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Great Lion of God

Page 81

by Taylor Caldwell


  Then he knew that never again would he see his beloved country and his beloved countrymen, nor the golden Temple, nor the holy city, Jerusalem. He began to weep, and he whispered, “If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right arm wither—”

  He moved across the deck for fear he would be too stricken with grief, and he stared across the plain of light which was the Great Sea and which would bear him to Rome. He was only a man. How could he endure it that never again would he see his kindred, nor hear the sounds of his country, but be forever an exile, going into an unknown future and to an unknown death? He would not be buried in this sacred soil. He knew that as surely as he knew that he was departing. What earth would hold his bones? What friends would mourn him? He looked at the sky which was too radiant to gaze upon, and he dropped his chin on his folded arms and it seemed to him that he had lived too long and was too weary. Of what use was he now, to God, an old man, when youth was needed? God deserved the young to witness for Him.

  Then, as he leaned his arms on the railing and his head was bent upon them in a prostration of human sorrow, it seemed to him that he heard the voice of his father, Hillel ben Borush, as he had heard it in his youth, and the voice of Hillel was tender and strong and loving and prayerful:

  “‘O God, You are my God!

  Early will I seek You.

  My soul thirsts for You

  In a dry and thirsty land,

  Where no water is;

  To see Your power and Your glory,

  So I have seen You in the Sanctuary,

  Because of Your lovingkindness,

  Is better than life!

  My lips shall praise You,

  Thus will I bless You while I live!

  I will lift up my hands in Your Name,

  My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness.

  And my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips—’”

  “‘My soul follows hard after You—!’”

  Saul lifted his head and took a last look at his land, for the ship was moving and the sails were filled with wind and light. His eyes welled with tears, but his lips smiled with love, and he lifted his hand and said,

  “Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is One!”

  His soul was strong again, and young. He saw his country drop below the curve of the world and he knew that the Messias would return again to His people and all the earth would rejoice, crying, “Hosannah!” For all nations were His own.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  The Holy Bible

  Reader’s Digest Articles on the Apostles

  Josephus Antiquities, etc.

  Juvenal

  The Vatican Libraries

  Life Magazine, 1964, Series on the Bible

  Museums, Athens and Israel

  Philostratus

  Pliny

  St. Jerome, Comments on Philippians

  W. P. Davies, Paul and Rabbinic Judaism

  The Catholic Encyclopedia

  A. Dreissman, Paul

  R. A. Knox, St Paul’s Gospel

  W. M. Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveler and Roman Citizen

  J. Lebreton and J. Zeiller, The History of Primitive Christianity

  G. Ricciotti, Paul the Apostle

  Max I. Dimont, Jews, God and History

  Henri Daniel-Rops, The Heroes of God and Jesus and His Times

  The Metamorphoses of Ovid

  Tacitus History

  Aubrey de Selincourt, The Early History of Rome

  Dr. Hugh S. Schonfield, Those Incredible Christians

  Aristotle’s Politics and Ethics

  Charles M. Bakewell, Source Book in Ancient Philosophy

  Phaedo of Plato

  And literally hundreds of other books concerning Roman, Greek and Jewish history, and the history of Christianity, too numerous to mention.

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  “Many novels and books about St. Paul have told in marvelous detail what he did and accomplished in his life and missionary journeys. I am concerned with what he was, a man like ourselves with our own despairs, doubts, anxieties and angers and intolerances, and ‘lusts of the flesh.’ Many books have been concerned with the Apostle. I am concerned with the man, the human being, as well as the dauntless saint.”

  “It may cheer many—and depress others—to realize that man never really changes and the exact problems of Paul’s world are the same that confront us today. But man’s nature can never be changed in any particular except by the power of God and religion, and if I can influence in this book only ten people, I will feel I have succeeded.”

  Taylor Caldwell

  Table of Contents

  Title

  Publisher

  Description

  Booklist

  Dedication

  Epigraph

  Foreword

  Part One

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Part Two

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Part Three

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Bibliography

  Author’s Note

 

 

 


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