Such words of weight spoke Caiaphas, and ceased
Those words, not idle, fell as falls the steel
Smiting the flint; a sparkle keen of fire
Flew forth, found tinder ready, and flashed up
In instant flame. A patriot malcontent,
Fiercely, irreconcilably, a Jew,
Was Mattathias; Mattathias said:
"Yoke by whom hated? Surely not by him
Who tamely brooks to talk of earning praise
For loyalty from Rome! Nor more by those
Who patient sit to hear such counsel broached!
Nay, men my brethren, that I did not hear!
Sure, son of Abraham never have I heard
Own himself slave, and meekly speak of Rome,
As of a master! This I will not hear!
I could not hear it! Speech of such a strain
Were like a river of molten metal poured
Red-hot into my ear to quench the sense!
Stone-deaf am I to craven treachery
From one of my own fellow-councillors here!
I only heard my brother say, 'Let us
Arise and stand for God!' Lo, I arise
And stand, with him, with all! There is a law,
Ancient and unrepealed, wholesome and good,
To stone for blasphemy. Blasphemers these,
What wait we? We have hands, and there are stones,
Let us this instant forth and stone them, stone
Unto the death!"
The clenched hands, and the fierce
Menace of husky tones, half-choked, and teeth
Gnashing, and brow braided with swollen knots,
Were more than words to speak the murderous will.
The prisoners listened with suspended breath;
They deemed a dreadful doom indeed was nigh.
Instinctive instant fear, forestalling faith,
With sudden loud alarum startled them,
And for one moment violently shook,
In them, all save the basis of the soul—
One moment—then they sped themselves with prayer,
Ran to the shelter of the promises,
And were at peace! In that secure retreat
Withdrawn, the secret place of the Most High,
The angel of the Lord encamping round,
Composédly at leisure they looked out
And saw the wicked plot against the just,
Vainly, and gnash upon him with his teeth!
Within their hearts they knew his day would come.
The speaker still stood leaning imminent,
His posture instigation, while a hiss
Of hot adhesion ran increasing round—
But skipped Gamaliel, skipped the musing Saul
With one beside, scarce daring to be dumb—
When, in his place, slowly, by soft degrees,
With furtive look and gesture, to his feet
Stealing, half stood, half crouched, a speaker new.
This was one Shimei, an abject man,
Abject in spirit, though in wit not dull,
And capable of long malevolence
Fed on resentments such as abjects feel.
Saul listened, but Gamaliel bowed in prayer,
As Shimei thus, obliquely, sneering, spoke:
"Stoning is pleasant, doubtless, when, as now,
One's sense of righteousness is much engaged.
The reflex satisfaction to be had
From accurately casting a choice stone
To break the teeth of the ungodly, is
Superlative, perhaps the very highest
Relish attainable to mortals here.
The consciousness of sympathy with God
Always exhilarates delightfully;
But in particular if the sympathy
Be exercised in such a case as this,
Where the most glorious of God's attributes,
His justice, is involved. Borne far above
Pity, or any weakness of the sense,
You only feel a rapture of divine
Approval of the law you execute.
So subtly strong and sweet possesses you
The instinct to indulge your appetite
For righteousness, you might almost mistake
Your pleasure for the pleasure of revenge.
"But let revenge be for the heathen, who
Know not Jehovah and His law contemn.
Jehovah's chosen we, our sentiment
Purged of all personal bias of mere hate,
We simply wash our feet in wicked blood
With pleasure—pleasure naturally enhanced,
If we have spilled said wicked blood ourselves.
"Yea, stoning gratifies the pious mind
Profoundly—grant the stoning be by you;
By you, not to you; being stoned, I judge,
Is less satisfactory. On this point who doubt
Or differ, have their opportunity
To clear their minds by prompt experiment—
They need but act upon the last advice;
For—grant our gracious masters smiled and pleased
To let us play a prank of self-misrule,
This once, wilful, but harmless, in their view,
Which might even turn out comedy for them—
Yet, stoning these, we should ourselves get stoned,
With expedition—past all chance of doubt.
Our friend, the vehement adviser here,
Might peradventure go himself as blithe
To be stoned by the people, as to stone
These pestilent fellows—for the glory of God.
But, then, more clearly how the glory of God
Would be subserved thereby, the rest of us,
Colder in heart perhaps, but certainly
Cooler in head, would wish to be advised,
Before we take our lives into our hands
To wreak the righteous judgment of the law
On favorites of a fierce and fickle mob
Whose palms, unless I much misread the signs,
Already itch for stones to throw at us,
While we sit here and talk of throwing stones
At whom they love and honor.
"Give them line
This wild Jerusalem mob, and they will change
Their mood. Remember how it chanced but late
With Jesus Nazarene. Hailed yesterday
Messiah, King of kings and Lord of lords,
Ovation of hosannas greeting him
From thousand times a thousand throats—to-day,
A malefactor hooted through the streets,
With 'Crucify him! Crucify him!' cried
In multitudinous chorus like one voice—
The mouths to-day and yesterday the same.
Their second tune indeed we set for them
And sang precentors—but how well they joined!
In due time pitch them the like tune again,
And doubt not they will sing it with full breath.
"Not that I hence advise to wait remiss;
My counsel is no less from sloth removed
Than hostile to crude, hasty violence.
Only, shun public note; with proper quest,
Ways may be found, ways pregnant too, that make
No noise. The nail that went so shrewdly through
Sisera's temples made no noise. It sped
Softly, but sped surely, and found the quick
Secret of life. Are there not Jaels yet?
You have guessed what I advise. The end you seek
Is holy; holy hold whatever means
Shall lead thereto. Let us commit this thing
To those the wisest found among us, few
Better than many, charging them to choose
Some suitable silent means of silencing
These praters, without stir or scandal made,
Likest the ways of nature, hint, perhaps,
Conveyed of overruling providence
At work through nature for revenging crime.
"For me, I seek no honor at your hands:
I do not court responsibility;
I am least wise among you; yet a trust
Imposed were duty sacred in mine eyes."
As, should along a living bosom warm
With youthful life-blood coursing joyously,
A deadly serpent, with protracted, cold
Belly incumbent, glide, beneath that touch
And creep the conscious flesh would creeping shrink,
And all the genial current in the veins
Curdle; so now, at Shimei's words, much more
At signs in him that spoke beyond his words,
The accent of the voice, the look, the port
Of figure, sinister suggestion couched
In action or grimace, there came a chill,
A shudder, of reaction and collapse
Over the council late with zeal aglow.
Even Mattathias, who, in attitude
Of menace, after Shimei arose,
Some space still stood—he, too, while Shimei
Was speaking, felt the evil spell and sank
Into his seat. With one accord they all,
When Shimei ceased, a gloomy silence kept.
Gamaliel did not lift his head, but groaned
Audibly now, though gently, in his prayer.
From such a source such sound made seem yet more
Ominous the spell which hushed that council-hall.