"Satan."
"Yes, and Apollyon or Abaddon. He is also called the father of lies, and the roaring lion who goeth about seeking whom he may devour. By what arguments did he prevail with her to eat?"
"In the first place," answered Mrs. Dermott, "he charged God with a lie. She had said, 'God has given us every tree but this. If we eat of this tree, he says, we shall die.' But Satan said, 'That is not true, and God knows it is not. He wishes to keep you ignorant. I am sincerely your friend, and I tell you that if you eat of this tree, you will become as gods, knowing good and evil.'
"O, what a wicked serpent!" cried Walter. "I should have thought Eve would have known better than to believe him."
"What three reasons induced her to disobey God, and to eat of the tree? You may read, Anna, from the Bible."
"'And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat.'"
"Alas! How many children are tempted to their ruin by the appeal to their senses! Some become intemperate and gluttons from their inordinate love of eating; others, from their overweening fondness for dress and display, are carried into the vanities of the world, and thus lose their souls."
"I once heard," continued the gentleman, "of a poor peasant in England, who, on one occasion, met with a company of persons that disbelieved the Bible and the sacred truths it contained.
"'They argued and reasoned,' said the poor man, 'until they shook my belief. But all the time I knew I was in error, only I was so ignorant I could not answer their objections.
"'At length one of them asked me, "How can you be so foolish as to suppose that God would destroy Adam and all his descendants just for eating an apple?"