Smitten sins
I. HATRED TO PARENTS. (Proverbs 20:20.)
1. It is unnatural beyond most vices, like hating the hand that lifts food to the mouth.
2. It is disobedience to a primary Divine command.
3. It incurs the Divine curse and the darkest doom.
II. THE VICE OF GRASPING. (Proverbs 20:21.) It springs from excessive, irregular, disordered desire, and generally from an ill-led life. We must wait upon God's order; must distinguish the necessary from the superfluous and the luxurious, and seek no enterprises that lie out of our proper vocation; if we would arm ourselves against this unholy temptation, and avoid the curse which attends compliance with it. For ill-gotten wealth can never prosper.
III. THE REVENGEFUL SPIRIT. (Proverbs 20:22.) It costs more to avenge injuries than to endure them. "He that studieth revenge keepeth his wounds open." Let us recall the lessons of the sermon on the mount, and if there is any one who has aroused our dislike, pray for him (not in public, but in the privacy of the heart).
IV. IN EQUITY, WHETHER IN COMMERCE OR IN GENERAL RELATIONS. (Proverbs 20:23; see Proverbs 20:10.) What is shameful when detected is no less hideous in the sight of Gun, though concealed from men.—J.