A short time ago a lady purchased a beautiful fur for the winter days, which was sent to the house neatly packed in a box. She showed it to her younger sister, who greatly admired it and stroked it gently with her fingers, wishing it was her own to wear. She thought of a wedding to which she had been invited, and wondered if her sister could be coaxed into lending her the fur for the occasion.
“Dear Gladys, will you let me wear it that once?” she pleaded. Consent was given on condition that great care should be taken with it.
The wedding being over, the young lady laid the burrowed fur on her sister’s bed. A little later she heard her go to her room and call.
“I think you might have taken more care, Mabel, than to have thrown my new fur on the floor,” she said severely.
“Indeed, I did no such thing,” replied the girl. “I put it on the bed. I should not be so ungrateful as to throw it on the floor.”
“That is where I found it,” said Gladys, as she placed it back in the center of the bed.
No one entered the room again till bedtime, when Gladys saw the fur had gone. They hunted everywhere in consternation, and at last found it on the floor underneath the bed.
“What an extraordinary thing,” said its perplexed owner as she hung it on a peg in her wardrobe. The next morning when Gladys opened the cupboard the fur was on two pegs instead of one.
“I shall return it to the store,” she said. “I cannot understand the mystery of this bewitched thing. I shall ask that it may be exchanged for one which stays where it is put.”
Accordingly, it was sent back to where it had been bought. In a few days a letter arrived for Gladys from the manager. It ran thus:
“Dear Madam,
“You may be interested to know that the fur you returned to us has been unpacked, and found to contain under the lining a small living snake.”
Mabel shivered. The warmth of her neck had roused the unnoticed little creature from its slumber, and its wriggles accounted for the strange behavior of the fur.
Have you a something in your heart hidden under the lining of your nature which makes you behave badly and disobey your parents and teachers? The Bible calls it “Sin that dwelleth in you.” Accept Christ as your own. Saviour, and your sins will be cleansed by the blood of Jesus.
Instead of the snake of sin He will put His Holy Spirit within you and cause you to walk in His ways and obey His Word. The change can only come when you have owned yourself a sinner, and trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ as the One who has died for you, to save you for eternity.
ML 12/13/1936