BAPTISM OF KRISHNA.

As the days passed, the prisoner Paul, allowed

The freedom of his ways about the isle,

Would often, musing by himself alone —

Or haply his shadow Stephen following so

As never to be seen yet ever see

In jealous loving watch and ward of him —

Walk in seclusions well to Julius known

Where, held by all the islanders in awe

And sentried as if sentried not the while,

He could be safe in sense of solitude

And easement from the fret of custody.

He walking thus one sunny afternoon,

The Indian met him at the hither goal

And entrance to his wonted rounding ways,

And with such salutation greeted him

As seemed to seek access for mutual speech.

Paul, out of insulation and himself

Emerging wholly at his fellow's call,

Rallied at once to be a social man;

He welcomed Krishna frankly to his side,

And they twain walked and talked together there.

“O Paul,” said Krishna, “I am not at rest;

Thou, and that Mary's story of her Lord,

Have deeply shaken my repose in me.

There must have been, lodged in me from the first,

A witness ready to speak up and say,

‘ Hearken, O Krishna!’ when the name of‘ God’

Fell on my ear. For since that word from thee,

I have not ceased to hear within me cry

Reverberant through the chambers of my soul —

Like a voluminous echo shouting round

Reduplicated images of voice —

Clamor and attestation vehement

Confirming what thou saidst that day of God,

And of our orphanhood without Him. Oh,

My friend, that I might find Him, I, even I!”

Such passion in passivity moved Paul

To pity, which he hid, while thus he spoke:

“It is the answer of the infinite

Within thee to the infinite above

Thee and beneath thee and about thee round.

God made thee for Himself, and Himself is

The only good that can content thy mind.

Feel after Him and find Him, He is nigh,

Drawn nigh and drawing nigh, in Jesus Christ.

Not to believe in Him, God's Son made flesh —

He once revealed to thee — this, this, is sin;

And sin is death; but to believe is life.

Believe and live, O Krishna.”

“Thy word‘ sin,’

O Paul,” said Krishna, “it perplexes me.

What is sin? Evil, I guess. Now evil I know

In many forms — forms many, essence one —

Misery all. But sin to thee, I trow,

Is something else than simple misery.”

“O, yea,” said Paul, “and measurelessly more.

No misery is like sin, but sin is evil

Not to be told in terms of misery.

The sinner is an enemy of God;

God is against him, and the wrath of God

Abides upon him; such is the evil of sin.

For sin is the transgression of the law,

That law which is the will of God express

In precept, or that law more broad, more deep,

Higher, which is the will of God inwrought

Into the substance of the human heart.

Thou canst not live transgressor of this law

And be at peace; God is too merciful

To suffer it. For mercy it is in God

Which wrath we call; against the sinner, wrath;

But toward the man, mercy eager to save:

The wrath of God is as the shepherd's crook

Which with threat drives the foolish flock to fold.

Hasten, obey, be folded, thou, by Him,

The shepherd and the bishop of thy soul.

Within is safety, life, and peace, and joy;

Ruin, without, and wretchedness, and death.”

“A living Will,” said Krishna, “in the waste,

The wild waste, of a world of chance and fate —

A Will amid it, nay, much more, a Mind,

A Heart, present, presiding over all

The blind whirl of the things we see, whereof

We seem ourselves a petty part, impelled

Helpless — whither, who knows?— this is to me

A thought greater than the great universe;

Yet does it less than that oppress, appal;

I feel my spirit in me quickened too

While overwhelmed. O were it true indeed!

And were this Being whom thou namest God

Willing to condescend and think on me!

I feel that I could love Him if I could

Believe Him — in the teeth of all that seems

To swear against Him in this dreadful world!”

“The whole creation groaneth, yea,” said Paul,

“And travaileth under the curse of sin.

But the blind-bondman universe awaits

With earnest expectation a new day

When he shall be delivered from his thrall,

To share, we know not how, that liberty

Which is the birthright of the sons of God.

Meantime the discord and the perjury

Thou seest of a distracted universe

Forsworn against its Maker! Yet even so

Enough abides unshaken from the firm

Fair order of the first all-wise design,

To testify His everlasting power

Who framed it. But, beyond that perjury

Thou findest in the janglings of the world

Browbeating faith herself to disbelieve,

Is the blaspheming atheous spirit in man

Which will not God. O strife and warfare strange

Within us! Godward-springing instinct fain

To answer‘ Abba, Father!’ to His call,

And all the while rebellion muttering,‘ Nay!’

O wretched, wretched creatures that we are!

Who, who is able to deliver us

Out of the clinging body of this death?

I thank my God, through Jesus Christ our Lord!

“Christ's voice against the clamor of the world,

His still small voice, heard by the inner ear

Of whosoever will heed and obey,

Makes music of this roaring dissonance

Which dins and deafens every one besides.

Hush the gainsaying of the heart within,

O Krishna, the dull heart of unbelief,

And hearken if thou shalt not presently

Hear Him say, Come. It is a heavenly sound,

Heard never save by the anointed ear

Of true obedience; but once heard thereby

It ever after lingers in the sense

A haunting invitation still obeyed.

And still as we obey it, drawing near

And nearer to that Voice forevermore,

Forevermore we hear the harmony

Evolved from the confusions of the world

Grow perfect and the discord die away.

Like as a human father pitieth

His children, so Jehovah God Most High

Pitieth them that fear Him. This long since

We heard through one inspired from God to sing

It cadenced in our sweet and solemn psalms.”

Krishna could not but speak his froward thought:

“It looks such contradiction to the fact

Staring us in the face from round about

Us wheresoever in the world we turn

Our eyes and see the seeming pitiless

Ongoing of the blind necessity

That, deaf and blind and irresistible,

Rides like a Juggernaut upon his car

Crushing beneath the wheels the hearts of men

And spirting up their blood to splash his feet!”

Unwonted passion heaved the Indian's breast,

And shook the tones in which he said these things.

Paul gently made reply as one that knew:

“Yea, such the spectacle that sight beholds;

Nor ever other had the mind of man

Guessed, had the voice of God not spoken clear

To Faith, revealing His veiled fatherhood:

The blatant falsehood of the seeming fact

Failed in the ear of Faith hearing that word.

She said:‘ It must be true; how otherwise

Than because God Himself who cannot lie

Declared it could such gospel come to men?

Not from the world of sense; that world instead

Gainsays it with all clamor of perjury;

Not from the heart of man averse from God

And full of alien fear through hate of Him:

For filial fear it is, begot of love,

Not alien fear, of conscious hate begot,

That God desires from men and will reward

With pity like a father's for their state.

Yea, such a gospel must from God have come;

Let God be true and the whole world a liar.’

So Faith cried out in passionate protest

Against appearance, and clasped fast her creed.

“But when the fulness of the time was come,

God sent a mighty succor down to Faith

Faint with her fasting in the wilderness.

From His own bosom He His only Son,

Only and well-belovéd, the express

Image of His own person and the bright

Effulgence of the Father's glory, tore

And bade Him, joyful at the mission He:

‘ Empty Thyself of thine equality

With Me in Godhead; take the lowly form

Of a bondservant; fashioned like a man

Humble Thyself to be obedient

Through all degrees of all obedience

Unfaltering down to that extreme degree

Of death, yea even of death upon the cross!’

For God so loved the world, with pity loved,

That He His own Son and His only gave

That whosoever should on Him believe

Might perish not, but have eternal life.

“A paradox divine of love and pity —

God sparing not His own coequal Son,

But, last impossible proof of love to men,

Giving Him freely up to suffer so,

The just for the unjust, if haply He

Might bring us unto God! His father's heart

Of tenderness toward His obedient Son

Breaking, while He that Son delivered up —

Father and Son together overcome

With love and pity toward a wretched race

Apostate, disobedient, rebel, lost!

Well spake that Savior Son while yet He lived

A heavenly exile here on earth — He now

About to suffer at the hands of whom

He came to save — making the sum of sin

Consist in not believing upon Him.

Not to believe on such as Jesus Christ

Seen living, the exemplar of all good,

That, that, was sin indeed. Yet greater sin,

Yea, sin inclusive and conclusive, this —

Not to believe on Christ raised from the dead!”

Paul interrupted his discourse with pause.

He eased the pressure on his heart with prayer,

While Krishna slowly, softly, sadly said:

‘ Sin as transgression of a law supreme;

Law as expression of a living Will;

Nay, the existence of a living Will

Sovereign over an ordered universe;

Much more, a Heart behind the Will to feel

Pity and love, such pity and such love,

Not idle passion but at work to save,

Save at vicarious cost so great — these thoughts,

Ill canst thou know how new they are to me,

How strange! Sin, sin — and sinner I, for this,

That I do not believe on him!

“But thou,

Tell me, What is it to believe on him?

I willingly believe that he was good,

Was wise, was gentle, gracious, merciful.”

“Believe that he was what he claimed to be,”

Said Paul, “absolute lord of life and thought

To all men, and to thee. Acknowledge Him

Thy Lord; believing is obeying here.

To whom He Master is, to them is He

Also a Savior; trust thyself to Him.”

“A fearful act of self-surrender thou,

O Paul,” said Krishna, “thus proposest to me.

Take Jesus for my lord in life and thought,

Absolute lord as thou hast strongly said it,

That might be, for what were it but exchange

Of masters, Buddha left for Jesus; true,

Never such claim of mastership made he,

Our Buddha, as thou sayest thy Jesus makes —

But to commit myself into the hands

Of any, whosoever he may be,

To be saved — saved from what, to what, how saved?” —

With sudden turn on Paul, Krishna thus spoke,

The gentleness which was his manner, now

To almost fierceness changed, so vehement

Was the revulsion and revolt expressed.

“Am I so lost I cannot save myself?”

He added, when he could command his tones

To speak with full becoming courtesy —

An inexpugnable repulsion yet

Shown of the answer that he thus invoked.

Calmly, but without effort to be calm,

“O, yea,” said Paul, “so lost, and worse than so;

So lost thou dost not wish to save thyself;

Nay, dost not know thou needest to be saved.

It is the sad besotment deep of sin,

Wherein not thou alone but all of us

Since Adam, the first man, are sunk and lost.

We are dead in sin, this even from our first breath,

And, like the dead, know not that we are dead,

And, like the dead, care not to live again,

Nor, more than they, could, if we would, revive.

A dreadful doom of helpless living death!

Helpless, yet hopeless not, blesséd be God!

Yea, there is hope, albeit not in ourselves;

Christ is a power of life that overflows

To all that will make ready a way for Him

To enter by the gladsome gates of will.

He quickens whom He will, but will not quicken

Save who will say to Him,‘ Lord, quicken me!’

A paradox, sayest thou, hard to be solved?

Yea, more, outright impossibility —

With man impossibility, but not

With God; with God, all things are possible.”

“Thou makest this thing‘ sin,’” the Indian said,

“Such evil as is more miserable far

Than misery's self. Who taught thee this?‘ Sin,'' sin’ —

Is it not perhaps some specter of the mind

Only, unreal as horrible, which thou

Hast conjured up from nothing to thyself

In thy lone brooding on the riddle of things?”

Paul hearing this thought backward of the time

When Porcius Festus brusquely said to him

In public presence:‘ Paul, thou art mad; thy long

Deep pouring over books turns wild thy wits.’

With himself musing:‘ One in his right mind

Thus to be judged distraught by those distraught!’

He answered: “Yea, that is a wile I know

Of Satan's playing on this human heart

Of ours, deceitful as it is above

All things and desperately wicked, yet

Insanely cunning in complicity

Against itself — a wile I know too well

To cheat us into thinking naught of sin.

A bugbear of the morbid conscience, sin!

I might myself have been, I cannot know,

Lulled by this lie into false fatal peace;

But the Lord Christ Himself appeared to me

In light like lightning though a hundred fold

Keener, shot suddenly from out a clear

Sky at midnoon, and called me by my name,

The name that then I bore;‘ Saul, Saul,’ He said,

‘ Why dost thou persecute Me?’‘ Thee,’ said I,

‘ Who art thou, Lord?’ And He,‘ Jesus I am

Whom thou dost persecute.’

“That moment first,

In its true hideous native aspect shown,

Sin was revealed to me. I saw it wear

A face of horrible malignity

Gnashing its teeth on Jesus, the One Man

Who sinned not ever and yet died for sin,

Died for the sin that slew Him, for my sin

That slew Him on the bitter cross, that still

Was slaying Him afresh — who died for me.

I found the truth and meaning of those words

By Jesus from the imminent verge of death

Spoken, that not believing upon Him

Was the one sin. When the ideal man

Is shown us, then to know Him not for such

Betokens us how besotted!— beyond hope;

But if the ideal man be Son of God

And bring us out of heaven a word from Him,

Not to receive the message, nay, to flout

The messenger himself as I had done,

Yea, was that moment doing when the light

I spoke of fell on me — what height, what depth

Of sin! O, sin's exceeding sinfulness!

And yet, not so even is the measure full.

For God in testimony of His Son

Put forth the working of His mighty power

And raised Him from the dead, exalting Him

To the right hand of glory with Himself.

Christ then, there sitting by His Father's side

And with Him reigning, victor over death

And over him that had the power of death,

The devil, sent thence the Holy Spirit down

Hither to us to lead us into truth.

The Holy Spirit in thy heart, O Krishna,

Grieve Him not, send Him not away from thee!

It was His secret prompting made thee take

That spring toward God at mention of His name.

Yield to Him, He desires thy good, consent

To be convinced of sin — sin still committed

Till thou believe on Jesus Christ as Lord;

And now a sin against the Holy Ghost!”

Solemn the words, spoken solemnly by Paul;

They wrought an awe in Krishna hearing them.

The sense indeed was half not understood;

Yet not the less, almost it seemed the more,

They touched him to the quickest in his soul.

Paul too was awed and did not further speak,

Thinking,‘ Let me beware not to obtrude

Myself untimely between God and man!’

Nay, even he would that Krishna were alone,

To wrestle in that solemn solitude

Wherein needs must at last the human spirit

Ever transact the awful mystery

Of its own reconcilement with its God.

Yet Paul so wishing still would not withdraw,

He might inhospitable seem or seem

Too conscious of his fellow's inward strife;

He prayed in silence with unutterable

Strong yearning of desire quickened with hope:

‘ Let Krishna win the victory of defeat!’

The Indian soon with gesture of farewell

Unspoken, which meant thanks and courtesy

Habitual, but meant also not habitual

Appeal for sympathy in felt helplessness,

As who should say,‘ Pray, pray for me,’ retired.

‘ Impossible!’ so he murmured to himself;

‘ I would have paid a hundred million years

Of pain and patience and unceasing toil

To buy escape from being and misery.

Now to accept deliverance as a gift,

Acknowledging that I cannot purchase it —

I sicken within me at the very thought!

Deliverance not from being but misery —

If that could be! Fulness of life, not death!

Aye, that were better — were it possible!

I do not wish to cease from consciousness

If consciousness can be, apart from woe.

O Thou who must be, Thou whom since I heard

Thy name I cannot doubt more than I doubt

Myself, Thou, God, is this thy word indeed,

That I am lost in sin as not believing

On that man Jesus for mine only Lord?

Is he thy Son? Shall I trust all to him?

All, all, as if I were a little child?

‘ What is it in my heart that answers, Yea?

Is it Thou, O Holy Spirit? If it be

Thou, and none other and naught else than Thou

Then certify Thyself, give me a sign!

Ah, but I know, I know. O heart within,

Thou wilt not cheat thyself thus! Thou and I,

We know full well when God speaks it is He,

He and none other. Other none than Thou,

Paul's God, and mine, and mine, and mine, O yea,

Who but my God could speak thus closely to me?

O Buddha, Buddha, trusted long in vain!

In whom I took my refuge once, behold,

My house of refuge then supposed in thee

Is melted into ruin round about me.

I am a naked soul, unhoused, disclad;

O God, receive me, lo, I come to Thee;

Forgive my sin that I have not believed

Earlier in Christ thy Son, whom now I take

To be my Lord henceforth. I trust to Him

To save me and I cannot save myself.

But He, He can and will, thanks to His name;

Thanks to thy name, Lord Jesus, I am thine,

And Thou art mine, my Savior as my Lord!

‘ Where is my pride, which was so dear to me,

My pride, and my vain confidence of strength?

Gone, yea, and my desire even gone to be

Myself my own redeemer and not owe

Redemption as a debt of gratitude

To any; sense of debt is sweet to me

Now, and my heart is meekly glad to know

That I henceforth am not my own, but His

Who died to save me from myself and sin.

Nirvâna, which I erst befooled myself

To deem desirable, what dreary doom

Were it! Instead of life, and love, and joy,

True peace, and ever-springing gratitude

Growing greater every moment, like a stream

Increasing every moment to the sea

With fresh floods from fresh tributaries poured —

Instead of this, blank death and nothingness!

End unattainable, I now can see,

Even were it good. To lose this power to think

And suffer and enjoy, to quench in night

Utter, unending, reason's starry lamp,

And hope's, and memory's, and be naught at all!

I shudder backward from the crumbling brink

Of such annihilation of myself

Imagined only, and I eager spring

Endeavoring upward toward that different good

Assured to me and native now I know,

The prospect of eternal life with joy.’

So Krishna mused, was grateful, and aspired,

Rescued from the abyss to hope of heaven.

But the new life of love within his heart,

Of love and love's delicious gratitude,

Swelled with sweet pain to unappeasable

Desire of vent and overflow in word

Or deed to testify itself abroad.

When, the next day, the daily trysting-time

Drew them that loved the Lord together for prayer,

The Indian, who by fellow instinct now

Divined the secret of those gatherings, came

And sought to be admitted of the band.

They welcomed him with hospitable joy,

Which borrowed tears from sorrow to express

Itself in silence when he spoke and said:

“O friends, receive me, for I am of you,

Redeemed by your Redeemer, Christ the Lord.

I love Him, and I know it is because

He first loved me and taught me how to love.

This love that wells in me and overflows

My being thus, it is not mine I know,

But His, or only as He makes it, mine.

I love you all in Him, and feel that ye

In Him likewise love me. He has unlocked

The gates of speech; He makes the dumb to speak.

And now I pray you tell me, is there not

Some thing ye know, some little thing perhaps,

For I am meek and lowly like a child

And I do not aspire to things above

My measure, which indeed I know is small,

Some little simple thing that I can do

For Jesus, just because He wishes it

And for no other reason in the world

Than only that, to testify to Him

In act and testify to all that see

How much I love Him, and how much desire

To be henceforth His servant all in all?

I should be glad to do this if I might

With no delay at all, I am in haste.

I know from all that I have learned through you

And from the lovely feeling in my heart,

This eager impulse to make haste and be

The perfect image of your Lord and mine —

I know thus that there is an endless joy

Before me of obedience to His will

In beautiful behavior like His own

And all conformity to what is fair

Whether in temper, thought, wish, word, or deed,

Or whatsoever else is life or being —

A boundless possibility of bliss

Awaiting and inviting me — whereto

All hail and welcome, be my footsteps fleet

To run forever up this shining way!—

Yet am I not contented till I hear

Whether there be not bidden some thing besides

Of gracious privilege from Christ to those

Who love Him as I love Him, which such may,

In the first freshness of new birth, at once

Do for an ease and comfort to their love.”

Wonder with gladness filled all hearts that heard,

When Krishna, he of words so slow and few,

Flowed like a river thus from frost unbound.

And Paul said: “‘ Be baptized,’ Lord Jesus taught

First privilege of obedience to His will

In outward visible act offered to those

Who have before invisibly obeyed

Him inwardly and taken Him for Lord.

Thou therefore, brother, if thou wilt, shalt be

Forthwith baptized according to His word.

Buried with Him by baptism into death

Thou wilt be, that as Christ was from the dead

Raised by the glory of the Father so

Thou also mayst henceforth forever walk

In a new life.”

Within the spacious halls

Of Publius there was found a laver large

Which, by the master of the mansion put

At Paul's command, with water pure was filled;

And therein Krishna was straightway baptized.

But not by Paul's hands. “For Christ sent me forth,”

He said, “not to baptize but to proclaim

The gospel of obedience to mankind.”

So Aristarchus, for that office named

By Paul, baptized the Indian. He went down

Joyous into that liquid grave with Christ

To rise with Him in resurrection thence.

“Because thou art disciple now become,”

To Krishna speaking, Aristarchus said,

“And because Christ hath so commanded us,

Lo, I baptize thee thus into the name,

The one name, of the Father, of the Son,

And of the Holy Ghost. Amen!”

“Amen!”

Said Krishna, issuing from his watery tomb

As one new-born like Lazarus from the dead.

“If thou, then,” Paul said, taking Krishna's hand

For welcome, “If thou be indeed with Christ

Risen from the dead, I charge thee seek those things

Which are above where Christ ascended sits

On the right hand of God the Father throned.

Endeavor upward toward what heavenly is,

Not suffer thine affection here to cling;

We must not grovel where we ought to climb.

Reckon that when Christ died thou diedst with Him,

And that thy life is hid with Christ in God.

When Christ our life shall manifested be,

Then manifested thou shalt be with Him

In glory.

“For this life we live on earth

Is as the insect's life in chrysalis.

The creature shut in chrysalis awaits

The promise of the sun's approach in spring;

The sun is his true life, and when the sun

Returns rejoicing hither from the south,

Then cracks the chrysalis that bound him in,

And, blossoming out in wings, he disimprisoned

Springs a new creature forth, and sails abroad

In beauty on the bosom of the air —

A living parable of that which we

Shall undergo of glorious change when Christ,

Our Sun, at His return revisits us.

Haste, then, to put to death those things in thee,

Pride, unbelief, self-will, vain trust in self,

Excess of self-regard, whatever else

Belongs to this thine earthly state of being

And cannot overlive into the life

Of glory to be thine forever in heaven —

All these things put to death, and nourish rather

Faith, hope, love, joy, upward desire and pure,

The spirit of forgetfulness of self —

Self-will become obedience unto God,

Presumption changed to sweet humility,

Thanksgiving like a fountain from the heart

Springing, with a delicious tremble deep

Reflected to the center of the soul,

In eager exultation up to God:

These and like things are of the heavenly mind;

Cherish them thou with heedful husbandry.

So shalt thou grow full-summed those buoyant wings

Which, when Christ comes again, shall bear thee up

To meet Him in the air and soar with Him

Immeasurable heights above all height

Into the heaven of heavens to be with God

Forever and forever safe in bliss.

“Dost thou ask, How do this? I answer thee,

Be thy whole life obedience to His will

Who lived and died and lives forevermore

To save thee ransomed by His blood from sin.

Yea, whatsoever thou henceforth shalt do,

Whether in thought or word or deed, do all

Not from thyself, nor for thyself, but all

As living in the person and the name,

As living therein only, of the Lord

Jesus, to God the Father giving thanks

By Him.

“And now to Him that loved us, Him

That washed us from our sins in His own blood,

And made us kings and priests to God His Father —

To Him dominion be, and glory, given

For ever and for evermore! Amen!”

Krishna soon after came to Paul and said:

“The sense of resurrection power I feel

Within me working to sustain my will

In striving upward as thou bidst toward God

I take it as a warrant and a proof

That Christ lives and exerts it from above.

I need no longer any testimony

Other than what I have within myself,

That He rose from the dead to die no more.

This new life that is mine I draw from Him;

It is because He lives I thus can live;

Yet gladly would I hear from Mary's lips

( Not now with curious ear, and unbelief )

Her story of the rising of the Lord.

I wake not seldom in the depths of night,

A kind of leaven of light breaks through my sleep,

As if the glory of the Lord around

Me made untimely morning for mine eyes.

Better, I trow, than our good Publius,

I shall peruse the daily prophecies

Of weather in the midnight wind and sky.

So he consents and I beforehand am

With him in waking, as I trust to be,

Let me bring tidings when my vigils next

Discern the promise of a smiling dawn

Tempered to vernal warmth. We then can meet,

As late the hint was, ere the rising sun,

To hear from Mary, while the morning breaks

And the fresh splendors of new-wakened day

Lighten the world, how Jesus over death

Triumphed, and spoiled the princedom of the grave.”

“So it shall be, my Krishna,” Paul said, glad

At heart that such desire, so purified

With faith, and joy, and sense of partnership

In all things by the Lord of life bestowed,

Possessed the Indian. And the days went by.