The one startling monosyllable which rings all day long!

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(William Bacon Stevens, "Fearfully and Wonderfully Made!")

Why do we die?

Paul answers, "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin; and in this way death came to all men--because all sinned!" Romans 5:12

Death, then, wherever we meet it, is the result of sin! And its sepulchral voice ever repeats, "Man has sinned!"

Every funeral knell--tolls the word sin.

Every stroke of the hammer that drives a nail into the coffin--strikes the sharp quick word sin.

Every passing hearse--rattles the word sin.

Every stroke of the chisel upon the gravestone--clicks the word sin.

Every burial service--tells of sin.

Sin is the one startling monosyllable which rings all day long, and all night long--like the cricket's monotone from every graveyard!

Sin is the one syllable--which the great sea ever moans forth from its charnel depths!

Sin is the one fearful cry--which dwells on the bloodless lips of the pestilence!

Sin is the one appalling shriek--which rings louder than the cannon's roar on the field of blood!

There is not a day, nor an hour, nor a minute, nor a second of time--when Death as he hurls his dart into some victim's heart, does not shout the word, which tells the whole story of himself and his deeds--and that one word is "SIN!"

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