Ephesians 4:25 Why putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members one of another. How simply and beautifully has Abd-el-Kadir, of Ghilon, impressed us with the love of truth in his childhood! After stating the vision which made him entreat of his mother to go to Bagdad and devote himself to God, he thus proceeds: — "I informed her what I had seen, and she wept; and taking out eighty dinars, she told me, that as I had a brother, half of that was all my inheritance. She made me swear, when she gave it to me, never to tell a lie, and afterwards bade me farewell, exclaiming, 'Go, my son; I consign thee to God; we shall not meet until the day of judgment.' I went on well till I came near Hamandnal, when our Kafillah was plundered by sixty horsemen. One fellow asked me what I had got. 'Forty dinars,' said I, 'are sewed up under my garments.' The fellow laughed, thinking I was joking. 'And what have you got? ' said another. I gave him the same answer. When they were dividing the spoil I was called to an eminence where the chief stood. 'What property have you got, my little fellow?' said he. 'I have told two of your people already,' I replied. 'I have forty dinars sewed in my garments.' He ordered them to be ripped open, and found my money. 'And how came you,' he said, in surprise, 'to declare so openly what had been so carefully concealed?' 'Because I will not be false to my mother, to whom I have promised I would never tell a lie.' 'Child,' said the robber, 'hast thou such sense of duty to thy mother at thy years, and am I insensible, at my age, of the duty I owe to God? Give me thy hand, innocent boy,' he continued, 'that I may swear repentance upon it.' He did so. His followers were all alike struck with the scene. 'You have been our leader in guilt,' said they to their chief; 'be the same in the path of virtue.' And they instantly, at his order, made restitution of their spoil, and vowed repentance on his hand." Parallel Verses KJV: Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another. |
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