IV.—THE BEAUTIFUL GARDEN.
There was a certain man who had a young son, Azfur Alí by name, whom he greatly loved, and whom he daily loaded with favours. One day this father said unto Azfur Alí,—“Come with me into the garden which I have purchased and prepared that it may be a goodly possession for you, O my son!”
The father then led the way to a beautiful garden, in which were all kinds of flowers,—some lovely in colour, some sweet in scent. The garden was divided into seven portions; and the flowers in the seventh portion were white as snow on the tops of the mountains.
“Now, my son, take your pleasure in six portions of this garden,” said the father; “but the seventh I have kept for myself. Let not your foot wander over the border; enjoy the scent of the flowers from a little distance, but lay not a hand upon them. Behold! they are mine, and in abstaining from touching them your obedience to me shall be shown. It is my love for you, Azfur Alí, that makes me thus reserve the seventh portion. To the white flowers which blossom there on the plants will succeed a delicious fruit, to look upon which will be pleasure, and to eat which will be health. The seventh portion is to be to you even a greater blessing than the other six; but now I call it mine, so trespass not on the ground reserved.”
After a while the father departed for a time to a distant place, leaving his young son behind him.
From morning till night Azfur Alí amused himself in the garden; he gathered the flowers at his pleasure, and formed wreaths of the fairest blossoms, red, yellow, and blue; but his eyes often wandered to the forbidden ground on which his feet were never to tread.
“Why should I be tied and bound down to these six portions of the garden?” cried Azfur Alí. “I do not like the scent of those white flowers; if I pulled them up, I could put in their place golden flowers that I like much better. As for the fruit of which my father spoke, I do not believe that it ever will come; at least, I cannot wait for it. A hard and unreasonable thing it is, to shut me out from a seventh part of my garden.”
So Azfur Alí ran into the forbidden ground, trampling down the plants, and crushing the fair white blossoms, and some he tore up by the roots. Then he tried to put in their place plants that had golden flowers; but they flourished not, but withered, and the seventh portion of the garden was soon covered with weeds, and became a desolation!
When the father returned his wrath was great. “Azfur Alí!” he cried, “thou hast broken my command, thou hast trespassed on the seventh portion of the garden which I reserved for myself, and hast destroyed the flowers which would have borne precious fruit. Thou hast forfeited all right from henceforth to possess any part of my garden.”
This story is a parable. The garden is the garden of Time, and the seventh portion is the Sabbath which the Heavenly Father hath reserved for Himself, as we read in His holy Word: Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it.
The white blossoms that grow in this garden are the blossoms of Prayer, and Praise, and Perusal of the Holy Scriptures. The fragrance of them is as the fragrance of the Garden of Eden. But the full sweetness of the fruit which follows will be enjoyed in heaven, where the hymn of praise on earth will be changed for the song of the Lord’s redeemed: The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of the Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever!