followed by an uprising on the part of all nature against man. His flesh is no longer subject to his reason and will; his appetites become inordinate, his inclinations, evil. The beasts of the field and the birds of the air array themselves against him. Earth, water, fire and air conspire for his destruction by the thousand and one dangers peculiar to each. See our exiled parents crushed under this avalanche of woes, hear them wailing like lost souls over the body of murdered Abel; behold the fleeing Cain, with the brand upon his brow, an outcast on the face of the earth— consider all these miseries and the numberless times that history has repeated itself since then, and let the whole be an answer to your question: What is the malice of one mortal sin?
Brethren, history has repeated itself. Consider the Deluge. " All flesh," says the Scripture, " had corrupted its way upon the earth and the whole earth was filled with iniquity." What a breach of filial respect would that be that could cause a fond father to regret ever having given being to his child! "Yet God," says the Scripture, "repented Him of ever having made man, and proceeded to destroy him." Imagine that awful scene. At the beginning of the forty days' downpour men looked on with indifference, then with surprise, then with horror. Presently there was a mad rush and struggle for the highest places, but slowly the water envelops even the highest. The mother dies holding aloft her babe; the lover perishes in a vain effort to save his beloved; the family clasps hands, sobs farewell and
