nlikc to consci11_nce am! the facts or life, which the Greeks sou,-,l,t to personify in the Erinycs, in Nemesis, a:r:id in Ate, who.clung to a m~n o~ to a fa7nily in punishment for some half-forgotten cnme. 4. By literature, which 1s full of the rrco,,nition of nvenging powers. The Bible confirms the substance of this varied teacbin; but lifts the subject out of the region of mythology. Jehovah alone has power t0'tlcss and curse. The blessings and curses of men have no efficacy save as he "ive.~ it to them. His blessings anil curses are part of the moral government of the "world, and t.urn exclusively on moral conditions. This is the contrast between the Bible and the heathen idea of a curse. The curse was a prominent part of heathen sorcery, but wa.~ wrought with charms and incantations. Protection against it was sought, not in a life of virtue, but in counter-charms and amulets-in conjurations more powerful than those of the enemy. The Bible countenances no such superstitions. Incantations arc value- less. A curse is futile against those whom God has blessed (Numb. xxiii. 20-23). 'fhe Bible doctrine is: 1. Simple. 2. Rational. 3. Ethical. That of heathenism (with its modern survivals, the evil eye, charms, witches, etc.) is conspicuously the reverse. I. THE CURSE m ITS NATURE. 1. A natural fruit of sin. Natural process is not the whole. But a larger place may be allowed it than it had in the blessing. The blessing is "gift;" sin's fruit is of" debt"-" wages" (Rom. vi. 23). Conceivably, yet without miracle, God might have withheld from virtue its appropriate outward reward. But no power, even that of God, could prevent the sinner from reaping wretchedness and woe as a result of sin. "The righteous shall be recompensed in the earth; much more the wicked and the sinner" (Prov. xi. 31). The wiser course is not to oppose God to the laws of our moral nature, but to recognize him in them, and to draw from them a knowledge of his character and will. These, like all punitive laws, are the executors of his judgrnents. ·The sinner, having placed himself in conflict with the laws of life, of society, and of the outward universe, necessarily suffers in mind, body, and estate. Sin introduces discord, disorder, lawlessness, into the soul. It blinds and infatuates (vers. 28, 29). It makes wretched. This wretchedness is aggra.vatecl: (1) By remorse and self-reproach. (2) By sense of Divine anger. (3) By opprobrium of society. (4) By imaginative. terrors. Sin poisons the fountains of health, and induces diseases (vers. 22, 27, 35). The internal anarchy spreads outwards. The bon,ls of society are loosened; wealth accumulates in the hands of the few; the unhappy toilers, oppressed and spoiled, sink deeper and deeper in debt and wretchedness. At this stage the nation becomes an easy prey to the first strong power that cares to pounce upon it (vers. 29-38). 2. .An effect of hostile action on the part of God. We fail of a complete view if we look only at the hostile relation of the sinner to God, and leave out of account the hostile relation which God assumes to the sinner. It is not merely that the s.inner gets into conflict with himself and with the world around him, but nature and providence, under the direction of a hostile will, take up an antagonistic relation to him. Their movements are no longer for his good, but hostile and retributive (vers. 20-24). So the mental maladies of ver. 28 are more than the merely natural effects of.sin (cf. 1 Kings xxii. 22). "The inquiring mind," says Dr. M'Cosh, "will discover designed combinations, many and wonderful, between the various events of Divine providence. What singular unions of two streams at the proper place to help on the exertions of the great and good ! \Vhat curious intersections of cords to catch the wicked, as in a net, when they are prowling as wild beasts! By strange but most apposite correspondences, human strength, when set against the will of God, is made to waste away under his indignation, burning against it, as, in heathen story, Meleager wasted away as the stick burned which his mother held in the fire." Laws of nature are the warp, Divine providence the woof, of this awful garment of the curse with which the sinner clothes himself. II. THE CURSE m ITS OPERATION. Pictured in these verses in ample and vivid detail. 'l'he counterpart of the blessing (vers. 15-26). Takes effect in misfortune (ver, 20), sore diseases (vers. 21, 22), scourging by natural agencies (vers. 23, 24), in- vasions by enemies (vers. 25, 26). Action and reaction lead to the reproduction of these evils in aggravated forms. To worse bodily plagues (ver. 27) are superadded mental maladies (vers. 28, 29), issuing in renewed panic and defeat in war (ver. 29), with innumerable resultant calamities (vers. 30-33). Confusion and anarchy unit, with oppression to produce madness of heart (ver. 34), disease pursues its ravages it TI1E nooli. OF mmTER,)NO)lY. [en. XXVIU. 1-08.
fpnm nr inrrcnsing malignity (ver. 35), and the nation ultimately sinks in total ruin (n~rs. :~G, 37). Meanwhile, co-operating with these causes to reduce it to subjection, the curse has been working in all labonr and enterprise, thwarting, blasting, destroying (wrs. 43, 44; cf. Amos iv. 6-12; Ha~. i. 5-12; Mai. ii. 2). The full terribleness of lhe Divine curse, however, is only brought out in the New Testament. As the re- lation of God to the soul goes deeper than life in the world, so it extends beyond it. The worse p&rt of the curse is the sinking or the soul in its own corruptions, with the drying up of its possibilities or life, peace, and joy, under the weight of the Divine dis• pleasure-an experience of "indignation and wralh, tribulation a11d anguish, upon ever~· soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile" (Rom. ii. 8, !J). Happily, no man in this life knows what the full extent of that curse is (Jsn. ]\-ii. 16). A remedial system is in operation, in virtue of which no soul is utterly deserted or grnce, and even the natural workings of sin are manifoldly checked, limited, and counteracted. Space is thus given for repentance, and salvation is possible. 'l'he end, however, if the riches of this goodness and forbearance are despised, will only be the more terrible (Rom. ii. 3-10). III. TrrE cunsE IN rrs CAUSES. Sin, disobedience (vers. 45, 46). The curses ,nitt.cn in this book were lit.crally fulfilled. Israel would not serve the Lord with joyfnlness and gladness of heart, therefore-sad retribution !-she had to serve her enemies "in lrnngcr, and in thirst, and in nakedness, end ia want of all thiugs" (ver. 4:<; cf. the prodigal son, Luke xv. 14-li). .All sin ends in bondai!:e, Nations that imitate Israel in her sins may expect to be made like her in ber punisbment.-J. 0.