Índice Geral das Seções Índice da Seção Atual Índice da Obra Atual Anterior: 6. Pensamentos do Entardecer Seguinte: 8. Na Luz do Fogo
(p. 30)
7.
MORTE DE SANTO ESTEVÃO
“HE FELL ASLEEP.” –– ACTS VII, 60.
HE fell asleep, –– pillowed upon the stones
That wrought his death;
his yellow clust’ring hair
Fell backward from his blood-stained
brows, and seemed
A golden circlet, like
a glory set
Around his angel face,
where grace divine
Had
stamped its wondrous signet. So he lay
And fell asleep, his
hands yet clasped in prayer
Upon his white-robed
breast, now calm and still
As the fair sculptured
marble that is seen
Above the tomb of some departed
saint.
So Stephen slept, with
pale unclosed lips,
Whence his pure soul had
winged itself away
In pray’rful
accents; while from his bruised head
The crimson drops burst
forth like ruby gems,
And glittered on his
brow, until they seemed
An
earnest of his own celestial crown.
(p. 31)
He fell asleep; –– no
more of pain and sin,
Nor grief, nor doubt,
to cloud his heavenward path,
Nor heartsick longing
for repose and rest,
Nor
persecution, nor the martyr’s pangs.
All these for him were
past, and in their stead
The fadeless wreath,
the victor’s palm he bore,
And all the bitterness
of death forgot,
In the strange
sweetness of a life renewed
With holiness and
everlasting love!
He fell asleep; –– he
closed his weary eyes
On human faces fraught
with rage and sin
And mad revengeful
hate; –– he shut his ears
To voices harsh with
discord and with strife
And
clamorous anger, calling for his death.
And so he slept; –– and
in that sleep he passed
From death to Life, ––
from sights and sounds of woe
To heavenly glory, ––
from the frowns of men
To the bright radiance
of his Master’s smile,
And tones of happy
welcome; –– for he fell
Asleep on earth, and
woke in Paradise!
Índice Geral das Seções Índice da Seção Atual Índice da Obra Atual Anterior: 6. Pensamentos do Entardecer Seguinte: 8. Na Luz do Fogo