A BOTTLE OF MOSQUITOES
OBJECTS: Five Prepared Bottles
In the beginning God made a beautiful garden and dropped it into the Pacific Sea. There it rested in sweet repose like a lily fair upon the bosom of the deep. It was a Garden of Love as peaceful and calm as a star. Its name was Tahiti, but as the years passed by the worst features of European civilization were flung into it, and like Eden of old the serpent came also and destroyed its primeval glory, and its royal beauty soon faded away forever.
Among the destroying influences introduced was a bottle of mosquitoes which a sailor out of sheer spite and hateful fun took to the island, and soon the land was overrun with these disturbing little pests which, added to other black things of civilization, soon robbed these islands of their virgin excellence.
The world today is full of its black bottles loaded with destructive contents. Let us consider some of them.
Secure three dark glass bottles; paint them black if necessary; load and label them as herewith described.
Bottle No. 1. Label this bottle "Liquor." Fill it with strong tea, which resembles liquor in color. Pour out a little in a glass, and tell the story of the wreck and ruin this bottle has caused on God's island called the "World."
This bottle came to us in earth's earliest ages. No one
The Bear Is Called the Clown of the Animal Kingdom. This Baby
Bear, Visiting a Children's Meeting in Doctor Woolston's Church,
Was Used to Illustrate the Sin of Stubbornness
has ever discovered the date of its first appearance. Back before the Flood and in the days of Noah we read that wine was wrecking things. First came the deluge of wine, then the deluge from the great deep. It was a world-wrecker then, and is in the same business today, and will continue on in its black business unless the hand of God and the arm of the law shall shatter it and grind it to powder.
Prohibition has chained the monster of this black bottle, but not slain it. It still lives and is seeking to break its chains of bondage and start on its rampage again. There is a popular cry among men now which demands we shall let the monster loose again. They say, "Give us light wines and beer." This is a noise from hell. Light wines and beer would be leaks in the dam that now holds back this flood of death. Open the leaks, and that will finally wash away the dam, and let the river of death loose upon the people again. Place the cork in the bottle and call the cork the Eighteenth Amendment. It shall never come out. The monster of rum must never come back.
Bottle No. 2. Label this bottle "Ignorance."
Pour out from this bottle into a glass a liquid that has been made black by a few drops of ink, and this you call the "Darkness of Ignorance," the bottled "night of the Dark Ages." It is as black as Egyptian darkness.
Centuries ago where the City of London now stands, a tribe of benighted people lived. When they wished to start on a pilgrimage of murder and plunder, and did not know which way to go to find the greatest spoil, they placed a little maiden in a large basket, and pierced it through with a sword slaying the little one, and they watched to see through which side of the basket the blood would flow first. This, they declared, indicated the direction in which they were to go on their murderous pilgrimage. They had all been drinking from the black bottle of ignorance. Yes, you say, that might all be true of heathen tribes. But it would be well to remember also that the black bottle of ignorance is found with the wiser people of this day also.
The placing of the horseshoe over the door, the fear of the black cat which crosses our path at night, the dread of the number 13 and the day Friday, are all drops from the bottle of ignorance; and so it appears that civilized people are often influenced by these things. Our colonial fathers when they spilt salt at the table, threw a pinch of it over the left shoulder to keep the witches away; so it seems that often this black bottle of ignorance finds a place on our table of daily bread. Let us seek knowledge and light always. Learn something every day, and keep far away from this bottle of dark ignorance. Remember the mountaintop window of light is to know God aright, and to love him and keep his commandments. If this we do, the cup of life will be so full that ignorance will find no place to dwell in it. The liquid night cannot reign where we all love Jesus and walk in his light.
The third bottle is labeled "War." Load this bottle with a red liquid which can be produced by red ink or from regular dye-stuff. This liquid represents the blood that war has shed. As you pour this out into the glass say, Modern war is murder made lawful by the nations, but it is unlawful by the laws of God. War is sin, it is an enemy to Jesus. He came to give peace on earth and good-will among men. That was his way among men. "Put up thy sword" is one of the commandments of the New Testament. It is the word of the Prince of Peace. All the world questions should be settled by arbitration. "Come let us reason together" is God's good way to settle questions with the sinner or the nations. The spirit of this bad black bottle has slain its countless trillions, and if all the human skulls through which war bullets have crashed could be assembled in one great Potter's Field they would cover an acre of Towers of Babel. If all of the bones of the slain by war could by some magic magnet be thrown together they would well nigh cover the civilized acres of the world.
Put the stopper into this bottle and say, Paralyzed be the hand that ever draws out the stopper of the bloody bottle of war.
Bottle No. 3. Labeled "Gold." Fill this bottle with a yellow liquid which resembles the gold color. Pour out into a glass and remark: The love of this yellow stuff is a universal destroyer. The worship of this demon will cause a man and woman to do all manner of evil. They will lie, steal, deceive, and sell their souls for it. They will offer up the sacrifice of their own lives to possess it. They will sell out both worlds just to toy with it for a few days. Gold is evil only when we worship it, that is, think more of it than we do of God. This is forbidden by the First Commandment. The Israelites did this when in the wilderness they erected the golden calf and worshiped it. When we use it aright it is not a black bottle, but a bottle with glad yellow sunshine. We then call its contents charity (love). Paul said charity is even greater than faith and hope. This bottle is not yellow with the sunshine of love, but of sin, so I will put the cork into this bottle and put it out of sight. May I put it out of my mind as I have put it out of sight. But here are two other bottles from which I may and will drink most freely and live ever more.
Secure two plain glass bottles. Label the first one "WATER," and the second, "MILK." Lifting up the bottle marked "Water," explain that it stands for the Water of Life. Lifting up the bottle marked "Milk," explain that it will stand for the pure "Word of God." Holding up the first bottle, pour a little of the contents into a new clean glass and say: This crystal water stands for the Water of Life or God's Salvation. Jesus once offered it to the woman of Samaria, and she drank of it and was saved; she told all her town people of this water, and hundreds drank from the same bottle to the salvation of their souls. Lift high the glass and say: This living Water is free to all; come, and drink, and live. Remember, O ye people, that just looking at it with admiring eyes will not save you. Drink of it, partake of it—this alone will give you salvation. A thirsty man does not have his thirst quenched by admiring the gushing fountain, he must drink to lose his thirst.
My next and last bottle is labeled "Milk." This stands for the Word of God, "the pure milk of God's word."
This Bible milk adds daily strength to the soul which will live on it. It is heaven's prepared food. The Bible by its promises of help gives us a "tall" lift when we are weak and worn down.
When the ten virgins went forth to meet the Bridegroom, the five wise virgins not only took their lamps with them, but also other vessels filled with reserve oil to be used in replenishing their lamps when the oil had burned away. The extra bottle was their life preserver, for when the midnight cry was heard, from this bottle they refilled their lamps, and went in to the wedding with the Bridegroom. In our journey home to God we must take this bottle of heavenly "milk," God's word with us. Take a Milk Verse every day—that is, inwardly digest a promise of God daily. This will give you strength now and victory in the hour of death.
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