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: