This little group, beyond their happy wont Beatified with hope that heavenly morn, Soon greet one coming whose irradiate brow Bespeaks him fresh from audience with the King; Stephen it was, whose earthly-shining face Was shadow to the brightness now it wore. The martyr to his fellow-martyrs brought Glad tidings; they were all that day to see Break forth in power the glory of the Lord. "Saul," Stephen said, "still breathes his threatening out And slaughter aimed against the church of Christ; He journeys to Damascus in this mind. But the Lord Christ will meet him in the way And overthrow him with resistless light. Ours is to tarry on this pleasant hill Of prospect, and, hence gazing, all behold, Tasting a sweet revenge of Paradise, To see our prayers fulfilled, in Saul become From persecutor brother well-beloved, And builder from destroyer of the church." So these there sat them down upon the mount. Here, gaze turned ever earthward, they in talk Of earthly things that still were dear to them Consumed the happy heavenly hours, until, To those their native Syrian climes, drew nigh Noontide; then, in a new theophany, The transit of a shadow!--seldom seen There where was neither sun, nor moon, nor star, But all was equal universal light-- Came sudden notice to their eyes to watch The Messianic dread procession forth, Christ in the majesty of solitude, Swifter than meteor's fall, from Paradise. HE, purposed not to slay, only cast down Saul from the top of his presumptuous pride, And break him from his disobedient will, Would not in His essential glory meet His creature, lest he be abolished quite, But dimmed Himself with splendor which, more bright Than the supreme effulgence of the sun At mid-day in a crystal firmament, Fixed, but more vivid than the fleeting flash Of lightning when its beam burns most intense, Was splendor yet of ray less luminous Than the accustomed radiance of His face, And showed as cloud against that shining sky. For, in that unimaginable world Of perfect, purged from sin and sin's defect, The senses of the blest inhabitants, Their organs and their faculties, are all Inured to bear with ease, with pleasure bear, Continuance and intensity of light That mortal frames like ours would quite consume. Those there from light need neither change nor rest, Their proper substance is illuminate, And their bliss is to bathe themselves in light, And light, more light, drunk in at every pore From the bright omnipresence of the Lord, Revealed each day brighter forevermore, Makes their eternal life eternal joy.