any, with blessings for all;
wishing no one evil, but everyone only good." For we are children of
blessing; as Peter says: "Hereunto were ye called, that ye should
inherit a blessing." 1 Pet 3, 9. In our blessing, all the world is
blessed--through Christ. "In thy seed shall all the nations of the
earth be blessed." Gen 22, 18. It is inconsistent for a Christian to
curse even his most bitter enemy and an evil-doer; for he is commanded
to bear upon his lips the Gospel. The dove did not bring to Noah in
the ark a poisonous branch or a thistle sprig; she brought an
olive-leaf in her mouth. Gen 8, 11. The Gospel likewise is simply a
gracious, blessed, glad and healing word. It brings only blessing and
grace to the whole world. No curse, but pure blessing, goes with the
Gospel. The Christian's lips, then, must be lips of blessing, not of
cursing. If they curse, they are not the lips of a Christian.

52. It is necessary, however, to distinguish between cursing and
censuring or reproving. Reproof and punishment greatly differ from
cursing and malediction. To curse means to invoke evil, while
censuring carries the thought of displeasure at existing evil, and an
effort to remove it. In fact, cursing and censuring are opposed.
Cursing invokes evil and misfortune; censure aims to remove them.
Christ himself censured, or reproved. He called the Jews a generation
of vipers, children of the devil, hypocrites, blind dolts, liars, and
so on. He did not curse them to perpetuate their evils; rather he
desired the evils removed. Paul does similarly. He says of the
sorcerer that he is a child of the devil and full of subtilty. Acts
13, 10. Again, the Spirit reproves the world of sin. Jn 16, 8.

53. But the strong argument is here urged that the saints of the
Scriptures not only censured, but cursed. Jacob, the patriarch, cursed
his sons Reuben, Simeon and Levi. Gen 49, 7. A great part of the Law
of Moses is made up of curses, especially Deut 28, 15. Open cursing is
commanded to be pronounced by the people, on Mount Ebal. Deut 27, 13.
How much cursing we find in the Psalms, particularly Psalm 109. Again,
how David cursed Joab, captain of his host! 2 Sam 3, 29. How bitterly
Peter curses Simon (Acts 8, 20): "Thy silver perish with thee." Paul
curses the seducers of the Galatians (Gal 5, 12), "I would they were
even cut off." And he says (1 Cor 16, 22), "If any man loveth not the
Lord, let him be anathema." Christ cursed the innocent fig-tree