“My conscience is clear!” cried Hossein proudly. “I have kept all the Commandments; at least, almost all,” he added, for his conscience had given the lie to his words.
“And if one arch of a bridge give way under the traveller, doth he not surely perish in the flood, my son, though the nine others be firm and strong? But many of the arches of thy bridge are broken; yea, the very first is in ruins.”
“Not the First Commandment—Thou shalt have none other god but Me. I have never broken that!” exclaimed Hossein indignantly. “I have never worshipped any god but one—the Almighty, the Invisible, the All-merciful. That arch in my bridge, at least, is whole and entire.”
“The being whom we love above all others, and whose honour we most desire, the being whom we obey in all things,—is not he the one whom we worship in the temple of the heart?” inquired the old man.
“Surely; for that Being is our God!” exclaimed Hossein.
He of the silvery beard slowly rose from his seat. “Come with me, O youth,” said he, “and I will show thee whom thou dost worship in the temple of thine heart.”
“No man can show me Him whom I worship!” cried Hossein in indignant surprise; “for the one true God is invisible, and I worship none but Him.”
“Come with me,” repeated Abbas; and he led the way to a tank of water clear and pure, in which the surrounding buildings and trees were reflected as in a mirror.
Hossein followed his grandfather wondering, and saying to himself, “Age hath made the old man as one who hath lost his reason.”