Evangelist Billy Sunday told a story about “a man who lived in east Tennessee. That man hunted rattlesnakes for a living. He would sell rattlesnakes. One particular time he caught a rattlesnake that had fourteen rattlers. It was a huge rattlesnake. He put that rattlesnake in a box and put a glass top on that box so people could look down in that box and see that venomous snake. This man had a five-year-old son. When the father was out to work, he slid the glass aside and that rattlesnake reared its ugly head with those beady eyes, hissed several times, and then stuck that five-year-old boy right in the cheek. He went screaming out of the house. The father heard the scream and realized what had happened. In a rage, he chopped that rattlesnake into pieces. And then not knowing what to do, being miles from the nearest hospital, he reached into his pocket and got his pocketknife. He cut a big chunk of flesh out the boy’s cheek. Then that father frantically put his mouth up to his son’s cheek and tried to suck the poison out of the boy. Despite those efforts, he watched his boy’s head swell about three times its normal size. He watched his son as he shuttered and cried in excruciating pain. He watched as the boy’s eyes rolled back in his head. He watched as the boy died. And then that father let out a wail and cried out, “Oh God, Oh God, I would not give my boy Jim for all the rattlesnakes that ever crawled over the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Used in sermon by Richard Tow entitled: "Why I Don't Drink Any Alcohol." Billy Sunday as told by Adrien Rogers, “Battle of the Bottle,” SovSergey. Accessed at https://youtu.be/vjMqvx3MXyE.