Rembrandt's Self Portrait as the Apostle Paul

Here is no thunder of the lawyer’s stance

This is not doctrine bound in bone and blood

This is a man torn from his chosen path

This is a man undone by his own God.

Spirit shine forth! See, through an old man’s eyes

That his own weakness is Your strength sublime;

The fellowship of suffering opens joy,

And our mortality’s the fool of time.

The man who nails his heart to Christ’s own cross

Needs no more pride, needs not the praise of man;

It is enough to know that he is safe

Held fast forever in God’s nail-pierced hand.

It is enough to know that God is God

And Jesus, crucified, now reigns above,

Enough to rest on faith, to rest on hope

And know the greatest of all things is love