THE most fearful disease in this world is sin. In fact, it is the root of all diseases, mental and physical. Thus the prophet puts the matter: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is desperately sick; who can know it?" Jer. 17:9, R.V. It is sick with the sickness of sin, a disease incurable; for "sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." James 1:15. Men have sought the cure, panaceas without number have asserted their efficacy, but the sickness continues as of old, with its sad fruit of death. The words of the prophet are easily applicable to the whole world: "Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil-doers, children that deal corruptly; they have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are estranged and gone backward. Why will ye be still stricken, that ye revolt more and more? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and festering sores; they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with oil." Isa. 1:4-6. And all are involved in it by nature. "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Rom. 3:23. "Through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin; and so death passed unto all men." Rom. 5:12. All are partakers of the dread disease of the leprosy of sin. Favorable environments, careful treatment, frugal diet, may for awhile keep back the visible outbreaks of leprosy; but if the disease is in the blood, it will sooner or later come to light, and awfully sad—the living death is incurable. The victim may soon succumb as the disease attacks the vital parts, or he may drag on for years, a living death, the fearful malady eating its way through flesh and bone and limb to the life-centers, and the victim dies. What a vivid picture it is of sin—the leprosy of the race! But how much more man dreads the leprosy than he does the sin! How much more the man who has not the leprosy dreads the fearful disease than, generally speaking, those who have had it for some time! The leprosy in its worst forms destroys sensibility. So also does sin. It is deceitful, benumbing, intoxicating, bringing its numerous victims who yield to its influence continually more and more under its nerve-destroying, body-polluting, heart-narcotizing, soul-damning power. The Great Physician sends out His heralds, giving them warning of their danger. He has connected with the dread disease itself the merciful messenger pain, and the characteristic symptoms of the monster. He does all this that men may fear the disease which works out such fearful results, and so strike at the root of all instead of endeavoring to still the voice of pain and to cure the symptoms. But man's efforts avail nothing. The great leprous world goes on unheeded. The panaceas, the remedies, of man are despairingly ineffective. He has discovered in himself and of himself no balm, no remedy, no cure. Its poison is like the crimson and scarlet dye, no chemical can eradicate it. Like the force of gravitation, man knows no power not based upon that principle to counterbalance it. Everything that rises by his wisdom and power, rises, to put it in plain words, because something else is heavier, and for a little time forces it up. "Where is the remedy?" you ask. It is with the Great Physician who made the diagnosis. He does not reveal our condition to tantalize or torment us. With "Him is the fountain of life" and healing, because "with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption." "Who is a God like unto Thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression?" "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Who does not want permanent healing? Then go to the root of the matter. Give up the sin, the cause of all disease, and go to the Only One, the Great Physician, for healing. He declares that if we will do this, "tho your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; tho they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." God wants to heal you, why not let Him do it?