SAUL
Charles J. Connick Associates, Inc., Boston, Massachusetts
This double window devoted to Robert Browning's poem "Saul" beautifully balances the opposite composition of the "Rabbi Ben Ezra" window. The other window's medallions of Youth and Age, a knight battling a monster, and God the "Potter," are echoed in the "Saul" window's medallions of David before Saul, Saul battling the Philistines, and Christ the Redeemer.
In the lower window David kneels and plays the tune "for which quails on the cornland will each leave his mate." Looking down on David is the dark figure of Saul, "erect as that tent-prop, both arms stretched out wide" with flashes of light across his body from "a sunbeam, that burst thro' the tent roof." Nearby are the quail, the sheep, and the jerboas mentioned in the poem. The center medallion shows Saul in "manhood's prime vigor," as he goes forth to battle. Rays of light from the Hand of God fall toward Saul signifying heavenly approval of his early deeds. Above is the symbol of a city, "a people is thine."
Browning's poem builds to David's prophetic vision of God's plan for the redemption of mankind through Christ. Appropriately, in the upper portion of the window we see the radiant figure of Christ as the Redeemer standing before the Gates of Heaven, "See the Christ stand."
Poem of Upper Section
O Saul, it shall be
A Face like my face that receives thee:
a Man like to me,
Thou shalt love and be loved by, forever:
a Hand like this hand
Shall throw open the gates of new life to thee!
See the Christ stand!
Poem of Lower Section
He is Saul, ye remember in glory,
ere error had bent
The broad brow from the daily communion;
and still, through much spent
Be the life and the bearing that front you, the
same, God did choose,
To receive what a man may waste, desecrate,
never quite lose.
Honoring My Beloved Wife
Fredrica Gross Dudley and
In Memory of Our Sons
Ray Lofton Dudley, Jr., and
Bayard Turner Gross Dudley
Gift of Ray Lofton Dudley
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Baylor University Waco, Texas 76798 1-800-BAYLOR-U