p. 199 | The Decoy Sheep

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 6, 1870

The Decoy Sheep.

Reading in an English magazine lately, we met with an account of a curious device of the London butchers. It is a difficult task, as might be supposed, to drive a flock of sheep through the streets of a large city, where the resemblance is so small to green pastures and country roads. They are liable to be scattered in all directions by the crowd of vehicles, and to turn every few rods down the cross streets, in a manner sorely trying to patience. Hence, when the butcher has purchased a number of sheep at the general market, it is no small matter, even with the help of a dog, to get them to his private yard for slaughter. Can any expedient lessen the trouble? A knowledge of the animals' instincts points out a method of relief. A sheep is taken and petted till it becomes wonted to the place, and attached to its owner. It is then used as a decoy, being led to the market-place, where the purchase is made of the little flock for the slaughter, and there placed at their head. The butcher then starts for home, the decoy sheep accompanies him, the others instinctively follow, according to sheep nature, and refuse to be separated, threading their way through streets and lanes, carts and carriages, pleased with following their leader, till they reach the place of death!

We said, just now, that this was according to sheep nature. Is there nothing like it in human nature? Alas! we see the same device in use on every hand by the great enemy of souls. How few he would entrap without a decoy! Fish do not bite the bare hook. Birds will not enter an empty trap cage. Even sheep do not go wittingly to the slaughter, but must be enticed there. Sinners love sin, but not death, and do not crowd the broad road with any idea that it leads to destruction. Satan has made a study of nature ever since he found our first parents in paradise, and he understands it well. He knows that men, like sheep, are gregarious, and prone to go in troops after leaders. He shapes his policy accordingly. He wastes little time or work on the common mass, but he takes great pains to train the leaders. One good decoy sheep will conduct a thousand flocks to the slaughter.—Advance.