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Sin is an evil of fearful tendencies, and necessarily productive, if unchecked, of remediless consequences. The reason is obvious. Moral evil corrupts and vitiates the mind itself, carries the contagion of a mortal disease through all its affections and powers, and affects the moral condition of the man through the whole duration of his being.

I. THE VIEWS IT AFFORDS OF THE POWER AND PROGRESS OF EVIL IN THE HUMAN KIND.

1. It ensnares. Reference is to the methods adopted in the East by those who hunt for game, or for beasts of prey. Evil allures under the form of good. All the way is white as snow that hides the pit.

2. It enslaves. St. Paul speaks of the "bondage of corruption," and of the hardening of the heart through the deceitfulness of sin. Sin gathers strength from custom, and spreads like a leprosy from limb to limb. The power of habit turns upon the principle that what we have done once we have an aptitude to do again with greater readiness and pleasure. The next temptation finds the sons of folly an easier prey than before.

3. It infatuates. After a seasons wickedness so far extends its power from the passions to the understanding that men become blind to the amount of their own depravity, and in this state begin to fancy music in their chains. It would seem to be one of the prerogatives of sin, like the fascination of the serpent, first to deprive its victims of their senses and then make them an unresisting prey. Guard against the beginnings of sin. Sin prepares for sin.

4. It destroys. The soul is destroyed, not as to the fact of its continued existence, but as to all its Godlike capacities of honour and happiness.

II. SOME OF THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF AGGRAVATION WHICH WILL TEND TO EMBITTER THE SINNER'S DOOM. It must for ever be a melancholy subject of reflection —

1. That the ruin was self-caused. A man may be injured by the sins of others, but his soul can be permanently endangered only by his own. By a fine personification, a man's sins are here described as a kind of personal property and possession. Sin, remorse, and death may be deemed a kind of creation of our own.

2. That the objects were worthless and insignificant for which the blessings of salvation were resigned.

3. That you possessed an ample sufficiency of means for your guidance and direction into the path of life.

4. That the evil incurred is hopeless and irremediable.

III. THE INTERESTING ASPECT UNDER WHICH THIS SUBJECT TEACHES US TO CONTEMPLATE THE DIVINE DISPENSATIONS. It illustrates —

1. The riches of God's mercy in forgiving sin.

2. The power of His grace in subduing sin.

3. The wisdom of His providence in preventing sin.

4. The urgency of His invitations to those who are the slaves of sin.

(Samuel Thodey.)

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KJV: He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.

WEB: He will die for lack of instruction. In the greatness of his folly, he will go astray.