UNR IGH TEOUSN ESS/SIN, NA TURE OF 753

and just before him the floor ended at the edge of a deep, dark and deadly pit, filled with water and water rats. By slipping prematurely, he had been saved from the pit. He fell asleep again, and when he awoke, he was strapped to a table, unable to move, except for very limited movement of his left arm.

His hand could reach a little plate of spicy meat; otherwise, he was immobile. There was dim light in the dungeon now, and he noticed above him a gigantic pendulum, swinging in wide arcs above him. The bottom edge of the pendulum was sharpened like a razor, and every time it swung it descended a fraction of an inch. Minute after minute, hour after hour, he watched the blade swinging back and forth, lower and lower, coming closer and closer to his chest.

Every time the steel passed, the rush of wind hissed, sending shudders through his soul. The hissing, flying blade finally lowered to within inches of his skin.

It started slowly slicing through the threads of his coat. It was designed to slowly cut, inch by inch, through his chest and into his heart. The man had noticed that hundreds of rats had crawled out of the pit and were surrounding him. He kept them away by waving his one free hand and squirming under his ropes.

Suddenly, he thought of a plan. Taking his free hand, he rubbed the spicy meat into the ropes that bound him to the table. Then he kept himself still, as still as death.

The rats crept toward him, and finally they swarmed over him, gnawing and biting until they had bitten through the �==◊�=� Apple Tree It wasn’t the appk on the tree that ruined everything. It was the pair on the grottnd. -ANONYMOUS ==---◊ === ropes. With one gigantic effort at the very last moment, he lunged to the side and rolled from the path of the deadly blade. Instantly the blade was pulled up into the ceiling by some watching, unseen executioner.

The prisoner then noticed that the steel walls of the cell were growing hotter. They became red hot and started moving toward him. The dungeon suddenly became smaller and smaller, and the fiery walls were pressing him closer and closer to the pit. Finally, his seared and writhing body had only an inch of foothold on the firm floor of the prison.

He struggled no more, but the agony of his soul found vent in one loud, long and final scream of despair. Suddenly there was a hum of voices. There was a loud blast of many trumpets. The fiery walls rushed back.

An outstretched arm caught him. In the final paragraph of the story, we learn that General LaSalle and his army had entered Toledo, and had saved the victims of the Spanish Inquisition. At the last moment, the man was snatched to safety. It is a picture of the Gospel.

Our fiendish enemy has thrown us into his dungeon. He makes us godless, senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless, worthless, and powerless. He ties us up. He tortures us with rats of addiction and abuse and despair and discord.

He wants us in the bottomless pit of hell, to share in his destiny forever. We are absolutely powerless to help ourselves or to save ourselves. The walls are closing in, and the world seems lost. But when we were still without strength, in due time, Christ died far the ungodly.

For scarcely far a righteous tnan will one die . . . But God demonstrates his own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died far us (Romans 5:6-8).