The Deadly Viper
Homiletic Monthly
Acts 28:3-6
And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened on his hand.…


There are a great many vipers with deadly poison in their fangs, ready to fasten on the hand of any Christian man or woman who "gathers a bundle of sticks," i.e., has to do with secular affairs. There are —

I. THE VIPER TO WHICH THE BUSINESS MAN IS EXPOSED. How many hands, busy in trade, that old serpent fastens on, and will not let go! If he does not kill them outright with his poisonous principles and temptations, he at least wounds their honour, peace, usefulness, and Christian standing. Shake off the viper into the fire, man of business! Hesitate not, or you are a dead man!

II. THE VIPER OF INDIFFERENCE has fastened itself on the hand of very many nominal Christians. "Woe unto them that are at ease in Zion!" And how many there are, and what peril they are in! "I would thou wert cold or hot," etc.

III. THE VIPER OF UNBELIEF. TO reject and cast away God's Word, as many do, is to uncover a nest of vipers and lie down in the midst of them.

IV. THE VIPER OF PREJUDICE. This, when it gets firm hold of a man, is a terrible power, a most malign influence, and if he do not shake it off into the fire, it will poison his life, warp his judgment, and kill his influence. How intense is the power of prejudice in social life, in politics, in matters theological and ecclesiastical!

V. THE VIPERS OF EVIL HABITS, such as gambling, drunkenness, tippling, Sabbath desecration, social dissipation at the theatre, are of the deadliest sort. Few escape on whom they once fasten. Their sting is deadly. Shake off into the fire that venomous serpent which has wriggled out of "the bundle of sticks you have gathered"; or, as sure as the wages of sin is death, you are doomed, and that speedily!

(Homiletic Monthly.)



Parallel Verses
KJV: And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened on his hand.

WEB: But when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat, and fastened on his hand.




Paul Bitten by a Viper, and Uninjured
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