The Hawaiian gazette., 1878-07-17
SIN AND IT'S PUNISHMENT.

SIN AND ITS PUNISHMENT.
.'what shall we say. then shsn continue in sin
that grace may abound? God forbd."RoMANs vi, l,
We are, my brethren, poor blind creatures at
the best-so ODe-sided, gu imperfect. so liable to
error. so easily led astray by the pride which ape
humiIity-so apt to be pulled up by the gno-
rance which takes itself for knowledge, that We
constantly turn iuto bane what God intended for
our richest boon, and store the very mama Of
His love in such earthly vessels of frailty and
presumption. that, in our keeping, it breeds
worms and grows corrupt and hence even Gods
most holy truths become liable to dreadful per-
version II was so IN the first ages. when there
were ungody men who turned the grace of God
into Iascvonsness IL was 80 again when Lu-
Their, at the Reformation, shook down the hollow
structure of lies which men had accepted as their
infallible faith. 1t may be SO again, when We
open TO the despair of the guilty, even in the
Valley Of Achor, door OF hope, and ask men TO
take nobler aud truer views Of God than those
which ran counter TO what the Scripture tells Us
Of His everlasting mercy-ot His purpose in
punishment being not to torture, bat to redeem
OF the day when Christ shall have triumphed
for ever and God shall be all IN all.
dId not seek this topic. nor shall pursue IL.
1t came in the ordinary course Of our medIta-
tons, and | could not, therefore, bat strive To
remove thoughts which, as | know. goad some
men into reckessness, and into inideIy, and
which embtter the hearts of others with mar
row railing, Pharisaic dogmatism-a religion of
cursing and bitterness against all which presumes
to differ from itself. But there are deeper rea-
sons for preaching what we believe TO be the
truth on this dim subject The virtue which has
no better basis than the fear OF hell is simply no
virtue at all. No virtue is in the least degree
virtuous which springs only from hope of pro-
fit, or fear of punishment. Although for instance,
honesty is the best policy" yet it has been tru-
ly said that the man who ls honest because it is
the best policy is no better than rogue. Would
you think much of one who only did not com
nit murder because of the hangman, or who was
not scoundrel only from fear OF being found out?
Fear may cause the enforced obedience OF the
slave love alone can win the devotion of the
child and that is why God hath sent to US who
know the truth, and whom the truth has made
free indeed, not the spirit of fear or OF bondage,
but the spirit Of love and of pure and of sound
mind. And this love is the sole, eternal basis of
holiness. To preach that God willeth all men to
be saved-that is Gospel truth. To preach that
it is not love of Christ but the fear OF hell which
constralneth us-tbat is what they CALI the soul
destroying error. What was the subject of the
teaching Of our blessed Lord? Was 1t turn or
burn" or was 1t Come unto Me all We that ira
vail and are heavy laden and will give you rest p
Was it helI-6re that He preached to the rejoicing
muIttudes as He sat among the lilies over the
silver lake, or was it the beatitudes of the meek
and the merclfui, and the message OF a father who
maketh His sun to shine on the evil and the
good. and His rain to fall on the just and on the
unjust ? | know that He said. with awful solem-
nifty. e II thine eye offend thee, pluck il out. If
i q.
thee. 1t is better for thee to enter into life blind
or MANNED, than, having two eyes or two hands.
to go into Gehenna-Into the fire that never shall
be quenched, where their worm dieth not, and
their fire is not quenched :" and those words
shall strive presently to illustrate. But what
childishness it is -childishness of mere vanity
and ignorance-tO quote such texts without know
ing anything whatever of the laws of their mean
ing and of their Interpretation ! 1t is just as
childish as it is to quote the text This is My
body" as though it were absolutely decisive of
the truth of MISREPRESENTATION, | claim to speak
with at least as much authority as anyone else
when say that there is not one word here about
q necessary or an irreversbe decree to endless
torrents at the moment of an impenltent sinners
death. The language of our bessd Lord and
Master is no more literal in the second half of
the verse than it is 10 the first. He speaks, as
de did deliberately and habltually. 10 metaphors
and PARALLELS and the metaphor meant this aw-
ful truth--that the most painful physical agony
and the worst physical inultiaIOn is less an
guish and more preferable loss than that shame
and corruption which the inevitable conse-
quence Of sin-the fame and remorse which wilt
always burn so long sin is practised-ths worm
of conclence which will always gnaw until sin is
forgiven. Such thought has no affinity with
a., ;,,a
says, Believe this or you will find yourself in
lake of inextingushable fire." What our Saviour
taught-what. thank God we all of US agree in
ieaching-is this resist The evil which is in you
for it is your curse and ruin !; and until you have
learnt TO fOrsake and hate it, You cannot enter
into the kingdom of Heaven. Resist it because
God hates it, and because God loves you-be-
cause he desires to save you from it, and from it's
fearful consequence. Resist it, because 1t was
to seek the lost that our Saviour came, and 10
redeem the lost that our Savior died. This is
true that is Divine teaching. So is the All
great, the ALLOWING true. So through the thun-
der comes human voice, saying
40 heart made heart beats here,
Trace my Gods passion, 1t In myself
Thou hast nosfOrce, nor canst conceive of nome
But love gave thee with myself love,
And tnou must love Me who have died for thee"
That, then, my brethren, is the true motive for
all holiness Christ S redemption Gods love. We
are dead with Christ unto sin, and we live with
God unto holiness and God created us-not to
destroy, not to torment, not to take vengeance
on u.s. but to save, and to save US to the utter
most from sin, from corruption, from that true
Gehenna which is not burning prison. but
polluted heart. Alienation from God, hatred Of
truth, hatred of purity; bitter, railing, Ioveess
spirit; mean, base. sensual desires-those are
the elements of hell and as long as any man, be
he Pharisee or be he publican, is given to these,
Sc long will he be made to feel with the evil
spirit
(which way fly is hell; myself am hell"
Hell is a temper, nota place. So long as we are
evil and impure and unloving. so long where we
are is hell and where hell is there must we be !;
and when all the world dissolves, and every cres-
ture is purified whom Gods love can purify, then
all places shall be hell that are not heaven. How
long and how lar We, in ouI pride and obduracy
and corruption, may harden ourselves, even be-
yond the grave, against the constralning love of
God. We know not, and none knows But. 20 long
as We continue to harden ourselves. so long il is
not God is kindling tor US His avenging tortures
but 1t is We who by our own iupenitence, are cut