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PHILIP. ONWARD through leagues of sun-illumined corn, | |
| As if through parted seas, the pathway runs, | |
| And crowned with sunshine as the Prince of Peace | |
| Walks the beloved Master, leading us, | |
| As Moses led our fathers in old times | 5 |
| Out of the land of bondage! We have found | |
| Him of whom Moses and the Prophets wrote, | |
| Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Joseph. | |
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NATHANAEL. Can any good come out of Nazareth? | |
Can this be the Messiah?
PHILIP. Come and see. | 10 |
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NATHANAEL. The summer sun grows hot: I am anhungered. | |
| How cheerily the Sabbath-breaking quail | |
| Pipes in the corn, and bids us to his Feast | |
| Of Wheat Sheaves! How the bearded, ripening ears | |
| Toss in the roofless temple of the air; | 15 |
| As if the unseen hand of some High-Priest | |
| Waved them before Mount Tabor as an altar! | |
| It were no harm, if we should pluck and eat. | |
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PHILIP. How wonderful it is to walk abroad | |
| With the Good Master! Since the miracle | 20 |
| He wrought at Cana, at the marriage feast, | |
| His fame hath gone abroad through all the land, | |
| And when we come to Nazareth, thou shalt see | |
| How his own people will receive their Prophet, | |
| And hail him as Messiah! See, he turns | 25 |
And looks at thee.
CHRISTUS. Behold an Israelite | |
In whom there is no guile.
NATHANAEL. Whence knowest thou me? | |
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CHRISTUS. Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast | |
Under the fig-tree, I beheld thee.
NATHANAEL. Rabbi! | |
| Thou art the Son of God, thou art the King | 30 |
Of Israel!
CHRISTUS. Because I said I saw thee | |
| Under the fig-tree, before Philip called thee, | |
| Believest thou? Thou shalt see greater things. | |
| Hereafter thou shalt see the heavens unclosed, | |
| The angels of God ascending and descending | 35 |
Upon the Son of Man!
PHARISEES, passing. Hail, Rabbi!
CHRISTUS. Hail! | |
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PHARISEES. Behold how thy disciples do a thing | |
| Which is not lawful on the Sabbath-day, | |
And thou forbiddest them not!
CHRISTUS. Have ye not read | |
| What David did when he anhungered was, | 40 |
| And all they that were with him? How he entered | |
| Into the house of God, and ate the shew-bread, | |
| Which was not lawful, saving for the priests? | |
| Have ye not read, how on the Sabbath-days | |
| The priests profane the Sabbath in the Temple, | 45 |
| And yet are blameless? But I say to you, | |
| One in this place is greater than the Temple! | |
| And had ye known the meaning of the words, | |
| I will have mercy and not sacrifice, | |
| The guiltless ye would not condemn. The Sabbath | 50 |
| Was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Passes on with the disciples. | |
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PHARISEES. This is, alas! some poor demoniac | |
| Wandering about the fields, and uttering | |
| His unintelligible blasphemies | |
| Among the common people, who receive | 55 |
| As prophecies the words they comprehend not! | |
| Deluded folk! The incomprehensible | |
| Alone excites their wonder. There is none | |
| So visionary, or so void of sense, | |
| But he will find a crowd to follow him! | 60 |
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