The great storehouse of iniquity!

(John Angell James, "The Anxious Enquirer" 1834)

"From the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries,
 sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies, blasphemies.
 These are the things that defile a man." Matthew 15:19-20

The heart is the polluted fountain from whence all the
muddy streams of evil conduct flow! The heart is the
great storehouse of iniquity! Men sometimes make
excuse for their evil deeds, by saying, that they have
good hearts at the bottom. This, however, is an awful
mistake, for every man's heart, not excepting the most
wicked, is really worse than his conduct!

Men think little of sin--but does God?

What turned Adam and Eve out of paradise? Sin!

What drowned the old world in the flood? Sin!

What brought disease, accidents, toil, care, war,
pestilence, and famine into the world? Sin!

What has converted the world into one great
burying-place of its inhabitants? Sin!

What lights the flames of hell? Sin!

What crucified the Lord of life and glory? Sin!

What then must sin be? Who but God, and what
but His infinite mind--can conceive of its evil nature?