No sooner had this first sin been consummated than a blight fell upon the world. It had become the devil's empire, for he had made Adam its king, his slave. What are the consequences to the inhabitants of the world?

Adam and Eve were cast out of Paradise never again to enter. Their peace was gone, there was confusion within them, concupiscence fought against reason. Pain and sorrow, disease, and death came upon them. For nine hundred years they toiled painfully in weariness upon the earth, and after their death had to wait three thousand years before they were admitted to the Heavenly Paradise. And all for one sin!

The effects of their sin were not limited to themselves alone. All their descendants received from them an inheritance of woe. All the wars, famines, pestilences, all the broken hearts, all the wretched lives of millions had their source in this one sin. How almost infinite are the consequences of sin! Yet I think so little of my sins, and of the punishment that I shall have to pay for them.

If we would behold the full malice of Adam's sin, we must stand beneath the Cross, and watch our God dying in unutterable anguish. It was sin that nailed Him to the Cross. It was sin that forced from Him His agonizing cry: "My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?"

Pray for a horror of sin corresponding to its intensity of evil.