This is declared by the prophet to be woe--woe of peculiar intensity and awfulness. "Woe unto their soul!" &c. They stand in peril of the severest chastisements of the Divine justice--+1. Because shamelessness in sin is an aggravation of sin.+ It is felt to be so in the home, in the nation. Disloyalty is an evil thing, but to break forth into open rebellion, and to take the field against the monarch, is worse. +2. Because shamelessness in sin adds to the contagiousness of sin.+ One reason why sin is so hateful in the sight of God is because it renders every sinner a moral pestilence. Corrupt, he corrupts others (Eccles. ix. 18). But of shameless sinners this is especially true. (1) _They lead many to imitate them in their wickedness._ In every community these shameless sinners are ringleaders in vice and recruiting-sergeants for the devil. (2) _They confirm many in wickedness._ Many are "halting between two opinions," and these shameless offenders, by their example, and often by their persuasions, supply that which is needed to bring these irresolute ones to a decision for a life of iniquity. Thus they are soul-murderers as well as soul-suicides. Justice, therefore, demands that their punishment shall be especially severe. Their doom will probably be as manifest as their guilt. APPLICATION. 1. _Let those who have been thus shameless in sin humble themselves before Almighty God._ Even for them to-day there is mercy (ch. lv. 7; i. 18). Let no sinner be deterred from seeking mercy by the greatness of his sins (Ezra ix. 6, with Ps. cviii. 4, and Rom. v. 20). Yet let no sinner presume further to transgress because God is so merciful. There is an awful warning in the gracious invitation (ch. lv. 6). 2. As ignorance is one main cause of shamelessness in sin, _let Sunday-school teachers recognise the importance of the task in which they are engaged._ Though they may not be able to point to individual conversions as the result of their efforts, they are not labouring in vain; by them the moral sense of the community is being raised. Evil as are our days, the testimony is conclusive that the former days were not better, but worse. 3. As habit is another main cause of shamelessness in sin, let _the young be anxiously on their guard against the formation of evil habits._ But habits grow from acts. A single action is consequently more important than it seems. There are certain actions which have in themselves a special decisiveness of influence. When a young man has once entered a bar parlour, he has entered upon the high way to drunkenness; he may not reach it, but he is on the high way to it. Another most decisive step towards shamelessness in sin is taken when a young person who has been trained under Christian influence joins a Sunday excursion. It is by this gate that millions have entered the path of open transgression, along which they have hastened to perdition. 4. _Let the people of God be very careful to leave shameless sinners without