SIN ALWAYS IN THE PLURAL NUMBER.
SIN never comes singly. There is no such thing as “just this once” about doing wrong. As the old proverb says, “Sin always has a sin on either arm.” The bad deed must support itself on this side and on that one by the false word. The foolish pride, which we half excuse, makes us commit the unkindness which we did not mean. “Who knocks so loud? A little lonely sin!
‘Slip in,’ we answer, and all hell comes in.” An old legend from the Jewish Talmud says that when Noah was taking the animals into the ark, the Lie came along, and wanted to be admitted, but it had no mate, and Noah said that all things must come in two by two; so the Lie went off, and found Vice, and asked her to come in also. Vice consented, but only on the condition that she should be given all the earnings of the Lie. And ever after what the Lie earneth Vice consumeth it. So is it always “a tangled web we weave,” when we begin the works of evil. There is only one safe rule—that is, “Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away!”—S. S. Times.