+I. The unnaturalness of sin.+ The heavens and the earth obey the laws to which they have been subjected; the very beasts are faithful to their instincts; it is only man who falls in duty and goes astray. +II. The baseness of ingratitude:+ as displayed--1. By man to man;[1] 2. By children to their parents;[2] 3. By men to their Heavenly Father.[3] +III. The reasonableness of God's claim to their obedience and love.+ 1. He is our Father.[4] 2. To all parental duties He has been faithful. 3. He has been more than faithful; He has caused our cup to run over with His lovingkindness.[5] +IV. Privilege is the measure of responsibility and the aggravation of guilt.+ The point of the condemnation in these verses does not lie in the contrast between the conduct of animals and men, but in the contrast between the conduct of animals and that of God's people. "_Israel_ doth not know, _my people_ doth not consider!" This is the wonder and the monstrosity. That privilege is the measure of responsibility and the aggravation of guilt, is a very familiar truth; a truth often forgotten; and yet absolutely certain and tremendously important (Luke xii. 48; Heb. vi. 7, 8). What need _we_ have to lay it to heart! FOOTNOTES: [1] All should unite to punish the ungrateful: Ingratitude is treason to mankind.--_Thomson._ He that's ungrateful has no guilt but one; All other crimes may pass for virtues in him.--_Young._ [2] Sharper than a serpent's tooth it is To have a thankless child.--_Shakespeare._ [3] An ungracious soul may be burdened with many sins; but she never makes up her full load till she hath added the sin of unthankfulness. He leaves out no evil in a man who calls him unthankful. Ingratitude dissolves the joints of the whole world. A barren ground is less blamed, because it hath not been dressed. But till it with the plough; trust it with seed; let the clouds bless it with their rain, the sun with his heat, the heavens with their influence, and then if it be unfertile, the condition is worse; before it was contemned, now it is cursed (Heb. vi. 8).--_Adams,_ 1654. Some are such brutes, that, like swine, their nose is nailed to the trough in which they feed; they have not the use of their understanding so far as to lift their eye to heaven, and say, "There dwells that God that provides this for me, that God by whom I live."--_Gurnall._ You would count it a sad spectacle to behold a man in a lethargy, with his senses and reason so blasted by his disease that he knows not his nearest friends, and takes no notice of those that tend him, or bring his daily food to him. How many such senseless wretches are at this day lying upon God's hands! He ministers daily to their necessities, but they take no notice of His care and goodness.--_Gurnall,_ 1617-1679.