Chrysanthus. 
Better than I could have hoped for
Has it happened, since my father
Shows by his unruffled face
That his name he has not gathered. 
What more evidence can I wish for
Than to see the gracious manner
In which he conducts him whither
His reward he means to grant him? 
Oh! that love would do as much
In the fears and doubts that rack me,
Since I cannot wed Daria,
And be faithful to Christ’s banner.

(Enter Daria.)

Daria (aside). 
Tyrant question which methought
Timely flight alone could answer,
Once again, against my will
To his presence thou dost drag me.

Chrysanthus (aside). 
But she comes again:  let sorrow
Be awhile replaced by gladness:—­
Ah!  Daria, so resolved[13] (aloud,
Not to see or hear me more,
Art thou here?

Daria. 
                Deep pondering o’er,
As the question I revolved,
I would have the mystery solved: 
’T is for that I ’m here, then see
It is not to speak with thee.

Chrysanthus. 
Speak, what doubt wouldst thou decide?

Daria. 
Thou hast said a God once died
Through His boundless love to me: 
Now to bring thee to conviction
Let me this one strong point try . . .

Chrysanthus. 
What?

Daria. 
       To be a God, and die,
Doth imply a contradiction. 
And if thou dost still deny
To my god the name divine,
And reject him in thy scorn
For beginning, I opine,
If thy God could die, that mine
Might as easily be born.

Chrysanthus. 
Thou dost argue with great skill,
But thou must remember still,
That He hath, this God of mine,
Human nature and divine,
And that it has been His will
As it were His power to hide—­
God made man—­man deified—­
When this sinful world He trod,
Since He was not born as God,
And it was as man He died.

Daria. 
Does it not more greatness prove,
As among the beauteous stars,
That one deity should be Mars,
And another should be Jove,
Than this blending God above
With weak man below?  To thee
Does not the twin deity
Of two gods more power display,
Than if in some mystic way
God and man conjoined could be?

Chrysanthus. 
No, I would infer this rather,
If the god-head were not one,
Each a separate course could run: 
But the untreated Father,
But the sole-begotten Son,
But the Holy Spirit who
Ever issues from the two,
Being one sole God, must be
One in power and dignity:—­
Until thou dost hold this true,
Till thy creed is that the Son
Was made man, I cannot hear thee,
Cannot see thee or come near thee,
Thee and death at once to shun.

Daria. 
Stay, my love may so be won,
And if thou wouldst wish this done,
Oh! explain this mystery! 
What am I to do, ah! me,
That my love may thus be tried?