IT is related of a serpent charmer living in Madras, a few years ago, that having obtained a cobra of considerable size, he had it conveyed to his home. Being occupied abroad all day, he neglected to get the dangerous fangs extracted from the serpent’s mouth. In the evening, having returned to his dwelling intoxicated, he began to exhibit tricks with his snakes to various persons who were around him at the time. The newly caught cobra was brought out and thoughtlessly handled like the rest, but the poisonous creature darted at his chin, and bit it, making two marks like pin points. Sobered at once, the poor juggler exclaimed, “I am a dead man! Nothing can save me!” His professional knowledge was but too accurate. In two hours he was a corpse.
Visiting a sick man a few days ago, he said, “I am never for five minutes at a time without thinking I soon shall have to die; it makes me miserable.” He added bitterly, “I wish I could forget it.” I urged that “the Bible says, “The sting of death is sin.’ It is because your sin is not pardoned and put away that you are afraid to think about dying.” Like the poisonous cobra, death had a sting for this unhappy man.
Two days after this visit I was led to the sick bed of a young man evidently sinking to an early grave. That morning he had been informed by his doctor that his disease (consumption) was making decided progress, a cavity having formed in his left lung. His face brightened as he told me this, and with a beautiful smile, he added, “I was so glad to hear of it, for it will not be long now before I get home.”
Death in his case had lost its sting; he feared it not. To die was only to go home, —home to his Saviour, to whom in early life, he had surrendered the heart that Saviour had won.
My friend, let me ask you the question at the head of this article, “Is the sting gone?” In other words, are you prepared to die? Can you look death in the face without fear? Again, I would say, “The sting of death is sin.” Is your sin pardoned? More than 1,800 years ago, on a cross raised up between earth and sky, was One who in sorrow cried out, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” Behold there, in the person of that scorned and suffering Jesus of Nazareth, “the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.” And yet it was of Him the words were uttered, when the heavens were opened above His head, “This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.” Why then did that sorrowful cry escape His lips? Because Jesus Christ was then on the cross bearing the wrath of God against sin. “All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
Will you not give credit to God’s word which proclaims these glad tidings? and placing yourself on the list of lost and condemned sinners, believe the record which God hath given of His Son Jesus Christ? “And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life; and this life is in His Son. He that believeth not God, hath made Him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of His Son.” (1 John 5:10, 11.)
ML 05/27/1917