been caught. Then he does not think of the cheese, but
struggles to get loose and escape out of the trap. But all of his
struggles are in vain, and after a few moments he is choked to death.
Then the man, or the housewife comes, takes the little mouse out of the
trap, and with the same piece of cheese the trap is again set for
another unsuspecting mouse. So people go on, day after day, catching one
mouse after another, with the same trap and with the same bait.

[Illustration: Mice and Trap.]

Now, there are traps which men set for boys and girls, and men and
women, such as story papers, bad books and pictures, that might be
called pest papers, printed poison, moral leprosy. To the innocent, the
unthinking and the unsuspecting these things may not appear very
dangerous, but they are very deadly in their effects, and they result in
the temporal and eternal ruin of thousands upon thousands of people
every year.

Then there are also the saloons, with gilded signs, frosted windows, and
showy looking glasses. Rooms which are made attractive only to catch
men, to rob them of their money, and of their self-control, and of their
reason, and of their homes, and of all temporal good, and of all hope of
heaven--destroying men's souls and bodies, both for a time and for all
eternity.

Then there is the theatre, with its glittering lights, with its tinseled
show, with its corrupting play, with its scenes upon which no
pure-minded man or woman can look without blushing; scenes which deaden
the moral sense, pollute the mind, such as are calculated to rob the
individual of virtue, and of integrity, and of faith in God, and of hope
of heaven.

Then there are other dangerous traps which are set for young men and for
older men--tobacco, cigarettes and cigars, and beer. These traps which
are set for our money, which so often rob of health and strength, for no
boy who uses tobacco in any form can be strong like the boy who does not
use tobacco. Boys begin with the deadly cigarette, and then go on to the
cigar, and then follow with drinking beer, and so, step by step, they go
on down to ruin.

If you have ever gone fishing on a calm, beautiful summer day, and have
looked down through the water, you have often seen the fish as they
gathered around the hook, and then watched them as they nibbled at the
bait. First they come up very shyly, and barely touch the bait with
their nose. Then they come again, and possibly just bite a small
t