A PRIEST.
He speaks the Prophet’s words; but with an air
As if himself had been foreshadowed in them!

CHRISTUS. 
For Zion’s sake I will not hold my peace,
And for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest
Until its righteousness be as a brightness,
And its salvation as a lamp that burneth! 
Thou shalt be called no longer the Forsaken,
Nor any more thy land the Desolate. 
The Lord hath sworn, by his right hand hath sworn,
And by his arm of strength:  I will no more
Give to thine enemies thy corn as meat;
The sons of strangers shall not drink thy wine. 
Go through, go through the gates!  Prepare a way
Unto the people!  Gather out the stones! 
Lift up a standard for the people!

A PRIEST.
                                   Ah! 
These are seditious words!

CHRISTUS. 
             And they shall call them
The holy people; the redeemed of God! 
And thou, Jerusalem, shalt be called Sought out,
A city not forsaken!

A PHARISEE. 
                     Is not this
The carpenter Joseph’s son?  Is not his mother
Called Mary? and his brethren and his sisters
Are they not with us?  Doth he make himself
To be a Prophet?

CHRISTUS. 
                 No man is a Prophet
In his own country, and among his kin. 
In his own house no Prophet is accepted. 
I say to you, in the land of Israel
Were many widows in Elijah’s day,
When for three years and more the heavens were shut,
And a great famine was throughout the land;
But unto no one was Elijah sent
Save to Sarepta, to a city of Sidon,
And to a woman there that was a widow. 
And many lepers were then in the land
Of Israel, in the time of Eliseus
The Prophet, and yet none of them was cleansed,
Save Naaman the Syrian!

A PRIEST.
                      Say no more! 
Thou comest here into our Synagogue
And speakest to the Elders and the Priests,
As if the very mantle of Elijah
Had fallen upon thee!  Are thou not ashamed?

A PHARISEE. 
We want no Prophets here!  Let him be driven
From Synagogue and city!  Let him go
And prophesy to the Samaritans!

AN ELDER. 
The world is changed.  We Elders are as nothing! 
We are but yesterdays, that have no part
Or portion in to-day!  Dry leaves that rustle,
That make a little sound, and then are dust!

A PHARISEE. 
A carpenter’s apprentice! a mechanic,
Whom we have seen at work here in the town
Day after day; a stripling without learning,
Shall he pretend to unfold the Word of God
To men grown old in study of the Law?

CHRISTUS is thrust out.

VI

THE SEA OF GALILEE.

PETER and ANDREW mending their nets.