“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.”
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.