Beware of Sin by Alexander Maclaren

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 8, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 26.

Beware of Sin.

By Alexander Maclaren

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, deeper and more tumultuous. 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 the desolate city, “None of them shall want her mate. The wild beasts of the desert shall meet with the wild beasts of the island.” Every sin tells upon the 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 almost sure to drown.—Dr. Alexander Maclaren.