eople at the present day?

I cannot but think that they mistake, when they say that the
Commination Service curses men. For to curse a man, is to pray and
wish that God may become angry with him, and may vent his anger on
the man by punishing him. But I find no such prayer and wish in any
word of the Commination Service. Its form is not, 'Cursed _be_ he
that doeth such and such things,' but 'Cursed _is_ he that doeth
them.'

Does this seem to you a small difference? A fine-drawn question of
words? Is it, then, a small difference whether I say to my fellow-
man, I hope and pray that you may be stricken with disease, or
whether I say, You are stricken with disease, whether you know it or
not. I warn you of it, and I warn you to go to the physician? For
so great, and no less, is the difference.

And if any one shall say, that it is very probable that the authors
of the Liturgy were not conscious of this distinction; but that they
meant by cursing what priests in most ages have meant by it; I must
answer, that it is dealing them most hard and unfair measure, to
take for granted that they were as careless about words as we are;
that they were (like some of us) so ignorant of grammar as not to
know the difference between the indicative and the imperative mood;
and to assume this, in order to make them say exactly what they do
_not_ say, and to impute to them a ferocity of which no hint is
given in their Commination Service.

But some will say, Granted that the authors of the Commination
Service did not wish evil to sinners--granted that they did not long
to pray, with bell, book, and candle, that they might be tormented
for ever in Gehenna--granted that they did not desire to burn their
bodies on earth; those words are still dark and unchristian. They
could only be written by men who believed that God hates sinners,
that his will is to destroy them on earth, and torture them for ever
after death.

We may impute, alas! what motives and thoughts we choose, in the
face of our Lord's own words, Judge not, and ye shall not be judged.
But we shall not be fair and honest in imputing, unless we first
settle what these men meant, in the words which they have actually
written. What did they mean by 'cursed' is the question. And that
we can only answer by the context of the Commination Service. And
that again we can only answer by seeing what it means in the Bible,
which the Reformers profess to follow in all their wri