POETRY.
SAUL ON MOUNT OLIVET.* [After a day spent in persecuting the Church of Christ ] So one day more of bitterness had spent Saul, and the night, the solemn night, came on, Grateful to him, for he would be alone. Whether the thought of home, no home, repelled, Or longing toward his sister unconfessed There in that banishment at Bethany Bright with her presence in it—whether this Drew him, or wish of lonely room and height Where more he might from human kind be far— However ]isting, Saul to Olivet Turned him, and slowly to the summit climbed.
The moon not risen yet, the hemisphere Of heaven above him was with clustered stars Glittering, and awful with the glory of God.
Upward into those lucid azure deeps, Withdrawn, deep beyond deep, immeasurably, Gazing, Saul said "Deep calleth unto deep !
Those deeps above me unto deeps within Me cry, as infinite to infinite.
The spaces of my spirit answer back ; I feel them, empty but capacious, vast And void abysses of unfed desire, Hunger eternal and eternal thirst !
Upward I gaze, and see the steadfast stars Unshaken in their station calmly shine, I listen to the silence of the skies And yearn, with what desire ! for peace like that.
Vainly, with what desire! for peace like that !
Beneath the pure calm of the holy heaven, So nigh ! here am I seething like the sea, That cannot rest, casting up mire and dirt Continually I 0 state forlorn ! Where, where, ' My God, for me is rest ? For me, for me!
Great peace have they,' so sang that psalmist taught
By Thee, 'Great peace have they that love Thy law And, nothing shall offend them.' Answer me, Lord God, do / not love Thy law? Then why This opposite of peace within my breast ? Am I deceived P Do not I love Thy law P Answer me Thou!"
But answer came there none, Or Saul was deaf, and the great sky looked down, With all its multitude of starry eyes, Impassible, upon a human soul Wretched, unrespited from long unrest.
WILLIAM CLEAVER WILKINSON (Tarrytown, N.Y.) 82 Gower Street, W,C.
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