Luke 18:23

he was very sorrowful St Matthew says, -he went away grieving;" St Mark adds that -his brow grew gloomy and cloudy at the command" (στυγνάσας ἐπὶ τῷ λόγῳ ).And thus at the time he made, through cowardice or meanness of mind, what Dante (Inf.Luke 10:27) calls - il gran rifiuto," -the great refusal," and the poet sees his shade among the whirling throng of the useless and the facing-both-ways on the confines of the Inferno. Nothing, however, forbids us to hope that the words of Jesus who -loved him" sank into his soul, and brought him to a humbler and holier frame of mind. But meanwhile he lost for his earthly dross that eternal blessedness of self-sacrifice which Christ had offered him. The day came when Saul of Tarsus was like this youth -touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless;" but hehad grace to count all things but loss for Christ. Philippians 3:6-9.