is gone, until the last stifled cry of the last human being had rung out over the dreary waste. And over all the scene of horror who presides? God? Merciful Father, is this your work? No, no; He is a God of mercy still. This is not His, this is the work of mortal sin.
Again consider the two fair cities of Sodom and Gomorrha, with all their hundreds and thousands of inhabitants. What was it that made God send a storm of fire and brimstone from heaven to destroy these cities and make their very sites uninhabitable forever? It was that their sin had become exceeding great — it was mortal sin. Stand over against these cities with a light on your face and the smoke whirling about you, and listen to the roar of the flames and the shrieks of the victims and judge from its effects the awful malice of mortal sin. Alas! human history is for the most part a history of woes because it is a history of sin, whereas if sin had never entered the world, man would still be in the enjoyment of his original innocence with all its accompanying blessings. Therefore every calamity that has befallen or will befall the human race; every misery, past, present or future of our own lives are all directly or indirectly the effects of mortal sin.
Brethren, let us look at a soul in the state of mortal sin. What, O soul! is mortal sin to thee? Thou hast burst God's bonds, thou hast cast off His yoke, thou hast said: "I will not serve." An abandoned waif, God adopted, enriched and exalted thee, but thou hast despised Him, flung back His favors in His
