The Indian joyful to his host had said:
"I shall forestall thee, O my Publius,
I know it by my heart within me wise,
In hailing the selectest dawn to break,
And fittest, for our meeting on the shore
To hear from Hebrew Mary what she yet
Reserves to tell us of her rising Lord:
So, if thou please, I will myself betimes
Awake thee when the hour I wait for comes."
Publius thus roused, he in his turn awaked
Stephen, who rallied with his pipe the rest;
But Paul, with Stephen in one chamber sleeping
Woke, as his nephew woke, when Publius called.
The new wine of the vernal weather filled
The golden cup of morning to the brim,
And those blithe wakers drank deep draughts of it;
But other morning bathed their souls with light.
They to a hill of gentle rise repaired
That sloped its eastern side into the main
Thence rippling up in spiral terraces
By playful Nature round about it wound:
Here goodly prospect over sea and shore,
From a well-sheltered seat, invited them.
Before they sat, Paul stretched his hands toward heaven
And prayed: "Thou who didst out of darkness make
Light dawn on chaos, and who day by day
Dost kindle morning from the shades of night,
Thanks to thy name for this fair spring of dawn!
Dawn Thou into our hearts, and dayspring there
Make with the shining of thy face on us
Shown milder in the face of Christ thy Son!"—
Then, to his fellows turning, added this:
"We owe it to Krishna that we thus are here;
His wishes waked him, and, as was agreed,
He waked us that we might prevent the morn
To celebrate the rising of the Lord.
Krishna knew not, what yet by happy chance
Has now befallen, if aught befall by chance,
That we, upon the first day of the week
Meeting, meet on the day when Christ arose,
The Lord's day, day peculiarly His own.
We listen, Mary, tell us of that morn."
Then Mary, her fair face like morning, white
With pureness not with pallor, spoke and said:
"It was not hope, nor faith—both faith and hope
Had died within us when our Master died—
Not hope, not faith, but love, and memory,
And sorrow, and desire to testify
Our sense of everlasting debt to Him,
That, early in the morning of the day
Third following the day wherein He suffered,
Brought me—with Mary, James's mother, joined—
Likewise Salomé, to the garden where
They had laid Him in a rock-hewn sepulcher.
We took sweet spices to embalm the flesh
Which late for robe the Lord of life had worn.
We wondered as we went, 'But who will roll
The great stone back for us that closes up
The doorway to the tomb?' Yet went we on,
To find the stone already rolled away;
For there had been a mighty earthquake throe,
And a descended angel of the Lord
With easy strength in his celestial grace
Had rolled away the stone, and on it sat.
His aspect was like lightning, and snow-white
His dazzling vesture shone. The keepers shook,
The keepers that the Jewish rulers set
To watch the grave—these for sheer terror shook
And sank into a helpless swoon like death.
But unto us that awful angel said:
"Ye, fear not; for I know ye come to seek
Jesus the crucified; He is not here,
For He is risen according to His word.
Come, see the empty place where the Lord lay."
"I heard and saw with a bewildered wit;
And though I afterward remembered all,
I did not at the moment understand
Well anything save that the sepulcher
Was empty of the body of the Lord.
This I told the disciples, sorrowing:
I ran to tell them, and they, running, came
To find it so as I had made report.
Those went away, perplexed and sad at heart:
But as for me, I lingered by the tomb
And wept; I could have wept my heart away.
I thought: 'And so I may not even anoint—
There would be comfort, something like a sense
Of healing to that holy wounded flesh,
If I might salve those dead wounds with sweet spice—
I may not even anoint His body dead!
They have taken it away, I know not whither.
Alas, alas, and woe is me!' My tears
Were falling like a shower of rain the while,
But I stooped weeping, and with veiled eyes looked
Into the open sepulcher and saw
Two angels sitting there, vested in white,
One at the head, the other at the feet,
Where late the body of the Lord had lain.
"It was a heavenly spectacle to see,
Those shining-vested angels sitting there
With posture so composed and face serene!
Yet would I rather then have seen the Lord,
Or seen His body wounded from the cross;
But if those angels knew that this was so,
Their blame of me was very gently spoken:
'Woman, why weepest thou?' I sobbed reply:
'Because they have taken away my Lord, and where
They have laid Him I know not.'
"With that I turned
Me back, I think I should have gone away,
But I saw one I knew not, standing there,
Who also spake, 'Woman, why weepest thou?'
Distraught I took him for the gardener,
And half I did not see him for my tears,
And I made answer from my eager thought:
'O, sir, if thou have borne Him hence, tell me
Where thou hast laid Him and I will take Him thence
Away.' Then Jesus, for it Jesus was,
Uttered one word, no more; 'Mary!' He said.
I turned toward Him, but all I said was this:
'Rabboni!' For it was a Hebrew word
Sprang quickest to my lips; 'Master' it means—"
This with a glance toward Krishna Mary said.
The Indian dropped his eyes as with a kind
Of sudden conscious shame confusing him
To feel her eyes that instant meet his own
And know his own were charged with other look
Than ever woman drew from him before.
In her unconscious pure serenity,
Mary—her momentary glance toward one,
In equal gaze on all together sheathed—
Went on, no pause, yet with some air of muse
Tingeing her reminiscence as she said:
"Perhaps I had an impulse which the Lord
Saw, to assure myself with touch of hand
Or even to cling to Him, I hardly know;
'Nay,' He said tenderly, 'I am not yet,'
Said He, 'ascended to the Father; thou,
Go to my brethren and tell them that I
Ascend unto my Father and your Father
And my God and your God.' And this I did.
"O, the deep joy, the deep and solemn joy,
Of knowing that the Lord was risen indeed!
And the solemnity was almost more
Than even the joy; we trembled and rejoiced.
He was so awful in His majesty
After His rising from the dead! Yea, sweet
Was He, beyond all language to express;
But sweetness was with awfulness in Him
So qualified, the sweetness could not be
Enough to overcome the awfulness;
Gazing on Him we trembled and rejoiced.
"He forty days appeared and disappeared
By turns before us, passing through shut doors
Unhindered, yet sometimes partaking food—
A paradox of spirit or of flesh,
The resurrection body of the Lord!
Ensample of our bodies that shall be,
And witness of the wondrous wisdom God's,
And power to work the counsels of His will
By many secret potencies of things,
Who spirit of matter could capacious make,
As matter make to spirit permeable!
"Those forty days in which He showed Himself
After such fashion to His chosen few
Nigh ended, we withdrew to Galilee
Where He appointed He would meet His own—
More than five hundred we were mustered there
Upon a mountain top that well we knew.
Here He was glorious in majesty,
The Son of God become from Son of Man;
Hushed to obedient awe, we heard Him speak.
He said: 'Lo, all authority is given
To Me, whether in heaven or on the earth.
Forth, therefore, ye, among all nations go,
Making disciples and baptizing them
Into the name, the one name, of the Father,
And of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost;
Teaching them to observe all things that I
Commanded you, neglecting naught of all:
Behold, I am with you ever to the end.'