THE HEART OF SEVEN DEVILS
OBJECTS: Cardboard Hearts and a Number of Colored
Cards
Text, Luke 8:2: "Mary Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils."
The heart of this unhappy woman was like a steel-girded prison cell. It had locked in it as prisoners seven devils. Jesus opened the door, and cast them out, and went in himself, and shut the door after him, and when he shuts no man can open. Mary Magdalene was in the hollow of God's hand forever.
Let me tell you how the seven devils got into her heart, and the story of how they were cast out when she met Jesus.
Mary Magdalene was just like the rest of us, for we all have seven devils in our heart, and some have a few more. She was born in sin like all of us. She was not born a sinner; none of us are, for we do not become sinners until we arrive at that age when with a free choice we choose to do evil, then we are sinners.
Mary Magdalene began like a pure stream which starts in the mountain; but as it descends to a lower level polluting streams of water flow into it, and by and by the river is dark with impurities.
The Hudson River has its head in the highlands of the Adirondack mountains, 4,000 feet above the level of the sea. It has a good start. It is almost "holy ground." There the trees have grown tall and beautiful for hundreds of years. Beneath the shade of these the baby river rolls out and on. It plunges over the rocks in beautiful cascades and races on to its river bed. Wild beasts wade through its cooling waters, slake their thirst, and at night sleep by the river's side when the high sky hangs out its golden lanterns and smiles at the little baby climbing over the sides of its mountain cradle. And so the river rolls on larger and larger with the benediction of God and nature.
At first the child river is as clear as the air, as polished as the fairest diamond. So Mary Magdalene started life as fair as the mountain stream. She was born on the shore of the blue waters of the Lake of Galilee. She was not born in the slums, nor was she in her early days surrounded by the vicious, she did not spend her childhood in rags and filth. Beyond all doubt she was well born, and belonged to the upper class.
She seems to have inherited wealth which she spent in after years, ministering to the work of the Saviour. She was like a zephyr, pure as the mountain air; she was as free and cheery as the birds of the high hills. Then temptations came, and the polluting streams of sinful rivers flowed into this little mountain stream. At last her beautiful heart became the prison house of seven devils.
To illustrate this lesson prepare a white cardboard heart. Make it a double heart with the top of it left open, so you can put into it seven small cards, representing so many devils.
Call this heart Mary Magdalene, and then as you talk of the polluting streams which flow into it deposit the cards standing for the seven devils into the heart that is clean and white.
Name the devils:
Disobedience. This is the sin that is ready to grip us as soon as we tumble over the side of the cradle of life. She went wrong just by disobeying her parents; at least most little folks do, and I suppose she was just like the rest of us. Once there was a prisoner who sat in his cell awaiting the fast approaching hour of his execution. While he was thus waiting, with a piece of clay he drew on the wall of his cell a picture of the gallows upon which he was soon to die. He made a number of steps which led up to it, and called each step after a sin which he had done that soon would lead him up to his doom on the gallows. The first step he marked was "Disobedience to Parents." That was his first great sin, as he saw it. Now take a small black card on which you have written the word "Disobedience" and put it into the heart. This is the first devil.
The next polluting power which entered the heart we will call "Sinful Dress." In the land where Mary Magdalene was raised the people dressed in gay colors, and wore much and very elaborate jewelry on the ankles, arms, neck, and head; there they placed their bands of gold. They had large opportunity to overdo the dress question, and they did so. The rich owned many changes of raiment, and often like the leaders of fashion today could boast that they could change their costumes hourly if they so desired. She was doubtless very beautiful and charming. Her Oriental garments made her look like a queen in royal splendor. She soon "fell" for this polluting poison called "fashion," and like millions of her present-day sisters her feet got tangled up in her robes of fashion, and she slipped and fell from the pinnacle of purity into the madly burning lake of sin. As you make this remark drop in the heart a pink card on which the words "Sinful Dress" have been written. This is the second devil.
Make it clear to your hearers that carefulness in dress is not wrong, and neatness is not vanity.
Now produce a blue card on which you have marked two large letters "CO.," which stands for "Company."
Soon Mary Magdalene found evil company as did the Prodigal Son and soon she was a common sinner.
Evil company is like evil spirits seeking to pull down to their level the highest and best. As you say this deposit this card into the heart and say, "This is the third devil."
The next devil to enter the heart we will call "Bad Money."
Write down on a yellow card the dollar sign ($), and say that once a minister of the gospel read from his pulpit a request for prayer which was as follows: "Prayers are requested for a young man who has just inherited a fortune."
He certainly did need the prayers of good people, because money can be made a mighty curse unless God is in it. Money is like a skeleton key which unlocks a multitude of sin doors through which we enter to the eternal hurt of our soul. Mary Magdalene found it paid for a season in dollars and cents, but this is tainted money and slips through the fingers, and on wings supplied from the demons themselves flies away to come back no more forever. "His money was his curse," that the people often say when like a devil it has entered and destroyed a human heart. We are now speaking only of the evil use of money. Put the card with the dollar mark on it into the heart and say, This is the fourth devil.
"Temper" is the next devil to enter the sinner's heart. Write this word down on a fiery red card. In anger folks seem to be under control of another power; they do not seem like themselves. There is a strange look in the eye, another expression has seized the features of the face, and they seem for a few moments to be "changed into other men." The reason for all of this transformation is that temper is a devil, and it has taken possession of the heart.
When I was a little boy there were two little brothers who lived on the same street with me. One of them, the older one, had a very bad temper, and when he grew angry he would fling himself upon the ground and kick and scream. All the neighbors noticed this and when they spoke to his mother about it she replied, "Willie is not himself when in temper."
She was speaking the truth, he was possessed by the temper devil. One day this brother was playing with his little brother and in a moment of anger struck him in the face with his clinched fist. When the doctor came he said the little brother would never see again. He would be blind for life. Both brothers lived to be men. The elder brother never had a happy hour afterward. He would often say, "I don't see how I could have done it." This was why he did it; as with Mary Magdalene, the devil had entered his heart. The temper devil had entered the soul and taken full possession. As you say these words put the card into the heart and say "Temper is the fifth devil."
"Unbelief" is the sixth devil. Mary Magdalene had sinned and lost her standing in the synagogue. Her sins were punishable by the laws of Moses with death; she was a doomed sinner, she had left God and was alone. If she had kept the devil of unbelief out of her heart when she was first tempted, she never would have fallen into his black hands. It never pays to leave God. Believe his word. He has spoken, trust him. This will keep the devil out. Many years ago in a New England town there was a minister who preached a carefully prepared sermon on "Casting all your care on him, for he careth for you," and on his way home from church fell into a well and was severely hurt. It was laughing-stock for a common community, and it did seem just a little strange that after he had so carefully prepared his sermon and assured the people that if they put their trust in God he would take care of them, and then an hour afterward he should fall into a well and injure himself. The devil of unbelief whispered in his heart, "God did not keep his word, you are a fool to trust him," but the young preacher resisted the whispering devil and said, "Wait a little while, God will make it plain to me," and God did. He was sent to a hospital in Boston, a town he had never seen but always wanted to visit. While he was there some friends urged him to write the story of "How God cared for a man by casting him into a well."
He was a better writer than a speaker; an essayist, rather than an orator. He wrote his story and told the world how he believed God and did not doubt his promises. He told the story of Joseph who had been cast into a well and came forth to be a prince in Egypt. He thus attracted the attention of the entire city of Boston. He leaped into fame at once. He became one of the most famous writers of America, and for years was the leader of religious thought in all New England.
God took good care of him so he should fall into the well, for that was the first round in the ladder of his great success. Many a man has doubted God and stayed down the well of misfortune and upbraided God, denounced him, and so lived the rest of his days in darkness, and dying went into eternal night. Put this card into the heart and say "Unbelief is the sixth devil."
"Unholy Pleasure" is the seventh and last devil of this black-winged group. Have these words written on a piece of gold paper.
This devil of "Unholy Pleasure" is in full dress and a gentleman of the world. A "regular fellow," so the people of the world declare, but he is a deceiver and destroyer. Seek pure pleasure. Play, but play straight, or the lamps of sin over the pleasure garden of the world will blind your eyes, so you cannot see the evil of sinful pleasures.
This devil will be at the end of the road to make captive your soul forever. Place this card in the heart and say: "Unholy Pleasure is the seventh devil, and now there is a full house of devils. The heart will soon come to the end of the way as it is now full of devils and full of sin." As you say this produce a red heart the same size as the white heart you have been using, and put it in front of the white heart. You can now see sin covers her heart entirely, she is down but not out, because where the "out" begins Jesus stands and waits. He always gives special attention to hard cases, and Jesus found Mary Magdalene just there, and saved her soul by casting out the seven devils and making her clean again. He had forgiven all her transgressions and remembers them against her no more forever.
As you say this, still holding the red heart in front of the white heart, take out all the devils at once if you can, and as you do so take away the red heart also, drop them all on the table together and say, "Please note that when the devils all go out sin goes also [having reference to the red heart], and the heart is now white and clean, and it will so stay, for the devils have gone out to stay out."
This is the story of how seven devils entered the heart of Mary Magdalene, and the glad story of how they were cast out. God will do the same for you, for he is no respecter of persons.
In delivering this address always keep the heart of Mary Magdalene in full view of the audience. Hold it in your left hand if possible, and load the cards with the right hand. Be sure and make the heart large enough to contain the seven cards you put into it. Practise and rehearse.
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