“Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” James 2:10. From this we are to understand that the divine law is to be regarded as one total and entire law; the breaking of one precept, the whole (being a collection of precepts) is broken. It is a perfect chain; the breaking of one link breaks the whole chain. A late expositor says, “The apostle does not say that this, in fact, ever did occur; but he says, that if it should, and yet a man should have failed in only one particular, he must be judged to be guilty.” * Are there not the same reasons for turning from every sin that there are for turning from any one sin? Do we turn from any one sin because God has forbidden it? Why, for the same reason, should we not turn from all sin? He who turns from any one sin, because it is a dishonor to God, a reproach to Christ, a grief to the Spirit, a wound to religion, is under obligations to turn from all sin for the same reason. One sin has done much harm. Only one sin stripped the fallen angels of their dignity and glory. One sin—only one—robbed our first parents of all their purity and power. One thief may rob you of all your treasures. One disease may deprive you of all your health. One dagger, plunged to the heart, kills as effectually as ten. One spark explodes the whole magazine. If a ship springs a leak in three places or ten, and all are stopped but one, that one leak will sink the ship. We cannot take one sin into our bosom, and shut all the rest out. They come in swarms, at the bidding of the lone occupant. A little thief put in at the window, will open the door for fifty more, much larger and stronger, to enter. We should remember that a holy God never shares honors with an unholy devil. He approves of neither halting nor halving. He will not allow us to divide our hearts between holiness and sin, between Christ and the world. We cannot swear by God and Baal. We are required to abandon our covert, as well as our open sins; our loved as well as our loathed lusts; our baby iniquities as well as our giant-like provocations. Gideon had seventy sons and only one bastard, and yet that one bastard managed to destroy all the rest; so, that evil disposition which leads us to venture upon a violation of one of God’s precepts, were it not for some sinister motive, would lead us to break any and every commandment, when it should serve our turn to do so. The precepts of the Almighty are one beautiful string of pearls; break the string in any place, and all the pearls fall to the ground. Let us not conclude, therefore, that, because we are guilty of but one sin, we are less exposed to ruin than those who are guilty of many. Whatever sets a soul in conflict with God, unless abandoned, will prove the ruin of that soul. One sin will do that as surely as many. Satan will make his nest in the smallest sin, and unless expelled, will very soon hatch all manner of wickedness. A sinful emotion, if it be not at once rejected, will procure consent; and consent will break forth into acts; and acts will ripen into habit; and habit will blind conscience, and conscience, when blinded, will permit the soul to practice the basest sins unreproved. “Why not, then, abandon every sin? Why not expel every base intruder? Why not proclaim universal freedom; If we have harbored a single foe to our King, let us out with it, and forever bolt the gates against its return. Let us seek that we may find, and find that we may enjoy, and enjoy that we may inherit, the precious gift.”—Advocate of Holiness.