LAST week, dear little friends, we had a talk about the garden of Eden, and how it happened that our first parents, Adam and Eve, were driven out of it. And how, because of their great sin of disobedience, sorrow and suffering came into the world. We should learn from this how serious a thing it is to disobey. And let me tell you that when children disobey their parents, they disobey God, for He has told them to obey their parents in all things.
But I think there is another lesson to be learned from what took place in the garden of Eden. When the serpent came to Eve and told her to do what God had told her not to do, she should at once have said, no, and she should have listened no further to Him. But she did listen; she stood and talked with him. And when she told him that God had said to them that they would surely die if they ate of the “tree of knowledge of good and evil,” the serpent boldly said to her, “Ye shall not surely die.”
Ah! the sad work was done; Eve had listened; she was tempted; and then she acted on Satan’s lie, and fell. Instead of believing God, and turning away from the wicked one, she gave ear to the tempter’s words and believed his lie; and the result has been sickness and sorrow and death, to man and beast, ever since.
Now, dear children, Satan is still roaming this world over, and God tells us he is a liar and deceiver. Do you know what a deceiver is? It is one who will try to make you think that what is true, is not true; and that what is not true, is true. This is what Satan is busy doing, and you are in danger from him. He will not come to you as a creeping serpent that you can see, and talk to you in words that you can hear, as he did to Eve, but he will come without your knowing anything about it, and put thoughts of evil in your heart. He is a very sly foe, and this makes him all the more dangerous.
Let me tell you about a little boy of whom I once read, and how he was tempted. He was poor and had to work for his living. He heard of a kind merchant who wished to hire a boy, and he went to this merchant and asked for the place. The merchant wished to have a boy that he could trust and. thought he would give this one a test before consenting to take him. So he said to the boy, “Come to my house, to-morrow.” When the boy went to his house he was put in a fine room, and the merchant said to him, I will come in half an hour and talk with you about the place you wish to get; you may look about you, but see that you do not touch that covered dish on the table. He then went away and the boy was left alone in the room. All went well for a time, but after a little, the boy began to think he would like to see what was in that dish. Something seemed to say to him that it would be wrong to look in it, for he was told not to touch it; but another voice came to him—oh, there will be no harm in just taking a peep; no one will see; you can look in and nobody will ever know that you touched the dish.
Do you see, dear children, it was Satan leading the boy to wish to do what was wrong and trying to make him think it was not wrong, and also telling him what was not true when he said he would not be found out! The little boy did not see Satan; but Satan was doing his bad work in him; and, like Eve, the little boy listened. He began to move slowly toward the table; when he reached it, he looked around; no one was there to see; cautiously he lifted the cover of the dish—just a little, and—out jumped a mouse! Ah! it was all over now. When the kind merchant came in a few minutes later, the empty dish told the story. He could not trust a boy who could not obey, and so would not have him.
How much better it would have been for that boy, if he had not listened to Satan’s lying words—peep in and nobody will know anything about it! The only right way is to turn away and refuse to listen when Satan would lead us wrong. God tells us to resist the devil, and he will flee from us.
Perhaps we can have a little further talk next week about how we can overcome this great enemy when he seeks to lead us astray. R.
ML 10/08/1899