Killing the Watch Dog
Introduction
Spurgeon. "Killing the Watch-Dog." The Cottager and Artisan 279 (1884): 30-31. Print.
Spurgeon’s story “Killing the Watch-Dog,” is a short work directed towards children and adolescents. Its purpose is to teach in a simple and concise manner the importance of listening to one’s conscience. Its form and purpose are similar to those of Christ’s parables in the Bible, a short story using symbols from everyday life to illustrate a principle or moral. This particular story can be found in the March 1884 issue, #279, of The Cottager and Artisan, a religious periodical printed by The Religious Tract Society. This periodical printed religious short stories, hymns, and other educational materials for uplifting youth and increasing faith among its readers.
Though we do not have conclusive evidence, the author of the story, Spurgeon, is thought to be Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892) who was a Baptist preacher in the later half of the 19th century. Spurgeon’s sermons were heard and read by many. According to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography he “reached a still wider audience through his published sermons, including over 3,500 weekly penny sermons published from 1855 until 1917.” The popular and religious nature of his sermons and also the constant publication of his writings makes it probable that he was the author of this particular story.
Printed during a time when moral and social values were constantly being examined and questioned, “Killing the Watch-Dog” is one of those stories that acts as a reminder not to forget the Christian values that were beginning to be doubted. The subject of listening to one’s conscience was a very important message during a time when industrialism, science, and other forces were changing the face of society and even the world.
Transcription
Killing the Watch-Dog
Well, sir, I will give a picture of yourself. There is a foolish farmer yonder in his house. It is the dead of night; the burglars are breaking in – men who will neither spare his life nor his treasure[1] . There is a dog down below chained in the yard; it barks and howls again.
“I cannot be quiet,” says the farmer, “my dog makes too much noise.”
Another howl, and yet another yell. He creeps out of bed, gets his loaded gun, opens the window, fires it, and kills the dog.
“Ah! It is alright now,” he mutters; he goes to bed, lies down, and quietly rests.
“No hurt will come,” he says, “now; for I have made that dog quiet.”
Ah! But would that he could have listened to the warning of the faithful creature. Ere long he shall feel the knife, and rue his fatal folly. So you, when God is warning you – when your faithful conscience is doing its best to save you – you try to kill your only friend, while Satan and Sin are stealing up to the bedside of your slothfulness, and are ready to destroy your soul forever and ever.
What should we think of the sailor at sea who should seek to kill all the stormy petrels,[2] that there might be an end to all storms? Would you not say –
“Poor, foolish man! Why, those birds are sent by a kind Providence to warn him of the tempest. Why need he injure them? They cause not the tumult; it is the raging sea.”
So it is not your conscience that is guilty of the disturbance in your heart, it is your sin; and your conscience, acting true to its character, as God's index[3] in your soul, tells you that all is wrong.
Notes
- ↑ Matthew 6:19-20: “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal” (KJV).
- ↑ Storm-petrels often crowd around sailing ships when there are approaching storms.
- ↑ A standard or rule that guides the individual.
Edited by: Croshaw, Mark: section 1, Fall 2007
