sky. It was a bright, transparent day, the clear, calm lake reflected the sky and the whole landscape in its depths, and the bird, not discerning that the world below it was a world of shadows, was betrayed to its doom. So all the glories of the upper world appear inverted in the world of evil. The lofty, the pure, the beautiful, the bright, are all seductively reflected in the depths of Satan; they are exaggerated there, they are seen in surpassing magnitude and splendor; error seems some nobler truth, disobedience some larger liberty, forbidden things seem the sweetest flowers and the mellowest fruit of Paradise.

III

Eve learned, and we ought to learn from our theme in the study of her example, that the size of the bait does not excuse the folly of yielding to sin. It was the dazzling bait of becoming wise and associating with lofty personalities which deceived Eve and seemed to make the risk worth while. So men and women now are led to their ruin. A man who ordinarily tells the truth is

ready to excuse the man for lying if he may win a fortune by it. A woman who has meant to be true and good is ready to parley with the tempter if thereby she may climb high in social splendor. The sin that would be condemned at once where the stake is small and there is little to be gained by it, seems to the drugged and bewildered soul to be a venial offense if it is to bring great material success. Ah, such sophistries are only the delusion of the evil one. There is an historical story of the Duchess Isabella who, wishing earnestly to obtain some object, was instructed by the crafty court astrologer to kiss day by day for a hundred days a certain beautiful picture and she would receive her wish. It was a sinister trick, for the picture contained a subtle poison which stained the lips with every salutation. Little by little the golden tresses of the queenly woman turned white, her eyes became dim, her color faded, her lips became black; but, infatuated, the suicidal kiss was continued, until before the hundred days were complete the royal dupe lay dead. Alas! how many such cases we see to-day of men and women who are bent on some

worldly triumph, upon obtaining some material success, and are willing to have it at any cost to their better natures. We see men and women who kiss day by day the goddess of worldliness, and tho there is poison in every salutation, and they are losing before our very eyes all that which makes men and women noblest and most worthy, still they press on and pay their devotion to their worldly god while the heart hardens, and the conscience loses its power to warn, and the soul languishes and dies even before the body has begun to decay.

THE LOST PARADISE

"She took of the fruit thereof and did eat."— Gen. 3: 6.

Y

Es, that is what she did; but the evolu

tion that went on before that is the interesting and important theme for our consideration. She would not have disobeyed God's law and bidden defiance to her Creator offhand. Something else had been going on. As you read the story you see the common and ordinary evolution of sin. I think it will be interesting and, I trust, helpful for us to examine this evolution, for something like it goes on every time any man or woman gives way to sin against God. Briefly note the stages of this evolution!

I

It began with listening to the devil. When Satan first drew near to Eve, clothed with the skin of the serpent, he began his attack upon her by insinuating that, after all, God

was not really good to His children. "Can it be possible," says that smooth, insinuating voice, in substance, and I imagine with a sardonic smile, "that your God has shut off a part of the garden from you and forbidden you to eat of some of the trees of the garden?" Now, if Eve had gone her way and let Satan go his, she would have been safe. If, instead of listening to the insinuations against the goodness of God, she had recalled the bountiful provision and loving care which God had made and exercised in preparing this beautiful garden with all necessary food and with abounding beauty, instead of having mischievous and dangerous doubts born in her soul, her heart would have overflowed with gratitude, and she would have gone her way singing her thanksgiving among the fragrant trees of God's garden. But, alas! she listened. And there is where we all get into trouble. We can not help being tempted. Jesus Christ, who was without spot or blemish of any kind; whose heart and whose thoughts were pure and clean, was tempted; severely, terribly tempted. But He did not listen to the enemy. At every temptation He met