ied to pull it away, but it stuck to the rail as if it were
soldered there. The other boy tired to pull him away, but he was hurled
to the ground with a terrific shock. Then the brave fellow threw his
rubber coat around Pietro and pulled him loose.

"Pietro started to run but fainted and fell. They took him to the
hospital, and the doctor said, 'One chance in a thousand to recover.'

"The boys said they knew there was something dangerous about that rail.
They had heard other people say so, but they didn't think it would hurt
to play around with it a little.

"Just so, sin is dangerous. It scorches and burns and kills, like the
live third rail. People know it, and yet they play around with sin.
Many times there are signs near high voltage wires--_Danger, Do Not
Touch_! God has put up some signs, too. In His Word He warns against the
danger of sin. If we want to be safe, and happy, we will heed these
warnings."

* * * * *

"A minister of Geneva, on a trip to Paris, one day fell into a
conversation with a man who began to reason with him about Christianity.
The minister answered every argument with a quotation from
Scripture--not venturing a single personal remark or application. Every
quotation his companion evaded or turned aside, only to be met by
another passage. The skeptic became enraged. 'Don't you see, I don't
believe your Bible! What's the use of quoting it to me?' he shouted. The
minister's reply was another thrust of the Sword of the Spirit, 'If ye
believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.' Years passed, then
one morning the minister received a letter. Opening it he read, 'You
took the Sword of the Spirit and stabbed me through and through one day,
and every time I tried to parry the blade and get you to use your hands,
and not the Heavenly steel, you simply gave me another stab. You made me
feel I was not fighting you, but God.' It was signed by the former
skeptic in whom the 'seed of the Word' had finally been mixed with
faith.

"Even as the natural seed changes soil into plants, so the living seed
of the Word changes the character of the individual who comes in contact
with it. For example, in the night of the Dark Ages when the Word of God
was planted by the Holy Spirit in the hearts of chosen men, it brought
forth the fruit of the Reformation. There was a rediscovery of the
truth, that salvation is not by ritual or works, but by faith in Jesus
as our Saviour.