iii. 9. _They declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not._
Extremes are generally detestable: equatorial heat, arctic cold; the
speaker whom we must strain to hear, the orator who roars, &c. So in
morals: foolhardy rashness, cowardice; prodigality, penuriousness;
hypocrites, and such shameless sinners as are spoken of here. Such
persons are even more detestable than hypocrites; these at least pay
this homage to virtue, that they array themselves in her outer
garments. Desperate and vain is the endeavour to cloak iniquity, yet
even this is better than the effrontery which leads some to flaunt it
in open day. How surprising is such effrontery! When we consider what
sin is--a thing horribly degrading to man as well as insufferably
offensive to God--we should have expected beforehand that men would
have been as anxious to hide their vices, as they are to conceal any
loathsome disease with which they may be afflicted. But it is not so.
There are tens of thousands of sinners as devoid of shame as were
those who dwelt in Sodom; nay, they glory in their shame. Consider--
+I.+ THE CAUSES OF SHAMELESSNESS IN SIN.
+1. Ignorance.+ There are many so uninterested in moral and spiritual
things; they have grown up surrounded by such evil examples, that
they have no consciousness of the foulness of their vices, any more
than a peasant has of the ungracefulness of his manners. This cause
operates among the lower classes to an extent scarcely conceivable by
the cultured and refined. +2. Habit.+ Many an open and shameless
sinner, at the outset of his career, when he was first betrayed into
transgression, was ashamed almost to walk through the street, and
imagined that every one whom he met had heard of, and despised him
for, his offence. But the offence was repeated; it became a habit;
and in proportion as it has done so, has the offender's sense of
shame died out of him. He thinks as little of it as a soldier does of
his uniform, which when it was first put on caused him to think that
all eyes were fixed upon him. +3. A desire to silence conscience.+
The effrontery is often assumed, just as the rustic traveller when
near a churchyard whistles, not because he is courageous, but to keep
his courage up. Conscience reproaches and warns, and the sinner seeks
to silence it by greater desperation in wickedness. +4. A seared
conscience.+ In the course just named the sinner too often succeeds.
Conscience, defied and outraged, desists from her useless efforts,
and gives herself over to an insensible lethargy; there will come an
hour of terrible awakening; but meanwhile she is blind, deaf, dumb,
and the sinner perpetrates the most abominable iniquities without a
blush.[1] +5. Infidelity.+ The sinner has succeeded at last in
persuading himself that what he wishes were true is true, and that
there is no God, and, consequently, no day of judgment and no hell.
As soon as men have cast off fear of God, it is easy for them to cast
off fear of men. The ordinary fruit of infidelity is vice. What but
prudence is left to restrain the infidel from partaking in the
pleasures of sin? And how weak prudence is in any real contest with
passion!
+II.+ THE CONSEQUENCES OF SHAMELESSNESS IN SIN.
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
excuse._ It is by the inconsistencies of professing Christians that
such persons endeavour to shield themselves from censure and to
silence their consciences. Hence Eph. v. 15; Col. iv. 5; 1 Thess.
v. 22.