Stephen, as one who had with resolute Exertion of an overcoming will Discharged his heart with speech, let come what might, Rested; the tension of his purpose still Persisting to refuse himself recoil. Feeling his nephew's girded attitude, Nowise resistant, though recessive not, Braced to keep staunch his standing where he stood, Paul would not overbear it with sheer strength; Choosing, with just insinuation wise, To ease it through concession yielded him. He said: "My Stephen has pondered deep these things, And to result of truth well worth his pains. Thou hast profited, my son, perhaps beyond Thine own thought of thy profiting, in sweet Acquist of wisdom from the mind of Christ. Fair change, change fair and great, in thee since when Thou cursedst Shimei in that bitter psalm!-- Bitter from thee who saidst it bitterly. Behold, thou art fain, forsooth, to find those words, Those same words now which then thou likedst well Rolling them under thy tongue a morsel sweet, Almost too human for at all divine. Was there not in them, this thou askest me, Expression intermixed of wicked hate, His whose the occasion was to write the psalm? The turns and phrases of the speech wherein The psalmist here or there breathes out his soul In malediction, have such force to thee, Importing that his spirit let escape A passion of his own not purified Amid the pressure and the stress of zeal Inspired from God against unrighteousness. "Well, Stephen, the entrusted word of God To men is ours through men and, men being such, Why, needs we have the priceless treasure stored, Stored and conveyed, in vessels framed of clay. No perfect men are found, were ever found: God's inspiration does not change men such. His wisdom is to make of men unwise, Of men, too, fallen far short of holiness, Imperfect organs of His perfect will. Adhesion hence of imperfection, man's, Fast to the letter of the Scripture clings; But it makes part of His perfection, God's, Who knows us, and from His celestial height Benignly earthward deigning condescends. In terms of our imperfect, flawed with sin Even, the Divine inworking wisdom loves To teach us noble lessons of Himself, Ennobling us to ever nobler views Of what He is, so shadowed forth to us.