When Abraham sat at his tent door,
according to his custom, waiting to
entertain strangers, he espied an old man,
stooping and leaning on his staff, weary
with age and travail, coming towards him,
who was a hundred years of age.
He received him kindly, washed his feet,
provided supper, caused him to sit down;
but observing that the old man ate and prayed
not, nor begged a blessing on his meat,
he asked him why he did not worship the
God of heaven.
The old man told him that he worshipped the
fire only, and acknowledged no other God. At
which answer Abraham grew so zealously angry,
that he threw the old man out of his tent,
and exposed him to all the evils of the
night and an unguarded condition.
When the old man was gone, God called to
Abraham, and asked him where the stranger
was. He replied, "I thrust him away, because
he did not worship thee." God answered him,
"I have suffered him these hundred years,
though he dishonored me; and wouldst thou not
endure him one night?"
... Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667),
The Liberty of Prophesying
[1647]
photo taken in the Wyre forest near Hanbury Hall,
Worcestershire, England
Hanbury Hall
Worcestershire, England
Wyre Forest
Jeremy Taylor
mercy
patience
photography Worcester, England
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