II. Consider how true this is of nations. Wickedness consumes the nation’s prosperity, happiness, strength, and ultimately its existence.[3]
From all this there are many lessons to be learned. 1. He is a fool who makes a sport of sin (Prov. x. 23). He is infinitely more foolish than the child who plays with fire. 2. He is a fool who does not stamp out the fires of unholy passion the instant that he perceives them beginning to kindle upon him. In dealing with sin, or in dealing with fire, our only safety lies in the promptest and most energetic action (H. E. I. 4733, 4734).[4] 3. Those nations are guilty of suicidal folly who legalise vice in any form. 4. Those who pander to a nation’s vices are traitors of the worst kind.[5]—R. A. B.
In this message the prophet affirms that there are resemblances between a fire and sin. It is not a common fire to which he refers, such as is employed for domestic or public purposes. It is a great conflagration which burns the humble shrubbery, the gigantic forest, extends over the land, and sends a mighty column of smoke and flame up to heaven. By attending to this comparison some of the characteristics of sin will vividly appear.
I. The origin of a great fire. Recently we read an account of a great fire, and the paragraph closed with these words: “The origin of the fire is unknown.” Suppositions were made, conjectures were offered, still a deep mystery which may never be unravelled. The same with the origin of sin. We know it had a beginning, for God only is from everlasting. We know it had a beginning before Eve and Adam felt its power, since they were tempted. We know it began with him who is called Satan and the father of lies. Still, there are three questions about it which we cannot answer. 1. Where did it begin? 2. When did it begin? 3. How did it begin? These questions might have been answered; they have not, because such information is not required by us in this stage of our unending history.
II. The progress of a great fire. Place one spark amid combustible material in London. Let it alone. What will be the result? It will leap from point to point, house to house, street to street, until the whole city is in flames. Sin has spread in an exactly similar way. One sin, to the individual; one wrong action, to the family; one immoral look, to thousands; one crime, to a kingdom. The sin of one woman away in the East, some sixty centuries ago, has spread itself amongst the whole race; and there is not one who has not felt, to some extent, its scorching power.
III. The transforming power of a great fire. Wood, coal, &c., it transforms into its own essence, because it makes fire of these. It is even so with sin. It turns everything, over which it gains the slightest control, into its own nature—that is, into a curse. The desire to possess, sin has turned it in a different direction, and made it an autocratic passion. Take the principle of ambition the same way. Take commerce in the same way. Thus the richest blessings, yea, all the blessings which God has given to us, sin can so transform that they shall become curses.
IV. The destructive energy of a great fire. Who can calculate the amount of property in London alone which has been destroyed by fire? But the destruction which sin has caused in London is infinitely greater and more momentous. Some have bodies once beautiful, now bloated and withered by sin. Some have feelings, once tender, now petrified by sin. Some whole intellectual powers were once strong, now feeble by sin. Some, who were once full of hope, now hopeless by sin. The destruction which sin has caused is awful. And this it must ever do to all who touch it. Avoid it, therefore, more than anything else. Herein only is safety.
V. The termination of a great fire. It terminates when all the material is consumed and reduced to ashes. Can the fire of sin ever be put out in this way? The body in the grave is scorched by it no more; but what of the soul? Look at the rich man. He is tormented, in pain, not by a literal flame, but by the fire of sin. He will be so for ever, because the soul is immortal.
A great fire has been terminated by a superior quenching power. There is also an element which can completely remove sin from the soul. What is it? Nothing can be more important than the true answer to this question. Health must depart, trade must be left, money not required. Our souls must live for ever. With sin, no heaven, but hell. How delivered? Ask those in heaven, and those on earth, who have been saved. They all say that the fires of unholy passion have been quenched in them, and their guilt removed, by the blood of the Lamb. Apply at once to the same source.—A. McAuslane, D.D.