5. Honor thy parents.
6, Commit no murder.
7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
8. Thou shalt not steal.
9. Tell no falsehoods.
10. Do not covet thy neighbor's things.
These ten commandments instruct us in all the duties of life. Yet we may keep all these laws and not be a Christian. Once when Jesus was here among men a rich young ruler came to him asking what he must do to be saved, Jesus asked him about the Ten Commandments. He replied that he had kept them from his youth up, but when Jesus asked him to sell all and follow him, he then saw that the commandments had not gone through to his heart, for there he had the gold idol which he would not give up even to follow Jesus. He had not kept the first commandment. So we can all learn by this story that he was not a Christian although perhaps he had kept all the commandments, as he thought. They cannot change the heart. The law can never do that.
These Ten Commandments are like ten shining cords which may hold us back from evil-doing, but which can never change our heart and make us Christians.
To illustrate this point of the lesson secure ten strong cords, each of them at least three feet long; hang them over the back of a chair where the audience can see them. Call these ropes the Ten Commandments, and name each rope after one of the commandments. Then tell the following story. The ancient Greeks had a strange fable about the Sirens. These were bewitching little sea-nymphs who sat on a great rock in the sea called Sibylla, and as they sat there they sang such charming and wonderful songs that they lured the sailors to their destruction on the rocks. One day when the charming Ulysses was passing that way with his great ship, Circe warned him of the peril of these dangerous singers, and assured him that many a gallant ship had been lost in these stormy waters. So Ulysses took heed to the word of caution and ordered that the ears of the sailors should be filled with wax. Then he had himself fastened to the mast by many strong cords, so when their ship reached the place where the beguiling sea fairies worked, the sailors could not hear their music, and although Ulysses was enchanted by the music and struggled to break the cords which bound him, he failed to release himself, and so passed the temptation rock in safety and soon the music died away in the distance.
Some days afterward the brave and wise Argonauts were sailing over the same enchanted waters, but they had on the ship with them the famous Orpheus. He was a masterful player on the lyre, and when the ship came near to the dangerous rock he poured forth such heavenly music that the sailors had no ear for the tempting tones of the Sirens' songs, and so passed by in safety. The Sirens, seeing that their spell was broken, leaped into the sea, and their alluring tones were never heard again.