pupil does not rebel against his teacher unless he has first lost due
reverence for that teacher. The fourteenth Psalm, verse 2, says that
Jehovah looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if
there were any that did understand, and that did seek after God. When
he saw there was none he adds there was none who did good; that they
had all become worthless, sinning tongues, sinning with their hands,
fearing where there was no need of fear, and the like.

147. So Ham, in his own estimation, was wise and holy. In his judgment
his father had often acted unrighteously or foolishly. His attitude
discloses a heart that despised, not only the parent, but also the
divine commandment. Hence, nothing remains for the evil-minded son but
to grasp an opportunity for obtaining evidence to betray his father's
foolishness. He does not laugh at his drunken father as a boy would,
nor does he call his brethren merely that they may look upon a
laughable spectacle. He means that this shall be open proof that God
has withdrawn from his father and has accepted himself. Therefore, he
takes delight in disclosing his father's sin to others. As I said
before, Ham was not a boy of seven years, but had reached the age of
at least one hundred.

148. Original sin shows its depraving tendency in that it makes men
arrogant, haughty and conceited. Paul admonishes in Romans 12, 3, to
think of one's self soberly, "according as God hath dealt to each man
a measure of faith." But, original sin does not permit Ham to occupy
this lowly level; hence, he presumes to go beyond his station in
passing judgment upon his father.

149. We observe the same attitude in Absalom. Before he stirs up a
rebellion against David, his father, he passes unrighteous judgment
upon David's government. This dissatisfaction with his father's rule
was afterward followed by unconcealed contempt and open violence, with
David's destruction as the object. Ham's heart being full of poison
which he had gathered from his father as a spider gathers poison from
the fairest rose, precisely such a result had to follow.

150. These examples serve to call our attention to the battle waged
from the beginning of the world between the Church and Satan with his
followers, the hypocrites, or false brethren. This deed of Ham must
not be looked upon as a result of boyish love of pranks, but of
Satan's most bitter enmity, wherewith he inflames his followers
against the Church. Particular