The God of truth declares, that all have sinned; the broken law cries for vengeance against transgressors, and by it is the knowledge of sin; conscience, God's deputy in every man's bosom, tells him he is guilty; the reign of death, and the groans of the creatures round about us, all bear testimony that there is such a thing as sin in the world.
—Fisher's Catechism.
I learn the depth to which I have sunk from the length of the chain let down to up-draw me. I ascertain the mightiness of the ruin by examining the machinery for restoration.
There is the seed of all sins—of the vilest and worst of sins—in the best of men.
No sin is small. It is a sin against an infinite God, and may have consequences immeasurable. No grain of sand is small in the mechanism of a watch.
St. Augustine used to say that, but for God's grace, he should have been capable of committing any crime; and it is when we feel this sincerely, that we are most likely to be really improving, and best able to give assistance to others without moral loss to ourselves.
Remember that every guilty compliance with the humors of the world, every sinful indulgence of our own passions, is laying up cares and fears for the hour of darkness; and that the remembrance of ill-spent time will strew our sick-bed with thorns, and rack our sinking spirits with despair.
