HARRY and Steve were having a fine time with some other young friends by the ocean. They were playing about in the waves when one of the smaller boys cried out, “Look at this queer fish.”
The other boys hurried to the spot and were just in time to see a small creature, about the size of a coconut, with several tentacles, or arms. They hardly had time to see it properly, when it sent out an inky fluid which helped it to escape into deer water.
“Was it a starfish?” asked Harry.
“No, my boy,” said an old sailor who had been looking on. “I take it that it was a squid, one of the cuttlefish family, which have the power to emit that inky sort of fluid to help them to escape from their enemy. But I have seen their big cousins, the octopus, in many seas, and fierce creatures they are.”
The boys gathered round the old man at the water’s edge, for he looked so bluff and hearty that they could not help liking him.
“Are they dangerous then?” Steve inquired.
“Dangerous? Indeed! We sailors heartily disliked the creatures. They are very strong, and one of the bier fellows, with a body perhaps the size of a football and with arms over four feet long, is powerful enough to hold down and drown two or three men at once. But you do not find him in open water very often, for he crawls about the sea bottom hunting for fish and crabs.”
“Does it use its arms to swim with, Sir?” asked one of the boys.
“Oh, no,” was the answer. “It has eight tentacles, from which it gets its name, for Okto is the Greek word for eight. The octopus really swims backward, or opens its mouth and sends out a stream of water with such force that the creature is forced through the sea with his arms sagging behind. It’s a weird, ugly monster, with its parrot-like beak, and its terrible arms covered on the underside with round suckers.”
“Now, boys, can you tell me of another monster that is mentioned in the Bible which we are warned against?”
“Is it sin that you mean?” asked Harry.
“Yes, you’ve got the right answer, my boy. Sin is a deadly thing, and from it come many powerful evils, like the eight tentacles of the octopus. From sin come anger, malice, bitterness, hate, lies, dishonesty, sorrow, and death. But there is a remedy for sin. Can any of you tell me what it is?”
“Yes, Sir, the blood of Jesus!”
“That’s right! ‘The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.’ Never forget, boys, that this is the only remedy for sin, and it is free to all.”
" ‘The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.’ God bless you all.”
ML-10/30/1966