The Oyster and the Crab

MY YOUNG FRIENDS: I want to speak to you this morning about “Having a good conscience.” (1 Peter, 3: 16). This is rather a hard subject, but I desire to make it plain by the use of a familiar object.

“What’s this I have in my hand?” I rather expected that you would say an oyster; but, really, it is nothing but an oyster shell.

I suppose you have all eaten stewed oysters, or oyster broth. I remember, when a little boy, that one day when we had stewed oysters for supper, I found a little yellow something in my broth.

I did not know whether my mother had put it in purposely, or whether it had fallen in by accident; whether I should push it aside of my plate, that it might be thrown with the crumbs to the chickens, or whether I should eat it to discover what it was. I suppose you have all seen these little animals in your soup, and know that they are called crabs. Now, do you know how the crab comes to be in with the oyster? I will tell you how it is.

The oyster lives in the water at the bottom of the bay, and some bright day, when the sun is shining down genial and warm, just the same as in the summer, we open the doors, and sit out on the porch to enjoy the cool of the day; so the oyster opens his shells and lets the cool currents of water move gently through his house. But while lying there with his shells wide open, along comes a great hungry fish.

He sees the oyster, but the oyster cannot see him. The oyster cannot see, for he has no eyes. He cannot hear, for he has no ears. Of the five senses which each of us have, hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting and feeling, the oyster can only tell of the presence of his enemy when he feels himself being dragged out of his house, and being quickly swallowed by the fish.

But his knowledge of what is happening only comes when it is already too late. Now, with the little crab, who also lives in the same neighborhood with the oyster, it is quite different. The crab has eyes, and can see the hungry fish that comes to eat him up. He has legs, with which to try and run away; but the fish can swim so much faster than the little crab can run, that he is sure to be devoured before the race is half over.

So what do you think the little crab does? He crawls along quietly, and creeps into the shell with the oyster, and the oyster and the crab enter into a kind of partnership for mutual protection. After this, when the oyster opens his shells, the little crab uses his eyes very diligently to look around, and watch for the approach of any fish.

As soon as he spies any sly fish coming near, he pinches the oyster, and immediately the oyster closes his shells very tightly, and the oyster and the crab are both safely protected from the fish. Now, boys and girls, we are something like the oyster. We are constantly exposed to the danger of being destroyed by sin. We cannot see sin, we cannot hear sin, we cannot perceive it by any of our senses.

So God has given us a conscience, which means “to know with God.” When you are tempted to do a sinful act, it is conscience that quickly whispers, “Now that is wicked,” “If you do that, God will be displeased.”

Let me illustrate this thought. One real pleasant day, when the birds are singing, and everything is attractive out of doors, Johnnie thinks how hard it is to be studying his lessons in what he calls a prison of a school-room He knows that papa and mamma will not give him permission to stay at home; so a little before nine o’clock, as he saunters towards the school, Satan suggests to him to play “hookey,” and when he comes to the corner of the street, looking back to be sure that no one sees him, he turns the corner to remain out of school, intending to come home at the regular time for dinner and escape discovery.

Just as soon as he turns the corner, and even before that already, conscience has seen the danger, and whispers strong and clear, “Johnnie, this is wicked; you will surely get into trouble, and you will make papa and mamma sad, and also displease God.” Now, if Johnnie does not turn right back when conscience warns him, he is sure to go on without having any pleasure all that forenoon, because his conscience continues to warn and reprove him.

Or suppose that Willie goes down the street and sees Mr. Brown’s dog a little ways off. He looks around quickly for a stone, and immediately conscience says, “Now Willie, don’t hit the poor dog, for the stone will cause him pain, just as it would if some one were to hit you with a stone.” But Willie does not listen to conscience.

He throws the stone with all his might. It strikes on the pavement, just by the side of the dog, glances and breaks in many pieces the large plate glass in the window of the drug store Willie is more frightened than the dog, and without a moment for thought he runs around the corner, to get out of sight. And after concealing himself for a time in the alley, he steals quietly into the house at the back door.

How he dreads to meet his father and mother. Every time the door bell rings he thinks surely that it is the druggist or the policeman. Oh! how this sin pains him; just like the oyster would be hurt if he does not heed the little crab, when he warns him that the fish is coming to destroy him.

If Willie had only listened to conscience, what sin and trouble it would have saved him. So, boys and girls, God has given each of us a conscience, and if we want to be saved from sin and suffering, we should always be quick to obey our conscience. Let each of us try and “keep a good conscience.”