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A depressed young man had been living for his next party. A friend convinced him to hear a well-known gospel preacher. It may have been only curiosity, but he found himself seated in the congregation. The evangelist read, “We are not ignorant of his devices,” from the Bible. Then he abruptly proceeded:
“I was walking along the street the other day, and I saw a group of pigs following a man. This made me curious, because pigs are hard animals to lead. If you want them to go one way, they invariably take another. But this man seemed to have no difficulty; the pigs eagerly followed jostling and grunting after him. I followed them and to my surprise I found they were going to the slaughterhouse. They went in, and the door closed behind them. I waited till the man came out and asked him how he had managed to lead them so easily.
The Secret Trick
“The man laughed and said, ‘Maybe you didn’t see the bag of beans under my arm. I knew I’d have a hard time getting those pigs there if I didn’t humor them a bit. So I got some beans they like and dropped them along the road. And you saw how they scampered along picking up the beans, never thinking they were going to the slaughterhouse.’
“And this is the way,” continued the preacher, raising his voice and turning his penetrating glance right on the pew where the young man sat, “that the devil is leading some of you captives at his will down to hell. He knows full well how to please you and lead you. He drops his beans right along the road, and very soon you will pick up the last bean; then the gates of hell will close behind you.”
The story of the beans, with its application to the ways of the devil in ruining souls, convicted his soul. The next day he left for New York. Anxiously his friend waited for news of his arrival.
A Surprise
Soon, to his delight, his friend heard, “I’m glad to tell you that I’m converted. The message of that speaker, especially his opening words about the devil’s beans, grabbed me and woke me up. I saw where I was going, how Satan was luring me on, and what my destiny would be. By the grace of God I’m saved to follow a better Leader and walk in a new path. I will always thank God for that good man’s words, by which I was led to the Saviour, just before I lost my soul forever.”
Are you being led on to death and hell by the devil’s beans?
Someday you will taste the “pleasures of sin,” often very delicious, for the last time. Then hell’s door will close behind you, and the doom of the damned will be your portion forever. Today a God of love intensely longs for you and wants to save you. Christ is able, ready and willing. “Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die?”
“If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them”
(2 Corinthians 4:3-4).
“God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
