Think of how many pure desires and innocent susceptibilities die out of a sinful soul. Think of how many capacities for good disappear. Think of how dry and seared the heart becomes. Think of how conscience is stifled.
All sin—any sin—does this.
Not only gross, open transgressions, but any piece of godless living will do it.
Whatever a man does against his conscience—neglect of duty, habitual unveracity, idleness—in a word, his besetting sin withers him up.
And all the while the evil thing that is drawing his life-blood is growing like a poisonous, blotched fungus in a wine-cask.
II. Sin makes men inflammable.
'As tow' or tinder.
A subsidiary reference may be intended to the sinful man as easily catching fire at temptation. But the main thought is that sin makes a man ready for destruction, 'whose end is to be burned.'
The materials for retribution are laid up in a man's nature by wrong-doing. The conspirators store the dynamite in a dark cellar. Conscience and memory are charged with explosives.
If tendencies, habits, and desires become tyrannous by long indulgence and cannot be indulged, what a fierce fire would rage then!