But Paul said to his company apart: "Let us not judge before the time; the Day, The Day, that shall declare it. Let us hope; The mercy of the Lord is measureless: It is, even like His judgment, a great deep, And it endures forever; as the psalm Sings it, again and yet again, in long Antiphony of praise that cannot end. Think not, because the promise is no harm Shall light on any one who dwells within The secret place of the Most High, that thence, Seeing this awful-seeming way of death Has found out Shimei, he perforce has proved Not to have fixed his dwelling ere he died Safe in the shadow of the Almighty's throne. The safety promised is not for the flesh, But for the spirit. The outward perishes In many ways that to the senses seem Preclusive quite of hope for life to come. But, so the inward bide untouched of harm, The true self lives and is inviolate. That lightning did not fall on Shimei's soul; No certain sign was it of wrath divine: Nay, even perhaps the opposite of such, It may have been a fiery chariot With fiery horses hither sent from heaven, To bear him up Elijah-like to God. Far be it to say that this indeed was so; Yet often last is first, as first is last. Ye saw how wrought upon our brother was Of late to be how different from himself! I trust he trusted in the atoning blood. I shall have hope to see him yet endued In shining robes of Jesus' righteousness, Translucent shining robes wherethrough the soul Herself shows shining in essential white! God grant it, and farewell to Shimei!" BOOK XII. PAUL AND KRISHNA. Felix and Drusilla on the one hand and Krishna on the other disclose the contrasted feelings severally excited in them by what they had just witnessed in the lot of Shimei. Krishna seeks from his friend Sergius Paulus explanation of the relations that subsisted between those ministering Christians and the sufferer. He at length requests and obtains an interview with Paul, and the two have a conversation, one result of which is that Krishna asks to hear a full account of the life and character of Jesus Christ. Paul proposes that Mary Magdalené give this account, but Krishna courteously declines to receive it from the lips of a woman. The ship meantime puts in at The Fair Havens, whence, after a short stay in that anchorage, it sets sail, against the advice of Paul. PAUL AND KRISHNA. As one transported to a different sphere, Some sinless planet fairer far than ours, Amid new scenes and aspects there beheld, Would watch and wonder and not understand, So had the most of that ship's company, Not understanding, but much wondering, watched What passed between the wretched Shimei And those his ministers of grace and love.