_BLESSINGS AND CURSINGS_
"_He read all the words of the law, the blessings and the cursings._"
--JOSHUA viii. 30-35.
We are inclined to read only what pleases us, to hug the blessings and to
ignore the warnings. We bask in the light, we close our eyes to the
lightning. We recount the promises, we shut our ears to the rebukes. We
love the passages which speak of our Master's gentleness, we turn away
from those which reveal His severity. And all this is unwise, and
therefore unhealthy. We become spiritually soft and anæmic. We lack moral
stamina. We are incapable of noble hatred and of holy scorn. We are
invertebrate, and on the evil day we are not able to stand.
We must read "all the words of the law, the blessings and the cursings."
We must let the Lord brace us with His severities. We must gaze steadily
upon the appalling fearfulness of sin, and upon its terrific issues. At
all costs we must get rid of the spurious gentleness that holds compromise
with uncleanness, that effeminate affection which is destitute of holy
fire. We must seek the love which burns everlastingly against all sin; we
must seek the gentleness which can fiercely grip a poisonous growth and
tear it out to its last hidden root. We must seek that holy love which is
as a "consuming fire."