JEALOUSY

Hawthorne, in his tale "The Bosom Serpent" illustrates the power of jealousy to destroy a soul.

The man, who had been separated from his wife because of jealous suspicions, would sometimes hold his hand to his chest & exclaim:

"It nibbling! It’s chewing!"

For this reason he was known to the people in the town as the man with the snake in his breast.

Sometimes he would create great alarm when he stopped other men on the street & asked them how their serpent was.

At length, after all kinds of remedies had been tried, his wife appeared & pleaded with him to forget himself & show his love for her. At that the man fell on the ground & there was the sound like the passing of a serpent through the grass.

Thus the man was cured of the bosom serpent of jealousy.

What about the serpent in thy breast? Oh, beware of the bosom serpent of jealousy!

- (moreillustrations.com)

“You are still not spiritual. You have jealousy and arguing among you. This shows that you are not spiritual. You are acting like people of the world.” 1 Cor 3:3 (ICB)

“Too often we think of being tempted as being enticed to do big things like stealing, murdering or committing adultery. But most often we're tempted to be impatient, stingy, jealous, greedy or any number of other things that we consider lesser sins.” -  Joyce Meyer.