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“The evil suggestion or thought of a bad companion is like the insect’s sting in a young oak leaf, which ripens into the gall-nut when the leaf is mature.” A snake is not harmed by its own poison, but other harmless creatures are affected by it, so an evil-minded man, who already has the poison of sin in him, is not so much harmed by the poisonous influence exerted by an evil man as is a good-minded man.
The upas tree of Java and the poisonous ivy of America produce a kind of noxious juice or oil which is carried round on the wind, and brings dangerous and wasting disease to all who come within its radius. So, in some unrecognised way, the poisonous evil effect of the lives of evil men spreads out on all sides, bearing to many spiritual disease and death.
It has been noted that borers that eat the stoutest timbers, and marine worms that bore the rocks, are extremely soft and delicate. Yet in time they absolutely destroy the hard wood and stones. So, if we do not watch, and, with the help of God, destroy those evil thoughts and habits which appear so negligible, then they, like the borer, will leave nothing but the shell of our spiritual life.
Poisonous reptiles and insects, like snakes and scorpions, strike and wound, and then from their poison glands inject the wounds, and cause death or suffering; but flies and vermin, not counted as dangerous, are really no less deadly, for by acting as carriers of the germs of disease they spread it everywhere and bring about the death of multitudes. So we would not class many men as dangerous criminals who are really just as bad, for, unperceived by others, they use their unbridled tongues to spread around the taint of deadly doctrines and influences.
There is a certain insect which bores into unripe fruit and lays its eggs there, and as the fruit develops, the hole on the outside becomes closed. Later on the eggs hatch out, and the tiny grubs begin to feed on the fruit. Outwardly there is no sign. The fruit looks ripe and tempting, but inside it is hollow and useless. In a like way, evil ideas and habits which we contract in childhood and youth steadily increase, and, working in our innermost souls, corrupt our moral nature. So must we, from our earliest days, be on the watch against the sin that depraves our natures.
In Mexico there is a kind of bean known as “the jumping bean”, which, when the heat of the sun falls on it, begins to twist and turn about until it reaches the shade of a stone or bush. The explanation of this strange fact is that a certain insect has bored into the bean and, by feeding on it, has grown till the pod is hollow. When the heat of the sun falls on it, it struggles to escape, and turns the bean-pod over and over till it happens to reach the shade, where its struggles are calmed by the cool of the shadow. In the same way, evil thoughts and desires enter into human hearts, and when the Sun of Righteousness sheds His light on the sinful life the sinner is disquieted and seeks to escape into the darkness, where His rays do not shine, and so does he live in the outer darkness and lose God’s light and heat.
Since God has made man in His own likeness, there is nothing that can hurt him, if he fulfils this one condition, that in the exercise of his free will he does not entangle himself in sin. We do no sort of harm to God if we sin, but we do injure ourselves, and those related to us. The God of Love desires that we may be saved from sin in all its forms, so that we may enjoy His fellowship, but sin excludes us from this holy association with God. Then between individuals there is such a close relation that our injury becomes the injury of others, and another’s injury becomes ours. It never has been possible, and it never will be, that we can commit evil without injuring others. To some degree or other our fellow-men are affected by the good or bad that we do. Hence the meaning of repentance is that for the future we will refrain from those deeds which are injurious both to ourselves and to others, and, with God’s help and grace, as Zaccheus did, make restitution for what we have already done (Luke 19:8–10).