ment, in a world
To come, of light and life beyond the grave. 290
So Athens, Corinth, Macedonia, heard
The tidings of salvation.[155] Hark! the sound
Is gone forth to all lands: the glorious light
Extends--the light of faith, and hope, and joy--
The light from Heaven; whilst he, so falsely called
The God of Day,[156] shorn of his golden hair,
And rays of morn, shall leave his Delphian shrine,
Discomfited, and hide his head in night.
The dayspring of Heaven's purer light hath reached
Imperial Rome: the tyrant[157] on his throne 300
Starts; at his voice the famished lion springs
And crashes the pale martyr at his feet;
While the vast amphitheatre is hushed,
And not a sound heard through the multitude,
But that dire crash, and the breath inly drawn,
The moment it is heard, from the still throng
Shuddering; the blood streams from the lion's beard,
Whilst that vast, breathless amphitheatre
Bursts into instant thunders to the skies.
But not the lion, with blood-matted mane, 310
Nor the fierce fires about the martyr's stake,
With rolling smoke, that the winds warp away
In surges, when the miserable man
Blackened and half-consumed appears; not these,
Nor famine, nor the sword, nor death, nor hell,
Shall move the Christian's heart or hope, or fray
Him, steadfast and victorious, though he die.
Farther and farther yet the light is spread:[158]
And thou hast lived to see this gospel-dawn
Kindling from Asia, like a beacon-flame 320
Through darkness--oh! more cheering than the morn,
With all its lovely hues, on sea or shore,
As now it shines around us!

John replied:
Teacher of wisdom, or from heaven or earth,
We know that Paul, our brother in the faith,
Proclaimed the tidings of "Him crucified"
From Rome to Spain; but Paul is in his grave:
Soon must I follow him, and be at rest:
Who then shall bear these tiding of great joy, 330
To all the people of all lands?

STRANGER.

That book
Which the Lamb opened, as a "flying roll"
Angels of light shall bear with wings unseen,
From shore to shore; and thus, though Paul be dead,
He still shall speak, and millions yet unborn
Shall bless the boon. Thou sh