The First Evils

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 8, 1906

BEWARE of the first evils, for as sure as you are living, the first step taken will make the second seem to become necessary. The first drop will be followed by a bigger second, and the second, at a shorter interval, by a more copious third, until the drops become a shower, and the shower becomes a deluge. The course of evil is ever wider and deeper and more tumultuous. The little sins get in at the window, and open the front door for the big house-breakers. One smooths the path for the other. All sin has an awful power of perpetuating and increasing itself. As the prophet says in his awful vision of the doleful creatures that make their sport in a desolate city, “None shall want her mate.” “The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island.” Every sin tells upon character, and makes the repetition of itself more and more easy. “None is barren among them.” And all sin is linked together in a slimy tangle, like a field of seaweed, so that the man once caught in its oozy fingers is sure to drown.—Maclaren.