Yea, we, in short, who are a piece of the law ourselves. And we have never done this man any harm. If he is an enemy to us, it must be because he is an enemy to the law. JOHN Thou liest. AMASAI Good. If I lie, so teach me, great prophet, how thou keepest the law. JOSAPHAT [_In a low voice._] Yes, Rabbi, explain! The people expect it. JOHN I have nothing to do with the law, of which ye and your like set up to be guardians and students. [_Sensation among the people._] JOSAPHAT [_Sotto voce._] Rabbi, think what thou art saying. Injure not thyself. JOHN Nay, it is not your law, but ye yourselves that I hate. For your hand lieth heavily on this people, and your well-being is its affliction. AMASAI 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