Thence Rachel watched all eagerly; when now The multitude, expecting Stephen, saw A different man stand forth with beckoning hand As if to speak. The act and attitude Commanded audience, for a king of men Stood there, and a great silence fell on all. Some knew the face of the young Pharisee, These whispered round his name; Saul's name and fame To all were known, and, ere the speaker spoke, Won him a deepening heed. Rachel the hush Felt with a secret sympathetic awe, And for one breath her beating heart stood still; It leapt again to hear her brother's voice Pealing out bold in joyous sense of power. That noble voice, redounding like a surge Pushed by the tide, on swept before the wind, And all the ocean shouldering at its back, Which seeks out every inlet of the shore To brim it flush and level from the brine-- Such Saul's voice swelled, as from a plenteous sea, And, wave on wave of pure elastic tone, Rejoicing ran through every gallery, And every echoing endless colonnade, And every far-retreating least recess Of building round about that temple-court, And filled the temple-court with silver sound-- As thus, with haughty summons, he began: "Ye men of Israel, sojourners from far Or dwellers in Jerusalem, give heed. The lines are fallen to us in evil times: Opinions run abroad perverse and strange, Divergent from the faith our fathers held. A day is come, brethren, and fallen on us-- On us, this living generation, big With promise, or with threat, of mighty doom. Which will ye have it? Threat, or promise, which? Yours is the choosing--choose ye may, ye must.