AN UNUSUAL snake story was told by Mr. Haensel, a Danish missionary to the Nicobar Islanders in the Indian Ocean.
One day, while attempting to open a large clumsy lock on a door in a dark part of his workroom, Mr. Haensel suddenly felt a prick in his finger. The prick was immediately followed by a jolting sensation as though he had received a very strong electrical shock.
His first thought was that some of his boys, who were always playing in the room, had wound an electric wire around the handle. He asked them sharply what they had done to the door. However, they answered that they had not done anything to it. Rather puzzled, Mr. Haensel began to work at the lock again. Again he was pricked and jolted, and this time he noticed that his finger was bleeding.
Although he did not suspect the cause of his injury, Mr. Haensel sucked out the wound as well as he could and went off to get some medicine and bandages. He was too busy to think much about the lock again that evening, but during the night his hand began to swell and become extremely painful.
Entering the workroom the next morning, the missionary noticed a very bad odor and again asked the boys what they had been doing in his room. They again denied any knowledge of what could have happened, and so he took a light and began to inspect the door.
There, hanging out of the keyhole, was part of the long, slender, black body of a snake with a white stripe along its back. Apparently it had been trying to enter through the keyhole just when Mr. Haensel was attempting to open the lock. Unknowingly he had crushed the snake inside so that it died soon after it had bitten him. He recognized it as a very poisonous snake, called by some a “Split Snake,” and he wrote later: “considering the deadly nature of the serpent’s poison, I felt thankful to God that, though ignorant of the cause of the wound, I applied proper remedies to it, in consequence of which my life was not endangered.”
How important is a “proper remedy"! Sin, just like this snake, is often present where we least expect it, and its effect is just as deadly: “The wages of sin is death.” But, there is a remedy! “The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 6:2323For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23).
“The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” 1 John 1:7,87But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. 8If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. (1 John 1:7‑8). We all need the Remedy for sin which God has prided, and how thankful to God those can be who have taken advantage of it. Have you received the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour and been cleansed by His precious blood?
ML-07/09/1972