. It is Never Safe to Make Pets
of Tigers by J.R. Miller. Cain was very angry and
his face was downcast. Genesis 4.5 Cain attacked his
brother Abel and killed him. Genesis 4.8 See here the fearful
growth of the evil feeling in Cain's heart. It was only a thought
at first, but it was admitted into the heart and cherished
there. Then it grew until it caused
a terrible crime. We learn here the danger of cherishing
even the smallest beginning of bitterness, we do not know to
what it will grow. Some people think lightly of
bad temper, laughing at it as a mere harmless weakness, but
it is a perilous mood to indulge, and we do not know to what it
may lead. Sin is crouching at your door,
it desires to have you. In his reproof of Cain, the Lord
likens his sin to a wild beast lying in hiding by his door,
ready to leap on him and devour him. This is true of all sin
which is cherished in the heart. It may long lie quiet and seem
harmless, but it is only a wild beast sleeping. There is a story
of a man who took a young tiger and resolved to make a pet of
it. It moved about his house like a kitten, and grew up fond
and gentle. For a long time its savage, bloodthirsty
nature seemed changed into gentleness, and the creature was quiet and
harmless. But one day the man was playing
with his pet, when by accident his hand was scratched and and
the beast tasted blood. That one taste aroused all the
fierce tiger-nature, and the ferocious animal flew on his
master and tore him to pieces. So it is, with the passions and
lusts of the old nature, which are only petted and tamed and
allowed to reside in the heart, they will crouch at the door
in treacherous lurking, and in some unguarded hour They will
rise up in all their old ferocity. It is never safe to make pets
of tigers. It is never safe to make pets
of little sins. We never know what sin may grow
into if we let it abide in our heart. Cain attacked his brother
Abel and killed him. That is what came of the passion
of envy in Cain's heart. It was left unrebuked, unrepented
of, uncrushed, and in time it grew to fearful strength. Then
in an evil moment its tiger nature asserted itself. We never know
to what dreadful stature a little sin may grow.