid than the pillared firmament.