Along deserted streets, narrow and dim,
A man named Nicodemus came—by night.
With questions in his heart that troubled him,
He sought the one who said, "I am the light."
It may well be they talked till night was spent—
Till the first rifts of gold broke over them—
So that the one who came in darkness went
With daylight rising on Jerusalem.
Then come—by night. Do not expect the dawning
To reach you in a closed and darkened place.
Come—even through shadows: and the promised morning
"Will lay its brightness on your lifted face.
For him who rises in the dark and takes
His sunward journey, day already breaks.
