Worm-eaten by secret sin!

(Theodore Cuyler, "Beulah-Land" or, Words of Cheer for Christian Pilgrims)

"The righteous will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green." Psalm 92:12-14

He alone is a cedar of Christ's training and polishing - who is sound to the very core! For the cedar was famous for its solidity of wood. It knew no decay. It afforded no asylum to any stealthy insect - which turned its aromatic wood into dust and ashes. So stands every faithful, fearless, unflinching, incorruptible Christian! They bid defiance to the worm of sin while they live, and to the worm of calumny when they are dead.

But insidious worms gnaw out the very heart of the pretended piety of the false professor. When the community is shocked by the scandalous sin of some prominent man in the church - it is only the crack of a beam which was worm-eaten by secret sin long before!