Have You Taken the Antitoxin Treatment?
By David Paulson
SEVERAL years ago, a young man on our grounds ran a rusty pitchfork clear through the thick of his leg. I feared lockjaw, or tetanus infection. So I immediately rushed some one into Chicago for some antitoxin; and when it came, I took it up to the boy’s room—not to lay on a shelf for him to look at, but to inject into his blood. We have all been bitten by “that old serpent, called the devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world” (Rev. 12: 9); and unless we have taken the antitoxin treatment, there is no future for us except death—eternal death. But fortunately, an efficient antitoxin has been provided; only it has to be administered daily, for the devil tries to infect us every day. The psalmist said, “Thy word have I hid in mine heart [not up on a dusty bookshelf], that I might not sin against Thee.” Ps. 119: 11. If you have not begun to take this antitoxin treatment, won’t you begin to-day? Take one book, for instance, like Nehemiah. Read it right through from start to finish, and see what an awful time that good man had when he tried to do good. Then you need not be surprised that you are having a hard time when you are trying to be good. Saturate your mind with the book of Nehemiah, so that when you meet some modern “Sanballat” or “Tobiah,” or some thoroughly up-to-date “Geshem the Arabian,” you will know exactly how to deal with them; for if you have not met them yet, you will, and they may prove your undoing instead of your gaining a glorious victory over them, as Nehemiah did. Then read the book of Acts, and see how God’s plan succeeded in Paul’s case, even though he became a prisoner. If you want to find out how sin began, read the first few chapters of Genesis. If you want to have your mind carried forward to a time when sin shall be no more, read the last few chapters of Revelation. It is an interesting study to observe how many times the expressions “overcome,” “they overcame,” and “they got the victory,” are found in the book of Revelation. Are you having that kind of experience in your life? If not, you will begin to have it when you take the antitoxin treatment.