, 1876-06-17

ness or love, and neither can it prosper
| under an idea Of punishment excessive,
, unavoidable, mysterious Let Us think
of the second proposition, In speaking
of punishment us a vnlul'Ic element in
religion did not mean the pcrition de-
fined bv Dante or Milton or Wy the
church. The word should Indicate the
lust punishment Of sin here and hereafter
The old idea may have done good in its
day. but is no longer capable of useful
ness. There is form Of punishment
that defeats the ends Of justice. When
n bloody drSpot occupies throne. u
Nero or Torqucmada, dealing out the
most cruel touurcs for the least 0ifrnsc,
the result never comes in the form Of
noble reformed citizens, hut in the form
of either assassins, or sycophants, or
brOkcndown, tumbling men and women.
The lash Of the slnvcdriyur never made
men, but broke down the spirit Of those
who might have become men. As, nc.
cording to Mr. Buckle, the inhabitants
of earthquake lands in South America
| build no good houses, and spring up and
rush forth from their mud huts on any
alarm in the night, and at last become
children of cowardiCe, SO a political dies.
potism like the inquisition or the en-
pire Of old Russia IN the days of the
knout and Siberia never made noble
citizens, but either men of dark treason
or of broken hearts, Punishment in
order to be useful rs to :he offender and
as to the spectator, must he just. 1t
must he such that one may escape It 10y
simply doing his duty. This is the idea
of punishment that becomes useful in
the home and state Hence this is the
only doctrine OF hell that can hold true
or be useful in rclgiol. The idea Of
he'll in which II soul must burn etcrnally
on account OF the sin OF n man Of whom
it never perhaps so much MS heard, the
| idea of Il torment that should take ctcr.
nal possession OF mind that had not been
baptized, the idea that God will pursue
with infinite wrath forever the soul that
did not see God rs clearly in the days Of
Lao &c la nr IA
in the Christian era, the idea Of pun
ishmcnt that condemns the mere NOR.
alist' to the anguish that should descend
upon murdercrs and hypocritcs, is view
of punishment that made trembling
slaves Of the Catholics and ProtCstants
who once held it, and makes infdels of
those who in our century must choose
between it and unbeiei. Few things
have injured Christianity so much as the
act that the church has tried to carry
along through our age hell that had in
10 not the least element Of justice. Out of
the discrimination OF right and wrong
we have declared that great characters
are made. The perception of the gooh
and the true has always educated man
more than has the perception Of the
beautiful. In the face of this most OBJ
yous fact of human nature the church
has too long and too widely placed be-
fore man heaven into which mean men
could pass by ceremony and q hell from
which perhaps moral men and kind men
and some infants could not possibly es.
cape. Representing for the whole world
the ideas Of right and wrong, the Chris
tim church should long since have has
tened to throw asided ctinitions of heav-
en- and hell that instead of teaching the
ideas of rewards and punisllments made
eternal happiness and eternal sorrow
turn upon contingencies incredible or
monstrOus.
In order to purify the doctrine Of the
church and to check the infidelity that
Is springing from the folies of the thclo-
gians it was or is necessary only to break
away from the fgurative language of an
old figurative age and from the pictures
Of Dante and Milton and from the ter.
rifle scenery that gave US the Catholic
terrorism and the inquisition and to
found a ncw heaven AMI new pcrdition
upon the fundamental words of Jesus
Christ. In the summons of Christ land
rmember from Christ comes Christian.
ity) there are found n heaven and hell
which reason may daily ponder upon