Number 1. “Sin”
WHAT a strange picture we have today! I suppose that there has never been such a strange one in the “Messages of Love” before. Whatever is it? What can it mean? I will tell you, but you must listen very hard. It is a Chinese word. In China the little boys and girls do not learn an alphabet with twenty-six letters like we do, and then use these to learn to spell. No, they must learn every word separately. Instead of learning to make only twenty-six little marks, they have to learn to make thousands and thousands of them, all different. Every word, or character, is made up of little strokes, each one arranged different from the other, and O, it is so hard to remember them sometimes! The Chinese children begin to learn them when quite little, and go on learning them till they are grown up, very often; and then there may be characters they will not know! You can guess, perhaps, how hard it is for big people who come out to China to learn even to read the Bible, and perhaps you would like to help them by praying for them.
But you will want to hear something about the strange character at the top of our story today. In different parts of China it is pronounced differently, but usually it sounds something like “tsui”, and it means SIN. Long ago, many of these strange characters were pictures of the things of which they spoke, and it is said this character “tsui” was a picture of a fish net. Some of the little children who read this live by the seaside, and have often seen the fish nets, made up of the strong little cords, each cord so small by itself, that we might, say it couldn’t do any harm; but perhaps they have been out in the boats, and helped to pull these fish nets in, with the poor helpless fish caught fast in them. How helpless and hopeless they are! The more they struggle, the more hopelessly entangled they are! Unless someone from outside, stronger and more powerful than themselves comes to set them free, there is only death waiting for them. What a sad, hopeless picture a fish caught in a fish net is! What a wonderfully true picture of a poor sinner caught in the terrible fish net of sin! Surely the Chinese were right in drawing a picture of a fish net when they wanted to speak about sin.
If you have been at the sea and have seen the fish nets, you will know that there are many different kinds of nets. There are big nets for big fish, and small nets for little fish. There are nets made of fine cord, and nets made of big thick, cord; and there are nets of all sorts and sizes, but all the nets have the same purpose, and so it is with SIN.
There are many kinds of sin; some we think little sins; some we think big sins, but they all have the same purpose, to catch us and take us down to hell. The fisherman does not put out his nets because he loves the fish; and the devil does not seek to entangle you in sin because he loves you, but because he wants to have you suffer with him forever.
I wonder if my little readers have ever found out that they have been caught in this terrible net of sin? I wonder if they have ever found out that they are absolutely helpless and hopeless unless Another comes to save them from this awful net of sin? Yes, the Word of God tells us that “ALL have sinned”; not one boy or girl, or man or woman who has not been caught in that terrible net. You have told lies, been disobedient, unkind; you have wanted what was not yours, and many, many other sins you have been guilty of: but there is one that God speaks of especially: “of sin, because they believe not on Me.” the Lord Jesus says. Yes, dear child, if you have not believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, that is the most terrible sin of all; if you are still guilty of that sin, how awful to think that you are on your way to hell, and nobody knows how soon you may be there.
O, my dear young readers, may God the Holy Spirit convince you of your sin; may He speedily show you that you are just like one of those poor helpless fish caught in that fish net, that you cannot save yourself, nor indeed do anything towards your salvation, and that all your hope must be in Another, the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the lesson we may learn from this strange Chinese character. May God in His grace give you to learn it, if you have not done so already.
ML 07/20/1924