INTRODUCTION.

The SIRENS were mythological beings, personifications of the rocks and reefs, the rough and perilous places abounding on the shores of the sea. So gifted were they in the use of their voices, which were of most rare and entrancing melody, that mariners, attracted by a power unseen and resistless, were lured to shipwreck and ruin by the songs they sang.

Lured by the has gone upon

There are other Sirens, neither ancient nor mythological, whose songs, sung without ceasing, are most enticing. THE MODERN SIREN is but one of many, the most seductive, the most daring, the most dangerous, the most deadly of them all. songs of this Siren many a noble ship the rocks of spiritual and eternal ruin. May the light from the red lantern of danger fall upon the pages of this book with so strong and searching a glare, thus making the subject so clear, the danger so real, and the old paths by contrast so plain, that the wayfaring man or woman, though amazingly foolish, shall not err therein.

If Solomon could have penetrated the mists and the fogs of the intervening centuries and rested his wondering eyes upon present-day conditions, doubtless he would have written a certain famous saying of his with capitals, and then doubled their size for greater emphasis. That famous saying is truer today than ever before: “Of making many books there is no end." This little book, in its present form, is given to the public by the author, for the very simple and commonplace reason that he has felt most keenly the need of just such a brief treatise as is this one, with its

direct and modest message, in his own work, and it seems probable that, if he needs it, it may be of some little use to others. Many books, some large and some small, some long and some short, some wise and some otherwise, have been written on this subject, some of them masterly and unanswerable arguments, the arrows feathered with illuminating illustrations, reinforced with Scripture quotations that have fallen with absolutely crushing effect upon and fairly and completely overwhelmed the quixotic arguments, shot full of fallacies, and yet seriously and soberly offered by the infatuated followers of a weak and wicked woman. Many of these books are large and long, and the people in general will not, certainly do not, read them. The substance of the addresses contained in the several chapters of the present unpretentious little volume, has been used by the author, sometimes publicly, but oftener in private, in combating this souldestroying and most unreasonable and unscriptural heresy, in the city where he lives.

Even members of orthodox churches are offended sometimes because this system is written and spoken against, and want to know why. The answer is an easy one, namely, that it is subversive of the very foundation principles of the religion of Jesus Christ, denying as it does, every essential teaching of the gospel. It is purely a human institution, in no sense of the word a church, and possesses not even the remotest right to the name Christian. A sentimental charity, which is not of God, pleads for silence and peace, at the heavy expense of conscience and principle, while the Spirit of God demands earnest contention for the faith once for all delivered unto the