Ripe in Iniquity

That moment in time when people can no longer repent, when they have reached the limit when judgment will overtake them. Fruit is fully ripe at that moment when further ripening would not mean improvement but only deterioration. When the fruit is ripe there is no point in letting it remain longer on the tree. Ripeness is that state of things when nothing further remains to be done in the direction of ripening, and the process has reached the end. A society has reached such a point when it can no longer go in the direction it has been taking, when the only hope of motion lies in a change or a direct reversal of direction. See INIQUITY.