Serpents in Hedges, a Plea for Moderation in the Hours Employed in Business

by Samuel Martin

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. ... made it ready.... His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate." "And though," saith God, "they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them."--" Whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent Shall bite him." I. The proverb we are considering has a particular application, and we are about to make special use of it; but let the reader observe, it is Based On Common Truth. Is there not here indicated one of the evil tendencies and dispositions of human nature? God has set up hedges, and men are madly inclined to break through them. George Herbert says--"If God had laid all common, certainly Man would have been the incloser; but since now God hath impaled us, on the contrary, Man breaks the fence, and every ground will plough. 0 what were man, might he himself misplace! Sure to be cross, he would shift feet and face." And not merely is a disposition to evil hinted at by our proverb, but a large class of actual sins is graphically described. Men are continually breaking the hedges which God has set up, and they are bitten by serpents. Read the History of sin as furnished by the Bible, and transgression wears this aspect. The angels Psa. vii. 11--16. + Amos ix. 3. that are reserved in everlasting chains, under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day--What was the sin by which they fell? Jude tells us, "They kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation." Into some enclosure of heaven they broke, and God cast them down to hell. God hedged in the tree of life that grew in Paradise--our first parents broke the restraint, and felt the power of God's curs...

20 pages, Paperback

Published February 6, 2012