A Deadly Serpent by Philadelphia Methodist

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 19, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 44.

A Deadly Serpent.

By Philadelphia Methodist

SOME time ago a party of sailors visited the Zoological Gardens. One of them, excited by the liquor he had taken, and as an act of bravado to his companions, took hold of a deadly serpent. He held it up, having seized it by the nape of the neck in such a way that it could not sting him. As he held it, the snake unobserved by him, coiled itself around his arm, and at length it got a firm grasp, and wound tighter and tighter, so that he was unable to detach it. As the pressure of the snake increased, the danger grew, and at length the sailor was unable to maintain his hold on the neck of the venomous reptile, and was compelled to loose it. What did the snake then do? It turned right around and stung him, and he died. So it is with the appetite for strong drink. We can control it at first, but in a little while it controls us. We can hold its influence in our grasp for awhile, so that it shall be powerless, but afterward "it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder."—Philadelphia Methodist.