The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1869-08-10

en-, and vindictively punish him to all
eternity, with some horrible instru-a
ment Of torture. in lake literally burn
ing with fire and brimstOne. Nothing
ofthe sort. Perhaps the sinner will in
great measure make his own he'll,
which may not be wholly unlike some
scenes of this world. He will suffer all
the consequences of deliberately spurn-'
ing from him all the love and tender
mercy of the Great Father of Spirits, Of
fered to him. through the blood of His
Son. He will remain condemned, be
cause he resisted the power of God,
meant to lead him to, repentance, and
hence to life. just what all the severe
figures of Scripture, indicative of what
| the future, of the finally impenitent
shall be, mean, do not pretend to tell
or to know never want to know.
But sure L am they mean nothing desir-z
able--nothing hopeful. Some persons
by a very extravagants; and revolving
statement of the case, making the sim
ner to suffer eternally in the most ex-s
crutiating manner imaginable, simply
because God will not be aInerciful to
him, have about frightened themselves
into a conclusion which Rev. D. Collier,
in his recent sermon in this city on1the
subject, puts in these words: e1f had
suspicion that God could love and
know that one child was still in sin
without sending out that blessed spirit
which comes down to us tonight to
win and woo our love, should turn
! atheist in your presence. would have
no God, 1 could worship no Cod In
deed! And must God. forsooth, consult
men as to whether or not a man may eff
fectually resist His moral power for his
recovery Must God come exactly up
/ to each mans conception of what God
should be, or be spited by having some
| man, oven preacher, turn atheist in
meeting house before the audience p
Shall man dictate to Him who made and.
who governs the universe ? This uni
verse is wonderfully made, and wonder
| fully governed. 1t includes all wonders
Can a man govern the universe? Gould
he govern even q few millions of its in>
habited worlds p Could he govern one
world-eve,l this comparatively insig-.
nificant world Of ours? Could he gov
ern even the city Of Chicago? You say,
no! No, indeed; man cannot govern
himself. Indeed, he cannot govern
we'll his own tongue. And shall he,
poor little wiggling worm of the dust.
dictate to God moral philosophy for
| the government of the universe How
supremely ridiculous we som etimes
make ourselves appear. even to our
own inverted and distorted vision. Let
us not turn atheists, my friends, be-
/ cause God dss7 government doesn't suit,
us, lest we thereby prove the necessity
! for endless punishment s,ss sz .ss,as.
| Finally, may it not be that the doc.
trine of eternal punishment stands to
human reason 7 Do not men come as
nearly as they can, and does not socie-
ty come as nearly as it can, to inflicting
endless punishment. Let me ask you,
my friends, who do not agree with me
on this question, who think endless pun
| ishme1t most unreasonable, would you,
under no circumstances inflict endless
! punishment upon q person? Do you
say no? Well, let US see. Suppose
man should coolly and deliberately,
with malice aforethought, for purposes,
of cool, grim spite and revenge, barn
| your house, destroy not only your prop
erty, but your family show long would
he have to be punished in States Pris-a
on before you could and would forgive
him, and receive him to your confidence?
Do you say ten, years ? Fifteen years P
Twenty years? No, my friend. will
tell you just how long it would be till
you could forgive such a one. Just as
long as it would take to satisfy you
| thoroughly, that the man had repented
and was thoroughly and genuinely, re-
formed Then, and not, till then, be it
long time or short time, be he pun
ishe much or little, could you forgive
him, and receive him to your confidence
and treat him as q brother-provided ed
you were enough like } esus to forgive
him at all nj You could not, you should
n ot,7 forgive him ana confide in him, un =
repentant,s though in your judgment.
he should remain guilty, condemned, an
outcast as long as he lives. Here, then,
you admit the principle, by abandoning
a man to just as much of7sendless pun.
ishment as you can. Y But you say, Il
would forgive the man when he repent~s
ed' So would I. And so will the hea
venly Father. Repentance is the con-
dition of forgiveness To this YOU
agree This stands to reason. a~Tbisr
meets the sense Of society. The Lord
says, Except you repent, you shall per
ish,' We Gil say the same, and some
times are unwilling to forgive even PEN
itents. When any one says but all will
repent he simply says SO without reas-
on or authority. That kind of repent
ance into which men are frightened
| merely by sight Of immediate danger
| will not do. Hell, whether in this world
or in the world to come, can never re
form sinner whom the love of God has
fairly tried and failed on. Trife not
with Is Gods mercy. Triae not with
yourself--your nature--you may be
eternsHy, helplessly, hopelessly lost,
grant, you the thought is q terrible one,-
an alarming one. 1t may be, however,
th at the sooner he who needs most to
be alarmed is alarmed, the better. for
him! o, sinner! by so much as the
| thought is terrible one, admonish
you to1no longeraatridea with Heavens
offered mercy no longer trifles with