Blacksmith Made a Chain
Our Daily Bread, December 28, 1996
The following story was often told by Charles Haddon Spurgeon: "A cruel king called one of his subjects into his presence and asked him his occupation. The man responded, I'm a blacksmith.' The ruler then ordered him to go and make a chain of a certain length.
"The man obeyed, returning after several months to show it to the monarch. Instead of receiving praise for what he had done, however, he was instructed to make the chain twice as long.
"When that assignment was completed, the blacksmith presented his work to the king, but again was commanded, &ls;Go back and double its length!' This procedure was repeated several times. At last the wicked tyrant directed the man to be bound in the chains of his own making and cast into a fiery furnace."
Like that cruel king, sin exacts from its servants a dreadful price: "The wages of sin is death" (
