Under the balmy moon, up Olivet
To Bethany they bore the holy dust,
And there, beneath the roof that sheltered oft
The Man who had not where to rest His head,
They laid the body down to dreamless sleep;
And slept themselves until the morrow morn.
BOOK IX.
RUTH AND RACHEL.
Very early in the morning, Rachel, charged with this office by Stephen, breaks to Ruth the news of her husband's death. The two then go together to the place where the body of Stephen is laid. There, Ruth, kneeling in prayer beside her martyred husband, repentantly accepts his Lord for hers, becoming a Christian. Rachel, having hastily visited her home, to find Saul gone thence with purpose not to return, leaves the house in her maid's care and goes back to Ruth, to whom, being requested to do so, she tells the story of Stephen's stoning. Then the funeral of Stephen takes place, with a memorial discourse pronounced, and an elegy recited, at the tomb.
RUTH AND RACHEL.
The morrow morn broke fair in Bethany,
And Ruth rose early from unquiet sleep;
Rachel likewise, who slept in Mary's house.
The sun had not yet risen, but in the west
The moon hung whitening opposite the dawn,
When Ruth, her children left asleep, went forth
To feel the freshness of the morning air
Without, and water from the village well
To draw, both for the slaking of her thirst
And for the cooling of her brow that burned
And of her throbbing temples. At the well
Rachel she met who earlier still was forth
On the like errand. The two women hailed
And kissed each other. Ruth to Rachel then
Said: "Thou art not, I trow, this morning come
Hither the long way from Jerusalem?"