Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Literary Remains of the Rev. Simeon Singer: Sermons to Children
In the old Grecian story of Ulysses it is related that when he sailed past the island of sirens he listened for a moment to the sorcerers' music, and thereupon to prevent himself and crew from being lured to the shore, he stopped their ears with wax and had himself tied to the mast of the ship. Thus, as the story goes, they passed in safety the fatal strand. But when Orpheus in search of the Golden Fleece went by the same coast, he, being a masterly musician, set up better music than that of the sirens, and so enchanted the crew that without the use of thongs or wax they all sailed past the dangerous isle.
In the voyage of life, from childhood to old age, we are exposed to temptations, allurements, perils. One way of escaping them is to force people by restrictions of all kinds, by shutting them out from the world, and making them deaf to its entice ments, to force them to avoid evil. The system, even when it answers, is an inferior one at the best. In the education of the young, constant and galling restraint does not produce satisfactory results. There is a better way. We must set up better music. We must in our religious training not ignore evil but must guard against the power and attraction of evil by making good more powerful and attractive - we must Show forth the majesty of duty, the beauty of holiness, the bliss of faith and hope and righteousness and mercy, the dignity of loyalty, and thus protect the adolescent against the call of lower and alien ideals.
He often preached on the subject of the religious dangers accruing from Jewish boys being allowed to attend Chapel at the public schools. He sometimes succeeded in obtaining the sanction of school authorities for relaxation of rules which interfered with the religion of Jewish pupils. In one important case he found the authorities quite ready to concede an arrangement of marks which would remove the hardship of penalizing Jewish boys who did not attend school on Saturdays.
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