[Written for the Sentinel]

An Awakening

OF straightest sect, Saul lived a Pharisee;
Arrogant with pride and power, he stood,
Consenting to the crime which hate and fear
Sent blindly forth to silence that great truth
Which shone through Stephen's noble life of love;
Scattered abroad, made havoc of the church,
Entered the homes of saints in willful zeal,
To bind, imprison those whose lives were pure.

When suddenly at midday as he went,
There flashed across his thought a blazing light,—
A mighty revelation, bursting through
The dense, dark clouds of ignorance and sin,
Light so immense, so great, so infinite,
All mortal vision seemed to fade away
Before that all-embracing light of Truth.
All his false aims passed from him as a dream;
And in that hour of his new birth to love,
He gave himself to do the will of God,
And meekly falling on his knees he prayed:
Show me, dear Lord, what Thou wilt have me do.

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