Sin always bends the soul. Many a young man comes out from a holy home
in the beauty and strength of youth, wearing the unsullied robes of
innocence, with eye clear and uplifted, with aspirations for noble
things, with hopes that are exalted; but a few years later he appears a
debased and ruined man, with soul bent sadly downward. The bending
begins in slight yieldings to sin, but the tendency unchecked grows and
fixes itself in the life in permanent moral disfigurement.
A stage-driver had held the lines for many years, and when he grew old,
his hands were crooked into hooks, and his fingers were so stiffened
that they could not be straightened out. There is a similar process
that goes on in men's souls when they continue to do the same things
over and over. One who is trained from childhood to be gentle, kindly,
patient, to control the temper, to speak softly, to be loving and
charitable, will grow into the radiant beauty of love. One who
accustoms himself to think habitually and only of noble and worthy
things, who sets his affections on things above, and strives to reach
"whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever
things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely," will grow continually
upward, toward spiritual beauty. But on the other hand, if one gives
way from childhood to all ugly tempers, all resentful feelings, all
bitterness and anger, his life will shape itself into the unbeauty of
these dispositions.
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