The Newtown bee., 1901-08-02

taking a bag of money from hand, woman s hand, which reached up out of the filthy stream: the policeman passed it on to an officer little higher up, and he again to another officer still higher up, and he again to some- body else unseen up above the bank, and the question underneath, which many have been asking, How high does it go? Now something ought to be added to make exact and perfect that cartoon; that something is this, and you and know it is true, and ninety, nine times out of a hundred 1t could be rightly added; that something is to see the one who receives such cOrrup- tion money tossing it right back into the filth out of which it comes. Is not that so? Is not that the way it goes, just as it is the way it comes? When man sinks so low that he will profit by such curse he is so low that he is cursed by the same curse. The sin cannot stand alone. You can't think that you will be able to take one bite only, and that out of the rosy side of the apple of Sodom; no, you will have to get mouthful of the poison side as we'll; you set your teeth for the one and you get mOuthful of the other. You never can do wrong thing will it is only for once; it is impossible; the only safe rule is that of our text: "AvOid 1t, pass not by it, turn from it and pass on."
 SIN ALWAYS MARCHES WITH SUCH AN that we have nothing but defeats when we try to do anything save keep out of it's way, or else go forth with still stronger forces to meet it, and to con- Quer.
 It is therefore most true word, and most necessary, this from the lips of the wise man of the past which says to us: "Enter not into the path of the wicked, and walk not in the way of these by paths of wrong which go out side? How are we going to avoid 1t, or conquer it when it is continually so near, and always so strong?
 It seems to me that in the two pas sages before us, the one from the older the other from the New Testament, we have the two great rules for avoid ing evil, and resisting temptation. We have the Old Testament and the New Testament way of overcoming. Both valuable, both tried by experience, both full of wisdom, and both having their place still in the world of men. An old picture from the stories of the Greek classics illustrates almost perfectly the differences between the two ways and the power of each of them. You know that the doctrine of sin in the ancient Greek mythology was held up by the story of the Sirens and the Sirens isle. The Sirens sat and sang their entrancing songs by the rocks of the terrible island, and the poor sailor was drawn by the sweet music near and even nearer, until his vessel went to pieces on the sharp rocks of the shore; and so the sirens exulted over another victim of their wileS AS story there has never been better one told to illustrate the se- ductive ways, and final destruction of evil temptation. It was taken up by the Germans in the myth of the Lore ley on the Rhine, and is sung or told in every tongue and language to this day. But in the old story there was something added. That is, that two men, and only two, ever went by the Sirens isle. The one of these was Ulysses, and the other was Orpheus. Ulysses, you remember, stuffed the ears of his sailors full of wax, and had himself tied tightly to the mast so that he could not go even when he wanted to in answer to the Sirens song. Other versions of the story Say that Ulysses stuffed also his own ears full of wax so that they all went by not hearing, and therefore not needing, the Sirens song. That was one way
 But 0rpheus he came to the Sisens' isle, and then drew out his harp, upon which he could play so sweetly that the very fish of the sea would come to hear him, just as they did centuries after, according to the medieval legend, to hear St Francis preach; and Orpheus began to play on his harp ever SO gently, ever so sweetly, as he drew near the island, and so uplifted by a sweeter music, enthralled by a higher harmony, there was no tempta- tiOn to listen to the alluring notes that fiOated from the shore; nay rather the sirens themselves were stilled, and hearing the heavenly notes over the water forgot to sing their song, but stopped and listened, and strained their ears to catch every tone of this new music better than their own, sweeter than anything that was ever heard on the land or sea before. There you have the two ways which the dncients told of passing the Sirens isle. They seem to me so wonderfully parallel to the two ways which Scrip f,,ro uoc fnr o voi1inp md nVorcnninp O