Pawn Shop.
This establishment was easily accessible from either Highway, and had
been in operation for thousands of years, carrying on an extensive
business.
In such a place our parents pawned a glorious inheritance for a taste
of forbidden fruit, and Esau exchanged a legitimate birth-right for
a mere mess of pottage.
In another similar place Judas sold his Lord and Master for thirty
dirty pieces of silver; and Ananias and Sapphira pawned their natural
and spiritual lives for a little worldly profit which was held but for
a few hours, and that in guilt and pain.
Satan has a Pawn Shop, or an exchange store, for every phase of desire
that can enter into an unsatisfied heart, or a soul unduly ambitious.
This one, into which Mr. World escorted Miss Church-Member, is intended
for those who become dissatisfied with the dress of righteousness, or
for any who wish a change in any part of their apparel. It proved
intensely interesting to Miss Church-Member, with her new-found
ambitions, to walk through the aisles of this great department store,
each department being used for a separate kind of apparel.
The entire Pawn Shop was full of old curiosities which had never been
redeemed. These, and more recent specimens, told the story of many a
faithless pilgrim. In the footwear department I saw many a "preparation
of the gospel of peace" which had been pawned for shoes of worldliness,
and elsewhere I saw the garments of truth which had been girt about
the loins of the saints, but which had been exchanged for robes of
vanity.
There were also many antiquated pilgrims' robes which had been given
for more fashionable attire.
Miss Church-Member became more and more ashamed of her own robe as she
saw how many already had effected the exchange which she was now
contemplating.
One of the shrewd attendants, observing the impatience of Miss
Church-Member and the significant look of Mr. World, approached her
and offered to render such assistance as she might desire.
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