If you have been up the Hudson River from New York to Albany by the
day-boat, you will probably have noticed a high mountain on the
right-hand side of the river by the name of Storm King.
I want to tell you about an eagle that used to live there. He could be
seen there almost any day soaring high above the mountain-peak. And many
a hunter had tried to shoot him. But he avoided them all. And how do you
think he did it? Did he hide from them? No. Just by flying so high that
the bullets could not reach him, or, if some chance bullet did reach
him, he was so far away that it just kissed his plumage and fell back to
earth without doing him any harm.
I wish that every boy and girl were as wise as that old eagle. That is
always the way to avoid being wounded by sins: just keep high up above
them. I mean by that, when you are tempted to do anything that is
wrong, not to stop and argue with yourself whether you will get caught
if you do it, or whether you will be happier if you do not do it, or any
of these things by which you lose time. But just get right away from it:
put it out of your mind.
I suppose you will wonder how you can do that. I will tell you. You have
often heard about "wishing-caps," and how the people in fairy-stories
put them on and just wish themselves wherever they want to be, and quick
as a flash they are there. Well, there is a wishing-cap that every boy
and girl can put on when he is tempted; it is this prayer, "O God, help
me not to do this thing which is wrong!" And if you say that prayer, and
believe God will help you, it will take you high out of reach of the
sin, just as that old eagle flew high above reach of the bullets. For
God says that they who ask Him for help shall "mount up on wings as
eagles."