heard the clash of weapons and saw the glare of the torches, and
longed to warn Him but could not; saw the bitter shame of the kiss and
the arrest and the flight; and followed to Caiaphas' house; heard the
stinging slap; ran to Pilate's house; saw that polished gentleman yawn
and sneer; saw the clinging thongs and the splashed floor when the
scourging was over; followed on to Calvary; saw the great Cross rise up
at last over the heads of the crowd, and heard the storm of hoots and
laughter and the dry sobs of the few women. Then over his head the sun
grew dull, and the earth rocked and split, as the crosses reeled with
their swinging burdens. Then, as the light came back, and the earth ended
her long shudder, he saw in the evening glow that his Lord was dead. Then
he followed to the tomb; saw the stone set and sealed and the watch
appointed; and went home with Mary and John, and waited.

Then on Easter morning, wherever his Lord was, he was there too; with
Mary in that unrecorded visit; with the women, with the Apostles; on the
road to Emmaus; on the lake of Galilee; and his heart burned with Christ
at his side, on lake and road and mountain.

Then at last he stood with the Twelve and saw that end that was so
glorious a beginning; saw that tender sky overhead generate its strange
cloud that was the door of heaven; heard far away the trumpets cry, and
the harps begin to ripple for the new song that the harpers had learned
at last; and then followed with his eyes the Lord whom he had now learned
to know and love as never before, as He passed smiling and blessing into
the heaven from which one day He will return....

* * * *

There, then, as Anthony looked on the canvas, was that living, moving
face and figure. What more could He have done that He did not do? What
perfection could be dreamed of that was not already a thousand times His?

And when the likeness was finished, and Father Robert stepped aside from
the portrait that he had painted with such tender skill and love, it is
little wonder that this lad threw himself down before that eloquent
vision and cried with Thomas, My Lord and my God!

* * * *

Then, very gently, Father Robert led him through those last steps; up
from the Illuminative to the Unitive; from the Incarnate Life with its
warm human interests to that Ineffable Light that seems so chill and
unreal to those