WHAT IT IS LIKE—THREE ILLUSTRATIONS OF SIN.

[Objects the speaker will need: a bottle of medicine; a stone hung by a string; a knife to cut the string, letting the stone drop; a crooked plant; a straight plant, tied to a stake.]

Sin is like sickness. It makes people weak and staggering. It keeps people from walking straight in their lives, just as sickness keeps them from walking firmly along the road. It makes people cross and ugly and disagreeable, just as sickness does. It leads to a death that is worse than any death ever caused by any sickness.

What do you do when you are sick? You have a wise doctor, and he gives you medicine. See; here is a bottle of it. Who is the great Physician? Yes, it is Jesus; and if you ask Him he will give you medicine that will heal you of all your sins that make you feel so weak and wretched.

Sin is like a weight. Suppose some one should tie a heavy stone to your feet. You could not leap or run or walk. You could not climb. You could not do much that is good or happy. Wouldn’t you hurry to get your knife and cut the string that bound you to the stone, and rush away from the hateful thing? Here is the knife you would do it with—keen and strong.

But sin is a heavier stone. Haven’t you felt it pulling you down, away from heaven, away from Christ, away from your dear ones, away from happiness? Ask Jesus, and he will cut the cord that ties you to sin, and you will be free.

Sin is like a twisting. Here is a poor, crooked plant. See how one-sided it is, and how rough and ugly its branches are, all twisted out of shape. The plant should have been tied, when it was young, to a straight stick, and then it would have grown straight and strong.

Haven’t you seen many people who are twisted awry by sin? They are bent away from the truth, and their lives are all uneven and ugly. What can make them strong and straight and beautiful again? There is a wonderful standard, that Christ set up in the world when He came down from heaven. It is his life. If we live close to that we shall be sure, shall we not? to grow straight and strong and beautiful.