Nicodemus at Night

NICODEMUS.The streets are silent. The dark houses seemLike sepulchres, in which the sleepers lieWrapped in their shrouds, and for the moment dead.The lamps are all extinguished; only oneBurns steadily, and from the door its lightLies like a shining gate across the street.He waits for me. Ah, should this be at lastThe long-expected Christ! I see him thereSitting alone, deep-buried in his thought,As if the weight of all the world were restingUpon him, and thus bowed him down. O Rabbi,We know thou art a Teacher come from God,For no man can perform the miraclesThou dost perform, except the Lord be with him.Thou art a Prophet, sent here to proclaimThe Kingdom of the Lord. Behold in meA Ruler of the Jews, who long have waitedThe coming of that kingdom. Tell me of it.

CHRISTUS.Verily, verily I say unto thee,Except a man be born again, he cannotBehold the Kingdom of God!

NICODEMUS.Be born again?How can a man be born when he is old?Say, can he enter for a second timeInto his mother's womb, and so be born?

CHRISTUS.Verily I say unto thee, exceptA man be born of water and the spirit,He cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.For that which of the flesh is born, is flesh;And that which of the spirit is born, is spirit.

NICODEMUS.We Israelites from the Primeval ManAdam Ahelion derive our bodies;Our souls are breathings of the Holy Ghost.No more than this we know, or need to know.

CHRISTUS.Then marvel not, that I said unto theeYe must be born again.

NICODEMUS.The mysteryOf birth and death we cannot comprehend.

CHRISTUS.The wind bloweth where it listeth, and we hearThe sound thereof, but know not whence it cometh,Nor whither it goeth. So is every oneBorn of the spirit!

NICODEMUS, aside.How can these things be?He seems to speak of some vague realm of shadows,Some unsubstantial kingdom of the air!It is not this the Jews are waiting for,Nor can this be the Christ, the Son of David,Who shall deliver us!

CHRISTUS.Art thou a masterOf Israel, and knowest not these things?We speak that we do know, and testifyThat we have seen, and ye will not receiveOur witness. If I tell you earthly things,And ye believe not, how shall ye believe,If I should tell you of things heavenly?And no man hath ascended up to heaven,But he alone that first came down from heaven,Even the Son of Man which is in heaven!

NICODEMUS, aside.This is a dreamer of dreams; a visionary,Whose brain is overtasked, until he deemsThe unseen world to be a thing substantial,And this we live in, an unreal vision!And yet his presence fascinates and fills meWith wonder, and I feel myself exaltedInto a higher region, and becomeMyself in part a dreamer of his dreams,A seer of his visions!

CHRISTUS.And as MosesUplifted the serpent in the wilderness,So must the Son of Man be lifted up;That whosoever shall believe in HimShall perish not, but have eternal life.He that believes in Him is not condemned;He that believes not, is condemned already.

NICODEMUS, aside.He speaketh like a Prophet of the Lord!

CHRISTUS.This is the condemnation; that the lightIs come into the world, and men loved darknessRather than light, because their deeds are evil!

NICODEMUS, aside.Of me he speaketh! He reproveth me,Because I come by night to question him!

CHRISTUS.For every one that doeth evil deedsHateth the light, nor cometh to the lightLest he should be reproved.

NICODEMUS, aside.Alas, how trulyHe readeth what is passing in my heart!

CHRISTUS.But he that doeth truth comes to the light,So that his deeds may be made manifest,That they are wrought in God.

NICODEMUS.Alas! alas!