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THE TEN COMMANDMENTS It was an old fashioned home. The family consisted of two sons. John and Dan and Mother Mc- Tavish- It was Sunday afternoon and all sat around the table with the open Bible before them. The mother had just finished reading from the Book of Exodus, the story of Moses and the Ten Com mandments. John and Dan were robust fel lows in their early twenties. John was steady but Dan was easy-going and happy-go-lucky. “That’s all bunk!” cried Dan as his mother closed the Book. “But you must remember it is the word of God, Dan, and when all else fails, you will need it,” the anxious mother explained. “All this bunk about the Ten Commandments was buried with Queen Victoria.” insisted Dan. “This”, he said holding a gold coin, “is my god- It can secure anything in this world.” Poor Dan! He defiled the word of God, the peaceful Sabbath day, and hishonore 1 his mother in her house. This outraged the Bible and the loving mother, and she bade him leave. Pan left but returned in the aft ernoon to find a beautiful girl there. In humble submission he begged his mother’s pardon and v as permitted to remain. Mrs. McTavish agreed to share her home with the waif until she could find a home. The boys a- dorecl the girl. Each fell in love with her but Dan was the luckier. The Victrola v/as playing and the two lovers were dancing one Sabbath afternoon when the good mother came in. She rebuked them for their folly and after a heated argument the two young folks de cided to leave. Dan declared that he would be a success and John would still be the poor carpenter. He and the girl would marry and live a life of luxury. The last words that he flung to his mother and brother were, “We”ll break every one of your commandments.” Dan sowed his wild oats, never stopping to think that there must be a harvest. He had already brok en most of the commandments; there were only a few left. Materi al success was Dan’s- They lived in a luxuriously furnished apart ment. As a business man he was slick and a cheater. He fell in love with a beautiful French girl who was hidden in jute which he was smug gling- “Thou shalt not commit a- dultery.” Dan was given the work of build ing a church. He used twelve parts gravel to one part cement- The foundation was poor. It could not last. John, the honest brother, dis covered the weakness and ordered work to cease. An old woman begged admittance of one of the workmen who did not know what the trouble was. Hd could not re fuse her when she told him she was the contractor’s mother. The building crashed and the mother was found beneath the ruins. Poor Dan’s heart was broken. “Thou shalt not kill.” Dan was now facing ruin. He went to the French woman for funds. She told him of herself; that she was a leper- The news papers were discussing her. He shot her in his anger. “Thou shalt not kill.” A coward wants to die.. Dan was a coward- He meant to plunge into the sea and end it all. The storm began to brew and his little vessel to toss. He was lost in the darkness but before all was ended he saw the Ten Commandments written on the Twin Tables, all so vivid. His greatest sins were out standing. The wages of sin is death.