minds, how then did he get in, if he ate his way out? I will tell you
how it was. Early last spring, just after the apple trees had been in
blossom, and when this apple had just begun to form on one of the
branches, there came along a bug and stung this apple, and deposited in
the inside the germ of the worm. As the summer grew warmer, and the
apple grew larger, the germ began to develop, until finally it grew into
a worm. When it began to grow strong, it discovered that it was confined
in the interior of something, and soon it began to eat, and continued
until it ate its way out of the apple. This other worm, which still
remained in, had continued to eat in the various portions of the apple,
and possibly because of having less bodily vigor had concluded to remain
there for a time, but you can see from the inside of the apple that it
has done great injury, at the very core or heart, and I suppose that if
it had been left to itself, in the course of a few days, or a few weeks
at most, it also would have eaten its way out of the apple, in order to
escape from its confinement.

[Illustration: Insect Stinging Bud.]

Now, boys and girls, this worm represents sin in the human heart, or
wickedness possibly presents the thought better, and when you see a boy
or girl doing wrong, they are simply giving outward expression to the
wickedness which exists in their hearts. Boys are bad, not so much
because the influences by which they are surrounded are bad, but because
their hearts are sinful, and wicked, and bad. But I am sure that you
will want to know how wickedness gets into the human heart. I will tell
you how it is. Way back in the spring-time of the history of the human
race, way back in the Garden of Eden, soon after God had created Adam
and Eve, Satan came and inspired in the hearts of these first people the
desire to disobey God. God told Adam and Eve that they should not eat
of the fruit of the forbidden tree, and that when they did they would
die, that is, they would be separated from God. Satan came and told them
that they would not die, but that when they ate of the fruit of this
tree they would become very wise. They believed Satan rather than God,
and they did that which was wicked and wrong. And so throughout all the
generations since, there has been that willingness to believe Satan and
to do what he wants us to do, rather than to believe God and do what God
would have us to do.

Boys and girls who find themselve