Page:The Garden of Eden (Doughty).djvu/100

 

VI.

THE CURSE.

And unto Adam he said. Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake.— Gen. iii. 17.

HE curses expressed in the Bible are peculiar. They bear no similarity to those evoked by human passion. When man, under the influence of a feeling that is born of sin, bursts forth into profane ravings against the neighbor, invoking maledictions on his head, he speaks under the prompting influence of hell. It is anger, or resentment, or revenge, wounded pride or defeated purpose, that would deal damnation and ruin to the offending party. Resentment in any form is as far from the Lord's nature as it is possible for anything to be.

Is it not strange that men will persistently attribute to God that which all condemn in a professed servant of God? Is it not amazing that they will clothe the Divine Being with human passions, when the whole end and aim of Christianity is to lead man to curb and subdue the same passions? Who would justify resentments, maledictions or curses in a Christian? And how