III.—THE MARKS ON THE SAND.
A Mohammedan youth, Hakim Alí by name, on his return from a journey through Arabia, visited his friend Yuhanna, the Christian. Though the two held not the same faith, there was much friendship between them.[49] They sat together under a pépul tree, and Hakim Alí, with great animation, gave to Yuhanna an account of all that he had seen in his travels. For a long time Yuhanna had all the listening, and his friend had all the talking. In almost every sentence uttered by Hakim Alí, he brought in the name of Allah (God); if he were but describing how a mule stumbled, or what evil fare he had had at an inn, he called God to bear witness to what he said—even if he were laughing when the holy name was on his lips. Yuhanna had a stick in his hand, and every time that Hakim Alí uttered the sacred name, Yuhanna with the stick made a mark on the sand. Hakim Alí at last noticed with surprise this act of Yuhanna.
“What are you marking?” he cried.
“Debts,” was the brief reply.
“You have many,” laughed Hakim Alí, again using the name of the Highest; and again Yuhanna drew a line on the sand.
Then Yuhanna, turning, asked a question: “You have visited many holy shrines and sacred tombs in your life, O Hakim Alí!” said he; “did you ever take off your slippers before entering?”[50]
Hakim Alí was so much astonished at the question, that more loudly than ever he uttered the name of Allah. “Do you count me as an unclean swine?” he exclaimed; “do you doubt that I always take off my slippers on such occasions? Never without due reverence do I approach that which is holy.”
Yuhanna pointed to the marks on the sand. “O my friend!” said he, “fifteen times within the last hour have you shown no reverence for that which is most holy.”
“What is your meaning?” exclaimed the astonished Hakim Alí, again lightly using the sacred name of God.
Once more Yuhanna made a mark on the sand.
“Is a building made by the hands of men more to be reverenced than that sacred name before which the angels bow?” said Yuhanna gravely. “Is not every time that that name is taken in vain marked down,—not on sand, where it can be lightly effaced, but in that book of remembrance which is kept by the Highest? O my friend! it was the voice of the Almighty Himself that gave the command: Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain. This command was written first by the finger of God on the table of stone committed to Moses.”[51]
“Are you Christians then so careful how you take the name of God on your lips?” asked Hakim Alí, rising somewhat angrily from his seat.
“We, of all men, should be most careful,” replied his friend, “for in the prayer taught by the Lord Jesus Christ to His servants, the very first petition to God is, Hallowed be Thy name. If we use that name without reverence, our very prayer becomes a mockery, and we are convicted of sin before God. Solemn was the warning given by our Lord: Every idle word that a man shall speak, he shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.”
“Who then can stand in the day of judgment?” asked Hakim Alí with a troubled countenance, as with his foot he hastily erased the marks on the sand.
“None can stand but those who can plead not their own righteousness, but the righteousness of another,” replied Yuhanna, looking upwards. “Like the prophet Isaiah I have often cried: Woe is me! for I am undone, for I am a man of unclean lips; but when I think of the blood that was shed by Christ on the cross for sinners, to my heart the answer comes: Lo! this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.”