IT Sin can have but one ending — death — death — death. The Boul that ainneth it shall die, so rings the warning of God. How foolishly we talk of it ! When it is the child, we say, " He is young, and will grow better." When it is the youth, we say, " Let him sow his wild oats, and he will settle down." Ah, what cruel folly ! What a man soweth, that shall he also reap. When it is middle age, we say, " Yes, it is very sad, but he has a great many good points, you know." And when he is an old man and dies, we say, " Well, we must hope for the best." And in upon this Babel there comes the terrible note of doom : The wages of sin is death.i
2. Is it always immediate ? Not always. May we not play with the serpent ? We may not. Are there not moments when the cruel beast is not cruel ? Not one. The sandwasp paralyses the beetle with his sting that he may, and that his progeny may, profit by the paralysis. The sandwasp does not kill the insect, but thrusts a sting into him, not fatally ; the insect can still lay eggs for the advantage of the progeny of the sandwasp. It is so with many serpentine tricks ; we are paralysed to be used, not to-day, but to be eaten in six months. We are so paralysed that we will do this or do that and have joy in it and have a banquet over it, ay, a foaming tankard of wine that froths out its own mocking laugh. It is the sting of the sandwasp; it has thrust in that venomous sting and hung us up for the next meeting, for the next occasion, just before the bankruptcy comes, and the devouring of our very soul by those whom we have wronged.
^ The worst consequences of sin are sin itself, more sin. Drink and lust mean stronger passion, more ungovernable desire. Anger and temper mean as their consequence a heart more bitter, more ready for more wrath. Selfish ways mean less power even to see when we are selfish or what selfishness is. Yes, and not only is there deepening of the same sin, but other sins are bred from it ; cruelty, even murderous, out of lust and drink ; cruelty, too, out of selfishness; lying and slander out of the hot heart and un- governed life of auger. So it goes : sin breeding sin, sin deepen- ing into more sin.*
^ It is necessary to be ever vigilant, and, always looking on a
» M. G. Pearae. • £. S. TalboU
NUMBERS XXI. 8, 9 395
trifling sin as one of magnitude, to flee far from it ; because if the virtuous deeds exceed the sinful acts by even the point of one of the hairs of the eyelashes, the spirit goes to Paradise ; but should the contrary be the case, it descends to hell.^
3. What was the sin the Israelites were guilty of ?
(1) The fiery serpents came among the people because they had despised God's way. " The soul of the people was much dis- couraged because of the way." It was God's way ; He had chosen it for them, and He had chosen it in wisdom and mercy, but they murmured at it. As an old divine says, " It was lone- some and longsome " ; but still it was God's way, and therefore it ought not to have been loathsome. His pillar of fire and cloud went before them, and His servants Moses and Aaron led them like a flock, and they ought to have followed cheerfully. Every step of their previous journey had been rightly ordered, and they ought to have been quite sure that this compassing of the land of Edom was rightly ordered too. But, no; they quarrelled with God's way, and wanted to have their own way. This is one of the great standing follies of men ; they cannot be content to wait on the Lord and keep His way, but prefer a will and a way of their own.
(2) The people also quarrelled vnth God's food. He gave them the best of the best, for " men did eat angels' food " ; but they called the manna by an opprobrious title, which in the Hebrew has a sound of ridicule about it, and even in our translation conveys the idea of contempt. They said, "Our soul loatheth this light bread," as if they thought it imsubstantial, and only fitted to puff them out, because it was easy of digestion, and did not breed in them that heat of blood and tendency to disease which a heavier diet would have brought with it. Being dis- contented with their God they quarrelled with the bread which He set upon their table. This is another of man's folHes; his heart refuses to feed upon God's Word or beheve God's truth. He craves the flesh-meat of carnal reason, the leeks and the garlic of superstitious tradition, and the cucumbers of specula- tion ; he cannot bring his mind down to believe the Word of God, or to accept truth so simple, so fitted to the capacity of a child.