1. Sin causes a _stain_ or scar on the soul. But this stain or scar is not to be regarded as having a positive existence, but to be a privation. A stain is a deficiency in whiteness, as a scar is a defect in healthy smoothness. We are restored as far as guilt goes, by our Baptism, to a state of innocence before God, the infirmity and liability to Sin remains in us, but no condemnation before God. Our souls are white and sound, white as bleached linen, sound as an untorn garment. But every sin committed after Baptism is a loss of purity and of soundness. The soul that has sinned always after bears traces of the sin committed. The blot may be covered, the rent mended, but the traces of its having been made are never removed, though, indeed, the guilt may be put away by true repentance and absolution. This is due to the fact that a sin is a something committed, and an act can never be undone, though its consequences may be rectified. A word spoken can never be recalled, nor can an act that has been done. There is salvation for the sinner that repenteth, but the salvation attained by the penitent is and must be different in kind from that achieved by the soul that has never fallen into wilful sin. 2. Sin entails _condemnation_, subjecting to punishment, either temporal or eternal. All sin is a violation of God's Commandments, and God is a righteous Judge Who will call every man to account for what he has done; but not only _will_ He do so, He _does_ so now; and in this present life, to some extent, does punishment come on the man who sins. We see this in actual life, how that certain acts do bring with them their condemnation and their chastisement on the doer of them. We see the same in nations that transgress God's laws. God visits it upon these nations, and brings them down, till by suffering they have come to recognize their guilt. 3. Sin _alienates_ from God. God hates sin, and he who is in sin is at enmity with God, is separated from God, and God's favour is withdrawn in a large degree from him. Jesus Christ, by His merits, brought us into reconciliation with the Father, blotting out the handwriting of offences that was against us. The merits of Christ's atonement were _applied_ to us at our Baptism. Then we who were aliens were made nigh by the blood of Christ. Every sin after Baptism separates us from God, darkens the light that shines on us, checks the flow of Divine grace that nourishes our spiritual life.