The Rose, Hawthorn Twig & the Lily
by President David O. McKay


 

Many years ago Japan was walled in as a nation.  During that time, learned men studied nature and met with little groups of men and women at night and taught them lessons of life.
 

One morning, when one of these learned men was about to leave the gates of the city to go out to study nature, a workman stopped him and said, "When you come in tonight from your studies, will you please bring me a rose that I may study the whorl of the petals as you pointed out last night?"
 

"Yes," said the learned man, "I will bring you a rose."  He had not gone far before a second man accosted him, saying, "Will you please bring me a hawthorn twig tonight?"

"Yes," said the professor.  And, even before he got through the gate, a third accosted him, saying "Will you please bring me a lily that i might see the lessons of purity that you gave us last evening?"  And the professor answered, "I will bring you a lily."
 

Just as the sun was setting in the west, the professor entered the gate of the city, where the three men met him.  To the first, he gave the rose; to the second he gave the hawthorn twig; to the third he gave the lily.

Suddenly the man with the rose said, "Why, here's a thorn on the stem of my rose!"  And the second said, "And here's a dead leaf clinging to my hawthorn twig!"  And the third, encouraged by the fault finding, said, "And here's dirt clinging to the roots of my lily!" 
 

The professor took the rose from the first, the twig from the second, the lily from the third.  He broke the thorn from the stem of the rose and handed the thorn to the first; he plucked the dead leaf from the twig and put the dead leaf into the hands of the second; he took the dirt from the roots of the lily and gave the dirt to the third.  Keeping the rose, the twig and the lily, he said, "There, each of you has what attracted you first.  You looked for the thorn and found it.  It was there.  I left it purposely.  The dead leaf was left on the twig, and you saw it first.  Purposely I left the dirt on the roots of the lily, and the dirt was the first thing you saw.  Each of you keep what attracted your attention; I will keep the rose, the twig, and the lily for the beauty I see in them."