The Parable of the King's Raiment by Davin Dahlgren, May 1996 A certain country held a coronation for a prince who had been anointed to be king. They bestowed many gifts on him. A royal crown of pure gold and costly gems, a purple robe of the richest hand-woven fabric, and a bejeweled scepter which he held as a symbol of his authority. Every day, the king presented himself to his subjects wearing his royal attire and held his scepter over the crowd. All the citizens of the kingdom knelt to pay homage. This continued for many days, until one morning when the king made a very disturbing discovery. It had been his habit each night to remove his royal garments which a servant would then hang on a clothes-tree outside his bedchamber until morning, when he would call for them to be brought in for him to wear. On this particular morning, however, he did not call for his servants to bring the clothing in to him. Instead, he opened the door of his bed chamber and stepped out to retrieve them himself. He found his servants lying prostrate before the clothes-tree, paying homage to his garments. Angrily, he ordered the servants to carry the clothes-tree out onto the portico and to stand it before the people. The king stood in a window as the servants obeyed his instructions and observed the crowd's response. As in days previous, the people bowed to pay homage. The king called for his royal guard and ordered them to arrest everyone that had bowed down to the trappings of his authority, saying, "They are no longer citizens of my kingdom; for it is not me they respect. Instead, they pay honor to things which have no power or authority of themselves, but are worthless." The guards did as he commanded, and everyone they arrested was put to death. [Return to Spiritual Studies]