Chapter XI

THE PARABLE EXPLAINED.

HAVE you not seen, O reader! Goodly trees and lofty palaces faintly reflected on some small stream, whose waters are too muddy to give back their images clearly? Yet can we say, as we gaze downwards, "There is a palace, though I see not its grandeur,—there is a tree, though its beauty I cannot behold."

My tale is even as the little troubled muddy brook in which is dimly reflected what is beauteous and grand. Listen awhile as I try to show you what are the great realities faintly imaged forth in my fable.

Mankind are as the poor helpless child left in the jungle, sick of the foul disease of sin. Even the pure-lived Nanak * was compelled by conscience to cry,—

And one more enlightened than the great Goru hath written, "All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags."

Thus lying, exposed and helpless, death—even the destruction of the soul, everlasting ruin—steals upon us, as the fearful beast drew nigh to the child. How could man, guilty and hell-deserving, be saved?

Here is the grand mystery of love which the Scriptures declare, even the avatar (incarnation) of the Divine Jesus, the Son of God. He left heaven and assumed a mortal body, that in that body He might suffer and die. He came between man and eternal destruction. The love of the king who encountered a fierce tiger to save a poor child is as nothing compared to the love of the Heavenly King, who won salvation for man by the awful struggle in which He overcame death by dying.

And who is the Farebwala (father of deceit) who seeks to keep us from the knowledge of this love, in order to rob us and make us his slaves?

Behold the spirit of evil, Satan, who would hold all mankind in bondage, and tries to hide from us the knowledge of a Saviour King who is willing to adopt us as His children. To millions of Hindus, he represents heaven as peopled with monsters of iniquity, gods and goddesses so wicked that were they human beings they would be sentenced to death for their crimes!

And what are the mirror and the bracelet hidden by Farebwala under the black cover of Ignorance?

The name of the bracelet is Conscience. It is the precious gift of God; it warns us when danger to the soul, when temptation is near. But is it not too true that the conscience of those who know not the true God has been darkened? When falsehood is spoken, when covetousness is felt, when other sins are indulged in, does the unenlightened conscience give its warning pressure? Reader! Have you not learned to do evil frequently without even knowing that it is evil?

The mirror is the Word of God, the treasure of truth, now to be procured in many of the languages of the East. * Reader! Have you looked into its pages? Let me tell you something of what you would gain by studying the Holy Scriptures with prayer.

You would gain KNOWLEDGE OF GOD, what His nature is, and His will. "God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth" (John iv. 24); "God is light" (1 John i. 5); and "God is love" (1 John iv. 8).

And you would gain KNOWLEDGE OF WHAT GOD REQUIRES OF MAN. Study the commandments, thus summed up in the Gospel, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" (Matt. xxii. 37-39).

Compare the righteousness of these commandments with the impure stories which the Hindus call by the name of religion. Is it not like comparing a shining river, carrying fertility through the land, to the slimy track left by a serpent? If you see not that the space between the two religions is wider than that which divides heaven from earth, it is because the enemy of your soul has drugged you with Superstition, so that you are unable to say, "Is there not a lie in my right hand?"

It is the Bible, the Mirror of Truth, that shows us that Idolatry is the parent of Vice, and that both are murderers of the soul. It may be, O Hindu! that you are at this moment travelling in the company of these dread Thugs, that this morning you did puja to some idol of brass or stone. This tale is, then, as the warning voice of a friend, of a messenger from the Great King. Have mercy on your own soul! The fatal noose is prepared, thousands have perished by it already; be warned in time. O brother! Flee and live.

But if you be one who already wears the Bracelet of Conscience, if you be one who has gazed into the Mirror of Truth, if your heart be inclined towards your Heavenly King, there is still a word for you. Are you not halting between two opinions, believing but not confessing Christ? Is there not some pride of caste which you are as loth to part with as was Bandhu to give up his janeo? Ties of family are hard to break; do you so shrink from rending them asunder that you would rather hazard your soul than leave all and go to your King?

Ah! Listen to the words of the Lord—"He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after Me, is not worthy of Me. Whoever shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven" (Matt. x. 32, 37, 38).

One other point in the parable may require explanation. What are the leaves of healing that restored peace to the troubled mind, and health to the sick soul? It is the sweet assurance of forgiveness of sins through the death of Christ. He that has found a Saviour has found peace! In the precious words of Holy Writ—"Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ—and rejoice in hope of the glory of God" (Rom. v. 1, 2).