as well as his hearers. There was
no denying that. He was a real man, right or wrong. What he rebuked in
others, he had felt in himself, and fought it to the death-grip, as the
flash and quiver of that worn face proclaimed.... But yet, why were the
Edomites, by an utterly mistaken pun on their name, to signify one sort
of sin, and the Ammonites another, and the Amalekites another? What
had that to do with the old psalm? What had it to do with the present
auditory? Was not this the wildest and lowest form of that unreal,
subtilising, mystic pedantry, of which he had sickened long ago in
Hypatia's lecture-room, till he fled to Bran, the dog, for honest
practical realities?

No.... Gradually, as Augustine's hints became more practical and orated,
Raphael saw that there was in his mind most real and organic connection,
true or false, in what seemed at first mere arbitrary allegory.
Amalekites, personal sins, Ausurian robbers and ravishers, were to him
only so many different forms of one and the same evil. He who helped
any of them fought against the righteous God: he who fought against them
fought for that God; but he must conquer the Amalekites within, if
he expected to conquer the Amalekites without. Could the legionaries
permanently put down the lust and greed around them, while their own
hearts were enslaved to lust and greed within? Would they not be helping
it by example, while they pretended to crush it by sword-strokes? Was it
not a mockery, an hypocrisy? Could God's blessing be on it? Could they
restore unity and peace to the country while there was neither unity nor
peace within them? What had produced the helplessness of the people, the
imbecility of the military, but inward helplessness, inward weakness?
They were weak against Moors, because they were weak against enemies
more deadly than Moors. How could they fight for God outwardly, while
they were fighting against him inwardly? He would not go forth with
their hosts. How could He, when He was not among their hosts? He, a
spirit, must dwell in their spirits .... And then the shout of a king
would be among them, and one of them should chase a thousand.... Or if
not--if both people and soldiers required still further chastening and
humbling--what matter, provided that they were chastened and humbled?
What matter if their faces were confounded, if they were thereby driven
to seek His Name, who alone was the Truth, the Light, and the Life? What
if they were slain