APPLES OF SODOM.

Otago Witness, Issue 2624, 29 June 1904, Page 86

APPLES OF SODOM.

By a Banker,

Sunk deep in a hollowed depression considerably more than a thousand fee^ below the level of the sea; shut in, here by 3Jgged beetling rocks, here by a lofty chfi." of acrkj sajt, seven miles in length, and here by a barren upraised table land, lies the most drear and mslanoholy exppuse of valors to be found throughout the entno round world. Dismal siid sullen — so heavy tihafc a moderate breeze fails to rouse it from its torp.d and sluggish inertia, or to gem its leaden surface with sparkling diamonds and dancing aipples and wavelets — it lies there, a murky, gloomy memento of a terrible past; a fitting watery shroud of Vac two most iniquitous cities which ever defaced this fair earth: a Dead Sea.

Tiaversiug tho lovely plains of Jericho, past iho "hill of the b'ocd-sudieis," — andl here it may truly bo said, with the- post, that " Hvery prospect X'l ea * c3 j and only man is vile "'— we aiei sootu in <i very paradise of blocm • psi 'erres ci the gorgeous scarlet wind-flower, deliolously fragiant acacias, the- rose of Jericho and the bplm of Gilead, Jilies and balsams, ammioncs and myrtles, with many another wild beauty of tbe floral world; but with, too, as, alas! in other phases of life, the wormwood and tJie bitter gaJl plant. But soon this fair garden, all throbbing vrith life and vitality, -with its polrn-bedtecked slopes, wiiih its perfumed, aromas and Hi'a'iy-hued, gsilanß^d and festconed adornm«nts, all changes to a wilderness, a, dry aoid arid desert, a kfeless, sterile wild. Parched and burnt as though it had) been ewept by the fiery besom of desolation, or as though it were cursed anc! doomed by a retributive justice, the dire effects of th.?- fire and the brimstone which overwhelmed those cities of the plain are evident on every side. Aud even ike \eiy water of that condemned

sea is so acrid and, so viol3ntly pungent and! nauseous that a drop of it upon the tongue bums and scarifies, and crea.tes a sensaUo/i such as might be produced by boring it with a red-hot awl.

Not a vestiige of life, not a plant, not a biid is to be seen m that sero abode of death ; save p&rhajps 01113- thai hollow mcc-hoiy and deception, the Apple of Sodom. Anc! as tho irewaiy iiaveller, espying the apparently luscious andi delicious fiuifc. hanging invitingly aniidqt the luxurious tendril-supported foliage of the deadly Vine of Sodom, plucks and attempts to eat the beautiful sold and scarlet deception, he finds that instead of the rich repast he had expected his mouth is full of ashes, andi he is olTckc-cl with repulsive rottsv>nciEs.

And then, perhaps, the Thought may cross hi^ mind that in this life, too, he may hanker pfier some forbidden fruit, which, when giasped, like these- apples of Sodcin-, pioves to be but foul and noisome. Foitunate they wno, having cast all their care upon their Redeemer, who, by His dying agonies, lisd paid the penalty due by them to Divine justics, find that throughout their earth-life they are pre-serve-fi by an ever watchful Divine Providence fiom these hairnful misdeeds.