The young farmer encounters a snake.

Dear Boys and Girls,

I was recently reading a story about a young farmer in Canada who one day, as he was working in his field suddenly heard a swift rustle among the sheaves of corn. “Ah, good! He exclaimed, "Here's a hare for our dinner.” He darted forward to grab the hare. Pushing his hand into the sheaf he caught hold of the thing that was making the noise. As he drew out his hand, the young farmer was almost frozen to the spot when he saw what he had in his hand. Guess what? - a deadly rattlesnake! Quick as a wink, he made an end to it with the farming tool he had in his other hand.

As he continued on with his work, he said to himself, “Had that rattlesnake got me first, instead of me getting it, I'd have had it.” Immediately his mind went back to a little village on the banks of the river Clyde, where he had been born and brought up.

His parents feared God and taught their children the way of salvation. Alick (for that was his name) continued to remember how that, when he was a young boy at Sunday School, he had felt in his heart that he was a sinner, he had been told by his teacher that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and yet, had put off Jesus' offer of mercy and eternal life. So there, in that field far, far away from his home, shaken by the fright and the great truth of the uncertainty of life, Alick looked to Jesus for His way of salvation. He continued right through his life to serve God and glorify Jesus.

You know boys and girls it is very dangerous to put off thinking about God and His salvation. Boys and girls are inclined to “put off” because they feel they have plenty of time. To “put off” is just to play into the hands of that great enemy – that old serpent – the devil. It is he who puts the “putting off” thoughts into our head, and this is more deadly than any rattlesnake bite.

Remember the story in the Old Testament about the children of Israel who were bitten by the serpents, and were dying? (Numbers chapter 21 verses 6) God told Moses to make a brass serpent, put it on a pole and tell the bitten Israelites to look at it. If they looked – then, they lived.

We are told about a remedy for Satan's bite, and that is by looking to Jesus, for Jesus said, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” Jesus had to be “lifted up” on the cross so that salvation could come to sinners.

Take the lesson of Alick, boys and girls; be wise; don't put off. “Look to Jesus, and be saved”.