The courtroom was hushed with deadly silence. Before the bench stood a youthful prisoner, under twenty. He was about to be sentenced for a terrible crime. Time and again he had been in the reformatory and each time he got out he committed another crime and was shuttled from freedom to stripes with the regularity of the tides. This time the judge tried to reason with him about being good. But the prisoner answered with a helpless look.
"If," the judge began, "if we let you go, will you be a good boy?"
"I'm tired of wearing stripes. I've tried to do better each time but I just can't make it. There's something inside me that won't let me do good. I'm helpless, Judge, you'd just as well go ahead and break my neck."
There is in the human heart that something which inclines toward evil, and man alone is unable to break the spell which it throws over the mental inclinations. It pulls toward evil. It lures after lust. It drags with unbreakable chains toward the pit. Bit by bit it wears away all resistance until the soul is given over to evil doing. It knows no inhibitory powers. It will not be ruled by law, nor bow to custom, nor will it surrender to the claim of right doing.
It is the carnal nature in man; an inward something that bends and warps the personality beyond human repair. The only hope for its control is its complete removal by the sanctifying power of God.
By William Moses Tidwell, "Effective Illustrations."