len 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.

[Illustration: Little Crab.]

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 too late.

[Illustration: Fish Going to Eat the Oyster.]

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
within, 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