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We hardly need the pen of the wise man to assure us that -

I. SIN MEANS DISTURBANCE TO OUR SOUL.

1. It is bad enough to be unfortunate; to suffer from privation or loss.

2. It is far worse to be guilty. We soon accommodate ourselves to our misfortunes; we readily adjust ourselves to our circumstances, even though these may be very narrow. But sin strikes deep, and its wound lasts long. Among other painful consequences it fills the soul with a tormenting fear.

(1) It dreads the pursuing penalty of God's ordaining. And it has reason to do so, for "evil pursueth sinners" (see homily on Proverbs 13:21). In accordance with Divine Law, suffering, sorrow, shame, death, are following in the track of iniquity, and, except there be merciful interposition, will lay their hand upon it.

(2) It dreads the pursuing penalty of man. More often than not sin is pursued by man, either by public taw or by private resentment; and he who has wronged his neighbour, either by fraud or force, has reason to expect arrest and punishment. It is well that it should be so. We have come lately to understand that it is our wisdom to abandon the heavy sentence which was seldom inflicted for the lighter one which is far more freely dispensed. The great thing in administering justice is to connect penalty with sin as closely as possible in the mind of those who are tempted to violate the law.

(3) It dreads penalty when there is no punishment at all. "The wicked flee when no man pursueth." The murderer cannot, dare not, stay in the presence of the body he has slain. The thief turns aside from the officer who has no intention of apprehending him. He who has inflicted the greatest wrong that one man can do another shrinks from his neighbour's eye long before his sin has been suspected. Sin fills the soul with a harassing, a tormenting, fear. The guilty heart imagines a hundred dangers before the hand of judgment is outstretched to seize, or even its pursuing feet are on the path of apprehension. We reckon badly indeed if we only count the actual and palpable inflictions of justice which evil pays; in that penalty must be included all the anxieties, the alarms, the quakings and shiverings of the soul, the abject and haunting terrors which agitate the soul before the chains are on the wrist or the prisoner is at the bar.

3. There are two alternatives open to guilt: (Ver. 13.)

(1) It may try concealment; but this is a mistaken as well as a wrong course. It will "not prosper;" the time of concealment will be one of constant disquietude, and it will end in exposure and humiliation, for again and again it is seen that there is "nothing hidden which is not revealed."

(2) It should adopt the course of confession and amendment; whoso does this "shall have mercy" of God, and will very likely indeed have mercy of man also. But even if not, the way of confession and of penalty is less hard and thorny than the path of sin and secrecy, of cowardice and terror. It is often true that while to bear punishment is tolerable, the miserable effort to escape it is absolutely intolerable.

II. RIGHTEOUSNESS MEANS SECURITY AND SERENITY. "The righteous are bold as a lion." To the upright there are two sources of rest and strength.

1. The consciousness of integrity. He that knows and feels his purity, his innocency, has a fearless heart, and shows a brave front to the enemy. He does not fear that the shafts of falsehood will pierce his strong armour of truth and equity.

2. The favour of God. (Ver. 25.) He "puts his trust in the Lord;" he commits his cause to the Righteous One; he is assured that God is on his side, and he "does not fear what man can do unto him." "The Lord is his salvation; whom should he fear?" (see Psalm 27:1-3; Psalm 84:11, 12). - C.

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KJV: The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.

WEB: The wicked flee when no one pursues; but the righteous are as bold as a lion.