How to poison a king

A PICNIC SPREAD is laid out. A tablecloth, two goblets and between them, a small leather wine container. And some cheese and a couple of apples. The picnic is set on a lovely spot, high on the edge of a mountain path with a view all the way back to the sea.

As Vizzini fills the goblets with the dark red liquid, the Man In Black pulls a small packet from his clothing, handing it to Vizzini.

MAN IN BLACK "Inhale this, but do not touch."

VIZZINI (doing it) "I smell nothing."

MAN IN BLACK (taking the packet back) "What you do not smell is called iocane powder. It is odorless, tasteless, dissolves instantly in liquid, and is among the more deadlier poisons known to man." - From the screenplay for "The Princess Bride"

Arsenic is known as "the poison of kings" or the "inheritance poison" since it's been used many times for murder due to it's ability to kill and disguise it's effect as some other common ailment. Someone once told me that you can poison someone slowly over many years by giving them smaller amounts. I've also heard that there could be traces of arsenic in our local drinking water. The symptoms are myriad but it usually affects the brain.

This gets me to thinking, if I was the devil how would I poison believers? Would I show up all horns and fangs with a bubbling poison cocktail to drink? Or smiles and friendship with a drink of something good. Something delicious, odourless, tasteless but at the end it would carry the sting of death. Something to slowly but inevitably bring about your death.

I'd slip trace amounts in the things you watch and do. Small enough so you think its not poisonous and after awhile I'd hope you wouldn't even notice. I'd try to change the way you thought and hopefully you'd stop reading the Word.

Their vine comes from the vine of Sodom and from the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are filled with poison, and their clusters with bitterness.

Their wine is the venom of serpents, the deadly poison of cobras.
- Deuteronomy 32:32-33