Would thou couldst see these places, as I see them. 25
BARTIMEUS.
I have not seen a glimmer of the light
Since thou wast born. I never saw thy face,
And yet I seem to see it; and one day
Perhaps shall see it; for there is a Prophet
In Galilee, the Messiah, the Son of David, 30
Who heals the blind, if I could only find him.
I hear the sound of many feet approaching,
And voices, like the murmur of a crowd!
What seest thou?
CHILION.
A young man clad in white
Is coming through the gateway, and a crowd 35
Of people follow.
BARTIMEUS.
Can it be the Prophet!
O neighbors, tell me who it is that passes?
ONE OF THE CROWD.
Jesus of Nazareth.
BARTIMEUS, crying.
O Son of David!
Have mercy on me!
MANY OF THE CROWD.
Peace, Blind Bartimeus!
Do not disturb the Master.
BARTIMEUS, crying more vehemently.
Son of David, 40
Have mercy on me!
ONE OF THE CROWD.
See, the Master stops.
Be of good comfort; rise, He calleth thee!
BARTIMEUS, casting away his cloak.
Chilion! good neighbors! lead me on.
CHRISTUS.
What wilt thou
That I should do to thee?
BARTIMEUS.
Good Lord! my sight —
That I receive my sight!
CHRISTUS.
Receive thy sight! 45
Thy faith hath made thee whole!
THE CROWD.
He sees again!
CHRISTUS passes on. The crowd gathers round BARTIMEUS.
BARTIMEUS.
I see again; but sight bewilders me!
Like a remembered dream, familiar things
Come back to me. I see the tender sky
Above me, see the trees, the city walls, 50
And the old gateway, through whose echoing arch
I groped so many years; and you, my neighbors;
But know you by your friendly voices only.
How beautiful the world is! and how wide!
Oh, I am miles away, if I but look! 55
Where art thou, Chilion?
CHILION.
Father, I am here.
BARTIMEUS.
Oh let me gaze upon thy face, dear child!
For I have only seen thee with my hands!
How beautiful thou art! I should have known thee;
Thou hast her eyes whom we shall see hereafter! 60
O God of Abraham! Elion! Adonai!
Who art thyself a Father, pardon me
If for a moment I have thee postponed
To the affections and the thoughts of earth,
Thee, and the adoration that I owe thee, 65
When by thy power alone these darkened eyes
Have been unsealed again to see thy light!
VI.
Jacob’s Well
A SAMARITAN WOMAN.
THE SUN is hot; and the dry east-wind blowing
Fills all the air with dust. The birds are silent;
Even the little fieldfares in the corn
No longer twitter; only the grasshoppers
Sing their incessant song of sun and summer. 5
I wonder who those strangers were I met
Going into the city? Galileans
They seemed to me in speaking, when they asked
The short way to the market-place. Perhaps
They are fishermen from the lake; or travellers, 10
Looking to find the inn. And here is some one
Sitting beside the well; another stranger;
A Galilean also by his looks.
What can so many Jews be doing here
Together in Samaria? Are they going 15
Up to Jerusalem to the Passover?
Our Passover is better here at Sychem,
For here is Ebal; here is Gerizim,
The mountain where our father Abraham
Went up to offer Isaac; here the tomb 20
Of Joseph, — for they brought his bones from Egypt
And buried them in this land, and it is holy.
CHRISTUS.
Give me to drink.
SAMARITAN WOMAN.
How can it be that thou,
Being a Jew, askest to drink of me
Which am a woman of Samaria? 25
You Jews despise us; have no dealings with us;
Make us a byword; call us in derision
The silly folk of Sychar. Sir, how is it
Thou askest drink of me?
CHRISTUS.
If thou hadst known
The gift of God, and who it is that sayeth 30
Give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of Him;
He would have given thee the living water.
SAMARITAN WOMAN.
Sir, thou hast naught to draw with, and the well
Is deep! Whence hast thou living water?
Say, art thou greater than our father Jacob, 35
Which gave this well to us, and drank thereof
Himself, and all his children and his cattle?
CHRISTUS.
Ah, whosoever drinketh of this water
Shall thirst again; but whosoever drinketh
The water I shall give him shall not thirst 40
Forevermore, for it shall be within him
A well of living water, springing up
Into life everlasting.
SAMARITAN WOMAN.
Every day
I must go to and fro, in heat and cold,
And I am weary. Give me of this water, 45
That I may thirst not, nor come here to draw.
CHRISTUS.
Go call thy husband, woman, and come hither.
SAMARITAN WOMAN.
I have no husband, Sir.
CHRISTUS.
Thou hast well said
I have no husband. Thou hast had five husbands;
And he whom now thou hast is not thy husband. 50
SAMARITAN WOMAN.
Surely thou art a Prophet, for thou readest
The hidden things of life! Our fathers worshipped
Upon this mountain Gerizim; and ye say
The only place in which men ought to worship
Is at Jerusalem.
CHRISTUS.
Believe me, woman, 55
The hour is coming, when ye neither shall
Upon this mount, nor at Jerusalem,
Worship the Father; for the hour is coming,
And is now come, when the true worshippers
Shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth! 60
The Father seeketh such to worship Him.
God is a spirit; and they that worship Him
Must worship Him in spirit and in truth.
SAMARITAN WOMAN.
Master, I know that the Messiah cometh,
Which is called Christ; and He will tell us all things. 65
CHRISTUS.
I that speak unto thee am He!
THE DISCIPLES, returning
Behold,
The Master sitting by the well, and talking
With a Samaritan woman! With a woman
Of Sychar, the silly people, always boasting
Of their Mount Ebal, and Mount Gerizim, 70
Their Everlasting Mountain, which they think
Higher and holier than our Mount Moriah!
Why, once upon the Feast of the New Moon,
When our great Sanhedrim of Jerusalem
Had all its watch-fires kindled on the hills 75
To warn the distant villages, these people
Lighted up others to mislead the Jews,
And make a mockery of their festival!
See, she has left the Master; and is running
Back to the city!
SAMARITAN WOMAN.
Oh, come see a man 80
Who hath told me all things that I ever did!
Say, is not this the Christ?
THE DISCIPLES.
Lo, Master, here
Is food, that we have brought thee from the city.
We pray thee eat it.
CHRISTUS.
I have food to eat,
Ye know not of.
THE DISCIPLES, to each other.
Hath any man been here, 85
And brought Him aught to eat, while we were gone?
CHRISTUS.
The food I speak of is to do the will
Of Him that sent me, and to finish his work.
Do ye not say, Lo! there are yet four months
And cometh harvest? I say unto you, 90
Lift up your eyes, and look upon the fields,
For they are white already unto harvest!
VII.
The Coasts of Cæsarea Philippi
CHRISTUS, going up the mountain.
WHO do the people say I am?
JOHN.
Some say
That thou art John the Baptist; some, Elias;
And others Jeremiah.
JAMES.
Or that one
Of the old Prophets is arisen again.
CHRISTUS.
But who say ye I am?
PETER.
Thou art the Christ! 5
Thou art the Son of God!
CHRISTUS.
Blessed art thou,
Simon Barjona! Flesh and blood hath not
Revealed it unto thee, but even my Father,
Which is in Heaven. And I say unto thee
That thou art Peter; and upon this rock 10
I build my Church, and all the gates of Hell
Shall not prevail against it. But take heed
Ye tell to no man that I am the Christ.
For I must go up to Jerusalem,
And suffer many things, and be rejected 15
Of the Chief Priests, and of the Scribes and Elders,
And must be crucified, and the third day
Shall rise again!
PETER.
Be it far from thee, Lord!
This shall not be!
CHRISTUS.
Get thee behind me, Satan!
Thou savorest not the things that be of God, 20
But those that be of men! If any will
Come after me, let him deny himself,
And daily take his cross, and follow me.
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it,
And whosoever will lose his life shall find it. 25
For wherein shall a man be profited
If he shall gain the whole world, and shall lose
Himself or be a castaway?
JAMES, after a long pause.
Why doth
The Master lead us up into this mountain?
PETER.
He goeth up to pray.
JOHN.
See, where He standeth 30
Above us on the summit of the hill!
His face shines as the sun! and all his raiment
Exceeding white as snow, so as no fuller
On earth can white them! He is not alone;
There are two with Him there; two men of eld, 35
Their white beards blowing on the mountain air,
Are talking with him.
JAMES.
I am sore afraid!
PETER.
Who and whence are they?
JOHN.
Moses and Elias!
PETER.
O Master! it is good for us to be here!
If thou wilt, let us make three tabernacles; 40
For thee one, and for Moses and Elias!
JOHN.
Behold a bright cloud sailing in the sun!
It overshadows us. A golden mist
Now hides them from us, and envelops us
And all the mountain in a luminous shadow! 45
I see no more. The nearest rocks are hidden.
VOICE from the cloud.
Lo! this is my beloved Son! Hear Him!
PETER.
It is the voice of God. He speaketh to us,
As from the burning bush He spake to Moses!
JOHN.
The cloud-wreaths roll away. The veil is lifted; 50
We see again. Behold! He is alone.
It was a vision that our eyes beheld,
And it hath vanished into the unseen.
CHRISTUS, coming down from the mountain.
I charge ye, tell the vision unto no one,
Till the Son of Man be risen from the dead! 55
PETER, aside.
Again He speaks of it! What can it mean,
This rising from the dead?
JAMES.
Why say the Scribes
Elias must first come?
CHRISTUS.
He cometh first,
Restoring all things. But I say to you,
That this Elias is already come. 60
They knew him not, but have done unto him
Whate’er they listed, as is written of him.
PETER, aside.
It is of John the Baptist He is speaking.
JAMES.
As we descend, see, at the mountain’s foot,
A crowd of people; coming, going, thronging 65
Round the disciples, that we left behind us,
Seeming impatient, that we stay so long.
PETER.
It is some blind man, or some paralytic
That waits the Master’s coming to be healed.
JAMES.
I see a boy, who struggles and demeans him 70
As if an unclean spirit tormented him!
A CERTAIN MAN, running forward.
Lord! I beseech thee, look upon my son.
He is mine only child; a lunatic,
And sorely vexed; for oftentimes he falleth
Into the fire and oft into the water. 75
Wherever the dumb spirit taketh him
He teareth him. He gnasheth with his teeth,
And pines away. I spake to thy disciples
That they should cast him out, and they could not.
CHRISTUS.
O faithless generation and perverse! 80
How long shall I be with you, and suffer you?
Bring thy son hither.
BYSTANDERS.
How the unclean spirit
Seizes the boy, and tortures him with pain!
He falleth to the ground and wallows, foaming!
He cannot live.
CHRISTUS.
How long is it ago 85
Since this came unto him?
THE FATHER.
Even of a child.
Oh, have compassion on us, Lord, and help us,
If thou canst help us.
CHRISTUS.
If thou canst believe.
For unto him that verily believeth,
All things are possible.
THE FATHER.
Lord, I believe! 90
Help thou mine unbelief!
CHRISTUS.
Dumb and deaf spirit,
Come out of him, I charge thee, and no more
Enter thou into him!
The boy utters a loud cry of pain, and then lies still.
BYSTANDERS.
How motionless
He lieth there. No life is left in him.
His eyes are like a blind man’s, that see not. 95
The boy is dead!
OTHERS.
Behold! the Master stoops,
And takes him by the hand; and lifts him up.
He is not dead.
DISCIPLES.
But one word from those lips,
But one touch of that hand, and he is healed!
Ah, why could we not do it?
THE FATHER.
My poor child! 100
Now thou art mine again. The unclean spirit
Shall never more torment thee! Look at me!
Speak unto me! Say that thou knowest me!
DISCIPLES to CHRISTUS, departing.
Good Master, tell us, for what reason was it
We could not cast him out?
CHRISTUS.
Because of your unbelief!
VIII. The Young Ruler
CHRISTUS.
TWO men went up into the temple to pray.
The one was a self-righteous Pharisee,
The other a Publican. And the Pharisee
Stood and prayed thus within himself! O God,
I thank thee I am not as other men, 5
Extortioners, unjust, adulterers,
Or even as this Publican. I fast
Twice in the week, and also I give tithes
Of all that I possess! The Publican,
Standing afar off, would not lift so much 10
Even as his eyes to heaven, but smote his breast,
Saying: God be merciful to me a sinner!
I tell you that this man went to his house
More justified than the other. Every one
That doth exalt himself shall be abased, 15
And he that humbleth himself shall be exalted!
CHILDREN, among themselves.
Let us go nearer! He is telling stories!
Let us go listen to them.
AN OLD JEW.
Children, children!
What are ye doing here? Why do ye crowd us?
It was such little vagabonds as you, 20
That followed Elisha, mocking him and crying:
Go up, thou bald-head! But the bears — the bears
Came out of the wood, and tare them!
A MOTHER.
Speak not thus!
We brought them here, that He might lay his hands
Delphi Complete Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Delphi Poets Series Book 13) Page 92
