| Garden of the Heart |
Chapter 12 |
Page 3 |
Physical protection is not all we need. There are those who have every comfort and luxury, a happy home, loving friends and all that is needed to give them freedom from care, and yet they are beset all the while with other dangers of which they do not dream. The worst perils are not those that threaten our bodies. We dread accidents, which might wound us or break our limbs. We dread contagions which smite us low in sickness. We dread robbers who might carry off our treasures. But these are not the worst dangers, and being guarded from these is not the truest keeping. Sometimes robbers come in the darkness and take away money or silver or jewels from a home. But that is not the worst robbing. We may lose all our treasures and yet be rich.
“O the night was dark and the night was late,
And the robbers came to rob him;
And they picked the locks of the palace-gate,
The robbers that came to rob him–
They picked the locks of his palace-gate,
Seized his jewels and gems of state,
His coffers of gold and his priceless plate, –
The robbers that came to rob him.
“But loud laughed he in the morning red,
For of what had the robbers robbed him?
Ho! Hidden safe as he slept in bed,
When the robbers came to rob him,
The robbed him not of a golden shred
Of the childish dreams in his wise old head–
‘And they’re welcome to all things else,’ he said,
When the robbers came to rob him.”
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