2. Sin is like a disease because it puts all the faculties out of gear, and breaks the equilibrium of the life forces, just as disease disturbs all our bodily functions. When a man is sick and ill, nothing about him works as it ought to do. There are some particular symptoms which, first of all, betray the existence of the virus of disease ; but you cannot injure any one power of the body without the rest being in their measure put out of order. Thus has sin come into the soul of man, and put him altogether
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out of gear. Sometimes, a certain passion becomes predominant in a person quite out of proportion to the rest of his manhood. Things that might have been right in themselves, grow by indul- gence into positive evils, while other things which ought to have had an open existence are suppressed until the suppression be- comes a crime. As long as a man is under the power of sin, his soul is under the power of a disease which has disturbed all his faculties, and taken away the correct action from every part of his being.
3. Sin is a disease because it weakens the moral energy, just as many diseases weaken the sick person's body. A man, under the influence of some particular disease, becomes quite incapaci- tated for his work. There was a time when he was strong and athletic, but disease has entered his system, and so his nerves have lost their former force ; and he, who would be the helper of others, becomes impotent, and needs to be waited upon himself. Does not the apostle speak of us as being " without strength " when " in due time Christ died for the ungodly ? " The man has not the power or the will to believe in Christ, but yet he can believe a lie most readily, and he has no difficulty in cheating himself into self-conceit. The man has not the strength to quit his sin, though he has power to pursue it with yet greater energy. He is weak in the knees, so that he cannot pray ; he is weak in the eyes, so that he cannot see Jesus as his Saviour ; he is weak in the feet, so that he cannot draw near to God ; he has withered hands, dumb lips, deaf ears, and he is palsied in his whole system.
4. Sin is like a disease because it either caitses great pain or deadens all sensibility, as the case may be ; I do not know, says Spurgeon (whose divisions of sin considered as a disease are here followed), which one might rather choose, whether to be so diseased as to be full of pain, or to be suddenly smitten by a paralytic stroke, 80 as not to be able to feel at all. In spiritual things, the latter is the worse of the two evils. There are sinners who appear to feel nothing ; they sin, but their conscience does not accuse them concerning it. They purpose to go yet further into sin, and they reject Christ, and turn aside from Him even when the Spirit of God is striving with them, for they are insensible to the wrong they are doing. They do not feel, they cannot feel, and, alas !
o
oS THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
they do not even want to feel ; they are callous and obdurate, and, as the apostle says, " past feeling." In others, sin causes constant misery. I do not mean that godly sorrow which leads to penitence, for sin never brings its own repentance ; but by way of remorse, or else of ungratified desire, or restlessness such as is natural to men who try to fill their immortal spirits with the empty joys of this poor world. Are there not many who, if they had all they have ever wished for, would still wish for more ? If they could at this moment gratify every desire they have, they would but be as men who drink of the brine of the sea, whose thirst is not thereby quenched, but only increased.
5. Sin is also like a disease, because it frequently produces a manifest pollution. All disease in the body does pollute it in some way or other. Turn the microscope upon the part affected, and you will soon discover that there is something obnoxious there. But sin in the soul pollutes terribly in the sight of God. There are quiet, respectable sins which men can conceal from their fellow-creatures, so that they can keep their place in society, and seem to be all that they ought to be ; but there are other sins which, like the leprosy of old, are white upon their brows. There are sins that are to be seen in the outward appearance of the man ; his speech betrays him, his walk and conversation indicate what is going on within his heart.
6. Sin is like disease because it tends to in/^rease in the man, and will one day prove fatal to him. You cannot say to disease, " Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further." There are some diseases that seem to come very gradually, but they come very surely. There is the hectic flush, the trying cough, the painful breathing, and we begin to feel that consumption is coming, and very soon — terribly soon to those who love them — those who were once hale and hearty, to all appearance, become like walking skeletons, for the fell disease has laid its cruel hand upon them, and will not let them go. So, my friend, as long as sin is in you, you need not deceive yourself, and think you can get rid of it when you will, for you cannot. It must be driven out by a higher power than your own ; this disease must be cured by the great Physician, or else it will keep on increasing until at last you die. Sin will grow upon