Then Stephen: "That distempering heat in me, O uncle, is clean gone from out mine heart, Slaked by the overshadowing of thy spirit, Like the earth cooled with overshadowing night. I am calm enough, I think, to learn, if not Thy difficult high doctrine touching love, Something at least about those psalms of hate. Hate is the spirit of the psalm I said, Is it not, uncle?" "As thou saidst it, yea, Or I mistook the meaning of thy voice," Said Paul; "whatever meant the holy words, The tones, I felt, meant that and nothing else." "Could then those words themselves mean something else?" Asked Stephen. "Yea," said Paul, "for words are naught But empty vessels that the utterer fills With his own spirit when he utters them; The spirit is the lord of utterance." "What was the spirit with which the Spirit of God Breathed these into the soul of him elect Among the sons of men to give them voice? Did not God hate whom He so heavily cursed?" Stephen inquired; and Paul at large replied: "God hates not any, as wicked men count hate-- And men not wicked may, in wicked mood-- Nor wills that of the souls whom He has made Any should perish; rather wills that all Come to the knowledge of the truth and live. But look abroad upon the world of men; What seest thou? Many souls resist the will, The blesséd will to save, of God. Of these, Some will hereafter yield--thou knowest not who, But some--and let themselves be saved. Again, Some will to the end resist--thou knowest not who; But some--and obstinately choose to die; Choice is the fearful privilege of all. Now, toward the man incorrigibly bad, Who evil loves and evil makes his good Forever, without hope of other change Than change from worse to worse forevermore-- Toward such a man, what must the aspect be Of the Supreme Eternal Holiness? What but of wrath, or as of wrath, and hate? Canst thou imagine other face of God Than frown and threat aflame implacable Against implacable rebellion set, And sin eternal, to eternal sin Doomed, for self-doomed through free unchanging choice? One flame burns love toward love, and hate toward hate-- Toward hate that utmost love cannot subdue, The hate that, like the stubborn diamond-stone Amid the fiercest fires rebellious, bides Still, in love's sevenfold-heated furnace, hate. That flame is the white flame of holiness-- Which God is, and whose other name is love."