ces of sin are seven: Pride, Covetousness, Lust, Anger,
Gluttony, Envy, and Sloth; and they are commonly called capital sins.

A "source" is that from which anything else comes. The source of a river
is the little spring on the Mountainside where the river first begins.
This little stream runs down the mountain, and as it goes along gathers
strength and size from other little streams running into it. It cuts its
way through the meadows, and marks the course and is the beginning of a
great river, sweeping all things before it and carrying them off to the
ocean. Now, if someone in the beginning had stopped up the little spring
on the mountain--the first source of the river--there would have been no
river in that particular place. It is just the same with sin. There is
one sin that is the source, and as it goes along like the stream it
gathers strength; other sins follow it and are united with it. Again:
each of these "capital sins," as they are called, is like a leader or a
captain in an army, with so many others under him and following him.
Now, if you take away the head, the other members of the body will
perish; so if you destroy the capital sin, the other sins that follow it
will disappear also. Very few persons have all the capital sins: some
are guilty of one of them, some of two, some of three, but few if any
are guilty of them all. The one we are guilty of, and which is the cause
of all our other sins, is called our predominant sin or our ruling
passion. We should try to find it out, and labor to overcome it.

Every one of these capital sins has a great many other sins following
it.

"Pride" is an inordinate self-esteem. Pride comes under the First
Commandment; because by thinking too much of ourselves we neglect God,
and give to ourselves the honor due to Him. Of what have we to be proud?
Of our personal appearance? Disease may efface in one night every trace
of beauty. Of our clothing? It is not ours; we have not produced it;
most of it is taken from the lower animals--wool from the sheep, leather
from the ox, feathers from the bird, etc. Are we proud of our wealth,
money or property? These may be stolen or destroyed by fire. The learned
may become insane, and so we have nothing to be proud of but our good
works. All that we have is from God, and we can have it only as long as
He wishes. We had nothing coming into the world, and we leave it with
nothing but the shroud in which we are buried; and even this does