Did you know that a snail has teeth? I never counted a snail’s teeth but an inquiring dentist did, and he reported that he found a hundred and thirty-five rows of teeth with a hundred and fifteen teeth in each row. See how many teeth that would be. The snails’ food is cer tainly ground fine before it is swal lowed ! The snail moves very slowly, as you know. It does not have feet or wings. It simply crawls along on its flat stom ach and makes fairly good progress by doing so. It has some enemies and, of course, its enemies have some trouble because of the hard shell. I have a picture of a thrush eating a snail. I am told that nearly all thrushes eat snails. When the bird picks up the snail in its beak, the snail crawls up into the shell and hides. This does not bother the thrush at all. It merely finds a stone and hammers the shell on the stone until it .breaks it. Then, of course, the bird can easily eat the snail. The picture I have shows a stone with a few shells lying around it and a thrush near by with a snail in its bill. It seems that each time the thrush found a snail it would break the shell on this stone. You can see that the thrush is not so stupid after-all. Everything has enemies, and all hid ing places are not safe. But I know one hiding place that is safe. It is in the love of the Lord and under the shelter of His care. When you become^ a real Christian and let the Saviour* have your life, then you will be safe here and hereafter. “ O Lord, be gra cious unto us; we have waited for thee: be thou their arm every morning, our- salvation also in the time of trouble” (Isa. 33:2). I once saw a snail whose shell had been broken. Somehow or other the snail had mended it with a sort of lime formation nearly as hard as stone. The snail makes its shell in three layers be cause it knows that this is stronger than one layer of solid material. The three layers for protection remind us of the love of God the Father, the saving grace of the Lord Jesus, and the guiding care of the Holy Spirit. All three provide a wonderful hiding place for the one who comes to trust in the Lord. I hope each of you will. “ The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all” (2 Cor. 13:14). Perhaps you never thought of it, but the shell is the only skeleton that the snail has, and it carries this shell on the outside of itself. Wouldn’t we look strange if our skeletons were on the outside? Wouldn’t we look hideous if all our bones were exposed? I am so glad the Lord did not make us like that, aren’t you? The Lord always knows best. He always works wisely, and for that reason He wants you to trust Him with your soul. Will you do it, boys and girls? “ Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding” (Prov. 3:5). T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
What Can They Teach Us? By Walter L. Wilson, M. D.
W E can learn many interesting and surprising things about the snail. He is a strange little soft, jelly-like fellow that carries his house (shell) on his back. This is convenient, for if he is attacked by his enemy, he slips into his house and hides in that bony shell. When he goes to sleep (he does this in winter) he crawls into this shell, squeezes all the water out, and seals the shell shut with a strange chalky substance that is porous. Insects cannot crawl through this lid but air can get through, and so the snail lives snugly all winter long. Only the God of heaven would have created such a strange and peculiar living thing as the snail. “All things' were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:3). All snails are not so small as this one about which we have been speaking. In South America and on some islands there are snails which are as long as six inches. These snails lay eggs that are as large as a sparrow’s egg. You didn’t know that, did you, little folk? Probably Daddy and Mother did not know it, either. The shells of these eggs are much like those of birds’ eggs, and when the snail hatches, it is just like its mothei. Things happen in nature, dear little folk, which do not always happen in the Christian life. Children are not al ways like their parents. Sometimes a very godly father and mother will have a very bad child who does not want to be good. Do let me counsel all you little friends who read this story to trust the Lord Jesus as your Saviour. Believe in
that lovely One who died for your sins at Calvary and then you, too, will grow up to be a fine, lovely Christian. “ But Jesus said, suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 19:14). Some snails live a long time. The giant sea snail lives for thirty years. Pond snails live only about a year. Land snails live from two to five years. The same is true of people, isn’t it? Some people live just a few years, Some grow to be young men and women and others live to a great age. We never know when the Lord will call us, so it is wise to belong to the Lord Jesus and to be a true believer in Him and in His Bible while we are young. Then we will be in the safekeeping of the blessed Saviour throughout our lives. “ And as it is ap pointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation” (Heb 9:27,28). Land snails’ eyes are found on the tips of horns that stick out from their heads. These are not hard horns like those of a cow. They are soft like your little finger. There are four of these horns. Two of them are longer than the other two, and the eyes are found on the longer pair. When the snail goes to sleep or hides for the winter, these horns are pulled in like the fingers of a glove. The eye sinks down inside of the horn and so it is well protected from injury.
J U N I O R K I N G S B U S I N E S S
Martha S. Hooker
Page Twenty-two
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