The Epic of Saul

by William Cleaver Wilkinson

That morrow, Peter with his brethren all,
Apostle preachers of the Gospel, felt
The heavy hand Gamaliel shadowed fall
Indeed upon them into dungeon thrown.
But thence by night the angel of the Lord,
Opening the doors, delivered them, and bade
Boldly into the temple take their way
And there preach Christ to all the worshippers.
With the first flush of morning, their swift feet
Shod with the sandals of obedience,
They hasten to fulfil the angelic word.
Meanwhile the Sanhedrim for counsel met
Concerning those their prisoners, and the state,
The vexed state, of the Hebrew commonwealth,
Sent pursuivants to fetch them from their cells
And station them in presence to be judged.
But those despatched to bring them came and said,
"We found, indeed, the prison safely shut
And all the keepers keeping watch and ward
Without before the doors; but entering in
To find our prisoners, prisoner found we none."

The captain of the temple, the high-priest,
And all that council mused in maze and doubt—
Gamaliel most, guessing the finger of God.

But now comes one who brings a fresh report,
"Behold," said he, "the men ye put in bond
Are standing in the temple teaching there."
Forthwith the captain of the temple goes,
His band attending, and, no violence shown—
For fear was on them of the people, lest
They stone them—leads the Galilæans in.

Robed venerably each in rich array
Of purple, and fine linen, glistering white
And broidered fair, their flowing garments fringed
With large expanse of border and with cords
Of blue adorned, broad their phylacteries,
The council of the seventy sat severe
Within their council-hall in solemn state.
A semi-orb they sat, or crescent-wise,
And in the midst, between the horns, were placed,
Under their beetling frown, the prisoners.
Awful these felt the presence of the place,
And, while the high-priest of their nation, throned
Middle and chief among the councillors,
Denouncing asked: "Did we not straitly bid
Forbear to teach in this accurséd name?
And, lo, ye fill Jerusalem with bruit,
And seek to bring on us this person's blood!"—
While thus, sternly, he spoke, those simple men
Felt the heart fail within them and the tongue
Cleave to the mouth's dry roof. He ceasing, back
Their spirit came, and Spirit not their own,
The Holy Ghost of God, flooded their souls,
As when into a bay the ocean pours.
Then Peter and his brethren boldly spoke:
"Fathers and brethren, hearken to our words:
God needs must we, rather than men, obey.
That Jesus whom ye crucified and slew,
Him did the Lord God of our sires raise up,
And at His own right hand exalt to be
Both prince and saviour, to bestow on us
Repentance and forgiveness of our sins.
Of these things all we stand here witnesses;
Nor we alone, for with us witnesseth
God's Spirit bestowed on whoso Him obeys."

Something not earthly in those prisoners' mien
A tone of more than human in their words,
A majesty, as of omnipotence
Patient within them, ready to break forth,
But patient still, to brook how much was need—
So much, no more!—this awed one watchful heart
Prepared amid that council now to heed;
Gamaliel inly pondered, 'Is it God?'
The clear simplicity, the perfect faith,
The steady, prompt obedience, the serene
Courage that dared, without defying, all
The terrors brandished by the Sanhedrim—
This spirit, strange in those despiséd men,
As with a soft and subtle atmosphere
Enfolding and suffusing him, subdued
The solid temper of his mind, the strong
Set of his resolution grim relaxed,
Undid the hard contortions of his nerves,
And supple made the will so firm before.
His steadfast poise of confidence perturbed,
Gamaliel trembled with uncertainty.

Otherwise Saul; he, merged in different thought,
Eluded quite that penetrative spell.
Unconscious of the Holy Ghost, he strove
Blindly against Him, like the rest, though not
Yet, like the rest, with zeal of violence
To do the prisoners harm or shed their blood;
With such zeal not, but with ambitious pride
Of wisdom unawares puffed up to show
His prowess in the Scriptures, and to earn
A high degree surpassing all his peers.
His fellow-councillors concerting how
To quench this propagandist fire in blood,
Saul said within his heart:
'Nay, nay, instead,
Might I but once these bold presumers face
Amid the idling crowds they feed with lies,
How, from the law itself, whereof, untaught
Therein, they prate, would I, in open test
Of argument, confute them to their teeth!
Their own ill-wielded weapons from their hands
Seen wrenched and turned against them, surely then
Not only would these brawlers cease, but all
Would laud and magnify the glorious Word
Of God, thus shown, well wielded, capable
Of wreaking its own vengeance on its foes.'

These twain such counsel in their secret breast
Held diverse, while that strife of words went on.

Not what, in present need, behooved to do—
A full and fell accord conjoined them there!—
Was doubt or question to the Sanhedrim;
But in what chosen way their chosen goal,
The doom of death for those accurséd men,
With safe sure speed, most prudently, to reach—
This doubt embroiled a vehement debate.

One argued thus his sentence and advice—
Caiaphas he, high-priest that lately was,
Reputed statesman politic and wise:
"We are a subject nation; government
Is for this present slipped from out our hands.
Chafe how we may, how will it otherwise,
Ours is a state of vassalage to Rome.
Death in our hearts and death upon our tongues,
Denounced amain against our enemies,
Is futile—thunder bare of thunderbolt.
We make ourselves a laughter—unless we
Warp toward our end with wisdom; who is weak
Well needs be wise, to win—wisdom is power.
To kill and keep alive, by process due
Of law, no longer appertains to us,
That right being forfeit to our conqueror; this
Must we not let our honorable pride,
Justly indignant, and our holy zeal
Incensed for God, bribe us to blink. But slave,
If wise, may make a foolish master serve.
Break we proud Rome to do our task for us.
True triumph, when we wield the tyrant power
Itself of domination over us
A weapon in our hands to work our will!

"I counsel that we seek and find firm ground
Of mortal accusation, before those
Who rule us, against these audacious men,
As teachers of seditious doctrine meant
To undermine allegiance, and at length
Prompt insurrection and a state of war.
Rome then will stamp our troublers out of life,
And we, well rid of them without annoy,
Besides shall safely reap from her the praise,
Ill-merited, of fealty to her right—
Praise that sometime hereafter may be gain
Of vantage, if sometime hereafter come
Fit season to fling off her hated yoke."