John the Baptist: A Play Part 10

That thou hast yet to prove, great prophet.

JOHN

Who are ye, ye men of worldly wisdom, that ye should look on the law as your special inheritance and possession? Here is an enslaved people crawling patiently on its belly beneath a scourge, oppressed by a heavy burden, and ye desire to tell it _how_ it shall crawl.

AMASAI

Yea, because it must crawl somehow, great prophet.

JOHN

Ye think so. I say that it shall rise out of the dust.

AMASAI

Thus have rebels ever spoken, and the end hath always been the cross and the gallows. Thou, whom men call the great prophet, listen to me!

When the Lord redeemed His people the first time, how did He do it?

Through the law. And when He redeemed them a second time, knowest thou how He did it? Through the law. So if we guard and watch this law, and let it expand by itself, swelling like an ear of corn, a thousand times into a thousandfold blessings, what is our object? Redemption, the hope which lives in all of us. Only we do not noise it abroad in the gutter and on the housetops.

PEOPLE

[_Murmuring._] There he is right. Aye, he is right!

SCENE IX

_The same. A troop of pilgrims have come up by degrees and slake their thirst at the fountain. Among them Simon the Galilean._

AMASAI

See! Look around thee. Behold these pilgrims! They come with their knapsacks from far distant lands: from Egypt, from Euphrates, and Syria, and from the accursed city of Rome itself. They are indifferent to hunger and thirst, the heat of the sun, and the dust of the road.

And wherefore have they come? Because of this very law, which I and my brethren guard and study. And if thou sayest thou hast nothing to do with this law, and hatest it, tell us, then, what law thou lovest?

Where do the Commandments leave off which the Lord made for His people, and where begin the vain works of men? Enlighten us, great prophet, and scold us not.

JOHN

[_Is silent, and uncertain what to say._]

JOSAPHAT

I warned thee, Rabbi!

AMASAI

[_With a laugh of scorn._] Now see, all of you. See! Methinks the great---- [_Breaks off as a woman, sickly and heavily loaded, comes accidentally near to him. He turns round in anger._] Touch me not, lest I become unclean! I am a Rechabite!

SIMON THE GALILEAN

[_To the woman._] No; touch _him_ not, lest _thou_ becomest unclean.

AMASAI

What?

SIMON THE GALILEAN

For the Pharisees who call themselves Rechabites are unclean from within. Come! [_Leads her to the fountain._]

AMASAI

He denies G.o.d!

THE PEOPLE

[_Murmuring._] He denies G.o.d!

AMASAI

A Rechabite unclean? A man who doth nothing day and night but fulfil the law; who performeth his sacred ablutions three times more than necessary; who sitteth, on the Sabbath, like a monument; who speaketh a blessing at meat twice, and over salt, bread er----er--[_half choking._] A Rechabite unclean?

JOHN

If I could not answer thy questions with their double meaning, thou thyself hast now answered them!

AMASAI

And may seven swine possess thee, thou great prophet, so that compared with them thou appearest to me a saint. [_To the Galilean._] And what evil spirit hath taken possession of thee, man? Art thou a Jew? Where dost thou come from? What is thy name?

MATTHIAS

[_In a low voice._] Tell him not thy name. He will ruin thee.

SIMON THE GALILEAN

[_Calmly._] I am a Jew. My name is Simon, and I come from Galilee.

AMASAI

And as one that there knoweth Law and Sacrifice----

SIMON THE GALILEAN

[_Interrupting._] Greater than law, greater than sacrifice, is love!

[_Sensation and dismay among people_]

AMASAI

See ye not now that he is guilty against the law? [_He continues speaking earnestly to the people_]