and therefore spend five pounds while you only possess four, your
mistake will not prevent your being in debt. And so with all mortal
affairs.

Sin, [Greek], means first, it seems to me, a missing the mark, end,
or aim of our existence; a falling short of the law, the ideal, the
good works which God has prepared beforehand for us to walk in; and
every such sin, conscious or unconscious, must avenge itself by the
Divine laws of the universe, whether physical or spiritual. No
miracle is needed; no intervention of God with his own laws. His
laws are far too well made for him to need to break them a second
time, because a sinner has broken them already. They avenge
themselves. And so does polygamy. So it did in the case of David.
It is a breach of the ideal law of human nature; and he who breaks
that law must suffer, as David suffered.

Look at the latter history of David, and at what it might have been.
One can conceive so noble a personage under such woman's influence
as, thank God, is common now, going down into an honoured old age,
and living together with a helpmate worthy of him in godly love and
honesty to his life's end; seeing his children Christianly and
virtuously brought up, to the praise and honour of God.

And what was the fact?

The indulgence of his passions--seemingly harmless to him at first--
becomes most harmful ere he dies. He commits a crime, or rather a
complication of crimes, which stains his name for ever among men.

I do not think that we shall understand that great crime of David's,