"But they condemned the guiltless man to die; And, like his Lord, he died without the gates. They led him to a chosen spot not far Beyond the city walls--he all the way Seen walking like one meekly triumphing; For a train followed and attended him, Before whom he was as a conqueror. Where gushed a fountain in a pine-tree shade Suburban, there they made their prisoner stay. Here they beheaded him; Christ suffered it-- What matter to His servant how he died? The pain was short, if sharp; perhaps indeed There was no pain at all, but only swift Transition to a state of perfect rest From pain, from weariness, from every ill, Forever in the presence of the Lord. The dear dissevered head we joined again To the worn-weary body as we could: We comforted ourselves to see the peace That the white-shining countenance expressed, And stanched our tears and eased our aching hearts To think that all his toil was over now, And all the contradiction he so long Had suffered from his thankless fellow-men; And that he had aspired triumphantly At last to be at home with Christ in heaven, There to behold the glory that He had, Ere the beginning of the world, with God His Father. "So we buried him in hope There on the selfsame spot where he had fallen; And said to one another the great words, Heroic, heartening, full of heavenly truth, Himself with streaming tears once spoke to us-- You will remember--then when Mary died, And when we buried her that sunset hour There on that holy hill in Melita." With such a gentle cadence to his tale, Luke ended; and those sat in silence long, Remembering with sweet heart-ache what had been. Then, having knelt together first in prayer, And having lifted a pathetical High hymn of triumph over death, they rose Calm and addressed themselves anew to life: A little patience and the Lord would come. * * * * * _BY THE SAME AUTHOR_ THE EPIC OF SAUL A COMPANION TO "THE EPIC OF PAUL" Saul of Tarsus, brought up at Jerusalem, a pupil of Gamaliel, the most celebrated Rabbi of his time, from setting out as eager but pacific controversialist in public dispute against the preachers of the Gospel, changes into a virulent, bloody persecutor of Christians, and ends by abruptly becoming himself a Christian and a teacher of Christianity. THE EPIC OF SAUL tells the story of this. "It is the great success of the poem," says Prof. John A. Paine, "to put the reader in the place of those who opposed the rising and rapidly spreading faith in Jesus, and to unfold a marvellous insight into the reasonings, motives, intrigues, and action of those actually engaged in trying to suppress the new movement; and thus, it helps to form a remarkably vivid conception of the crisis, and to gain a deeper understanding of the conflict."