Sin is evil in the nature of it. Sin is not only a defection, but a pollution. It is to the soul as rust is to gold, as a stain to beauty. It makes the soul red with guilt, and black with filth. Sin has blotted God's image, and stained the orient brightness of the soul.
Sin drops poison on our holy things, it infects our prayers.
Duties of religion in themselves are good, but sin corrupts them, as the purest water is polluted by running through muddy ground. If the leper, under the law, had touched the altar, the altar would not have cleansed him, but he would have defiled the altar. Sin stamps the devil's image on a man. Malice is the devil's eye, hypocrisy his cloven foot. To grieve is more than to anger.