Sermons vol. 1

PERHAPS there is no more awful thought than this: that sin is all
around us and within us, and we know not what it is. We are beset by it
on every side: it hangs upon us, hovers about us, casts itself across
our path, hides itself where our next foot step is to fall, searches us
through and through, listens at our heart, floats through all our
thoughts, draws our will under its sway, and ourselves under its
dominion; and we do not know what it is. It is a pestilence that
walketh in darkness; nothing stays its advance; it passes through all
barriers, pierces all strongholds; the very air seems to waft it into
our dwellings. Now it is very awful to know this, and yet not to know
what is this malign and deadly power. We read, that in the beginning
sin was not in the world; that "by one man sin entered;" that here it
has ever since abode; that it brought death with it; that "death passed
upon all men, for that all have sinned."