"Sometimes, the fisherman uses a spoon hook or other bait in which the hooks are hidden beneath some bright-colored feathers or other material which looks tempting to the fish. The intended victim dashes after the alluring bait, seeing nothing but the glitter of the bright metal or the brilliancy of the colors. He loses his life as a result.
"It seems strange—doesn't it—that fish can be fooled in this way? And yet, I am not sure but that people are just as foolish themselves, very often. Ask the drunkard how he happened to reach the low depths to which he has fallen, and he will tell you that when he, as a young man, took his first glass, it was in a brilliantly-lighted place where, it seemed, the air was filled with good fellowship, and he thought he was happy. At that very moment, he was pursuing the glittering, attractive bait which later proved to be his utter ruination. He had not seen the hidden hooks. Ask the thief, confined in his lonely cell, how he happened to become an outcast, and he may tell you that it started in school when he thought it a very happy thing to cheat in his examinations and thus acquire the habit of being dishonest. He did not see the hidden hooks which the evil one had placed there to deceive and catch him.
"Jesus wants all the boys and girls to be watchful of the snares of life and to live so truly that they will easily escape the temptations which abound everywhere. 'Take heed,' he said, 'Watch ye, therefore, and pray always, that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things.'"
THE MASK
—Sincerity
—Truth
Let Us Ask Ourselves Earnestly if We Are Guilty of Wearing It.
THE LESSON—That the world honors and respects an honest man, one who does not fear the opinion of those about him.