that he will commit, but millions. It is not in one thing that he will
has made the whole universe look upon it and see its loathsomeness. He let it run its course, now that the flood-gates have been opened, in order that it may shew itself fully and spread itself out in all its hideous variety, exhibiting itself, not in one form, but in ten thousand times ten thousand forms.*
* Thus one wrote eighteen years ago :—"That sin should poison life's fountain in a being created so noble as Adam; that sin should poison the streams of life in all their branches; that one sin should engender from its venomous drop enough of suffering to steep a world in misery,—is indeed an awful truth .
. . . one of the mightiest demonstrations of sin's iron gripe and deadly hold, proving it to be all but the mightiest power in being." Most truly and not too strongly spoken!
He knew what sin was and what was in sin. But we did not; nay, we could not. We must see it in detail. It must be spread out. He knew what that one small seed contained; but we could not, unless we saw the whole of this " boundless upas, this all-blasting tree."
Therefore that seed is allowed to take root and spring up, and ripen its fruit, and spread its branches over all the earth. Thus God meant to shew us " the exceeding sinfulness of sin; " to teach us that it is not merely a calamity over which he grieves, but an evil which he utterly hates, and against which his wrath must be directed in all its fierceness.
2. He wished to shew the wickedness of the creature. It is not one sin that he will commit, but millions. It is not in one thing that he will prefer the gift to the Giver, but in everything. It is not in one particular that he will mistrust or deny the Creator's goodness, but in every particular, great and small. Nay, he will hate God. He will mock