is not from certain forms of evil, merely, but from evil in all its forms, that we are required to abstain. "Cease to do _evil!_"[2] Sin must be utterly forsaken! not great and flagrant sins only, but also what are called "little sins."[3] These destroy more than great sins.[4] One sin is enough to keep us enslaved to Satan.[5] +IV. An imperative requirement.+ This is not a counsel, which we are at liberty to accept or reject; it is a command, which we disobey at our peril; a command of One who has full power to make His authority respected. +V. A very elementary requirement.+ Men who have laid aside certain evil habits, such as drunkenness, swearing, &c., are apt to plume themselves on what they have done, and to regard themselves as paragons of virtue. But this is a mistake. Ceasing to do evil is but the beginning of a better life; it is but the pulling up of the weeds in a garden, and much more than this is needed before "a garden" can be worthy of the name. Those who have ceased to do evil must "learn to do well."[6] FOOTNOTES: [1] As where punishment is there was sin; so where sin is there will be, there must be, punishment. "If thou dost ill," saith God to Cain, "sin lies at thy door" (Gen. iv. 7). _Sin,_ that is _punishment_ for sin; they are so inseparable, that one word implies both; for the doing ill is the sin, that is within doors; but the suffering ill is the punishment, and that lies like a fierce mastiff at the door, and is ready to fly in our throat when we look forth, and, if it do not then seize upon us, yet it dogs us at the heels; and will be sure to fasten upon us at our greatest disadvantage: _Tum gravior cùm tarda venit, &c._ Joseph's brethren had done heinously ill: what becomes of their sin? It makes no noise, but follows them slily and silently in the wilderness: It follows them home to their father's house; it follows them into Egypt. All this while there is no news of it; but when it found them cooped up three days in Pharaoh's ward, now it bays at them, and flies in their faces. "We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul," &c. (Gen. xlii. 21). What should I instance in that, whereof not Scripture, not books, but the whole world, is full--the inevitable sequences of sin and punishment? Neither can it be otherwise "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" saith Abraham. _Right,_ is to give every one his due: wages is due to work; now "the wages of sin is death:" So then, it stands upon no less ground than very necessary and essential justice to God, that where wickedness hath led the way, there punishment must follow.--_Hall,_ 1574-1656.