It sounds so Old Testament to say it, but the day’s news sometimes seems like a struggle between good and evil.

There’s the unfolding drama in the Mattapan section of Boston where four people were dragged from their home and shot to death, including a child. One man has been arrested in connection with the slayings, which have outraged the city.

Then there was the sentencing Monday of Darlene George in York County Superior Court for initiating a brutal plot to kill her husband.

Her brother has been sentenced to life in prison for his role in the 2008 homicide, which they disguised to look like a random break-in and robbery.

Only days before, in the same courthouse, Jason Twardus, 29, was convicted of murder in the death of Kelly Gorham of Maine.

Twardus, of Rochester, N.H., was accused of killing Gorham and burying her body on his father’s property in New Hampshire. He maintained his innocence throughout the trial.

Then there was the conviction Tuesday of a Connecticut man, Steven Hayes, accused of killing a woman and her two daughters after clubbing the husband unconscious and locking him in the basement. Another man awaits trial for the slayings, which may earn them the death penalty.

Fortunately, we usually have far more examples of kind-hearted people doing good.

Prominent among them is Bobby Silcott of Naples who has a dream — to outfit every ambulance in Maine with a snout-friendly oxygen mask.

As a volunteer firefighter and EMT, he has seen how fires devastate families. The SPCA estimates 40,000 pets per year die in house fires, compounding the emotional toll a fire takes on a family.

So far, he has raised enough money to buy 62 sets of pet masks.

Then there are the more than 4,000 people who walked, biked, ran or volunteered last weekend in the Dempsey Challenge, the second annual fundraiser led by TV star and local hero Patrick Dempsey.

In all, more than $1 million was raised for the Dempsey Center for Cancer Hope and Healing at Central Maine Medical Center. Dempsey’s mother is a cancer survivor.

Most touching were the personal stories and photos of people who have benefited from the good wok done there.

And then there are the many, many people who have already donated money to rescue the YWCA of Central Maine, led by Lee Young and fundraiser extraordinaire Toni Ramsey.

Del and Priscilla Gendron kicked off the effort to save the YWCA just hours after hearing the local institution would have to close.

Clearly, there are monsters in our midst. Fortunately, there are many more angels.