The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-02-20
PUNISHMENT OF MURDERERS IN
THE WORLD TO COME.

THE WURLD III UOME.
AS to the punishment of murderers
in the future life this is to be said: If
moral principles are eternal; if right
eousness is one and the same forever;
and if the divine government is in
flexible and unchanged in all worlds
and ages, then murderers will be
chastised in the immortal state for
the same end as in this, to-wit: Their
moral reformation. There is no more
basis for retaliation and revenge in
that world than in this. God chas-
tises for our profit. No other reason
is given for his corrections. He has
the one only purpose in view, viz: To
make us partakers of his holiness.
(Heb. xii. Slid These vast armies of
spiritual malefactors, the accumula-
ton of all ages and nations-are they
to be inclosed within fiery walls and
sit there forever in idle despair? And
men and angels to pronounce this
righteous punishment! 1t is the
climax of barbarous revenge. The
natural justice of all civilized nations
would cry out in adherence of the
fiendish cruelty. 1t is refined savag
cry, without mercy and without ex
cuse.
But the Bible! The Bible! Have
we forgotten the Bible7 No. Meth
er have we forgotten that the wisdom
and learning in the marginal read
ings of the New Version of the Bible
practically demolish the walls of our
traditional place of torture and turn
loose its malefactors as the lawful
subjects of divine mercy, and of the
missionary spirit Of angels and arch.
angels.
Are we reminded that mo murder
er hath eternal life abiding in hing
Ct. John iii. 15.) Yes, and also that
"Whosoever hateth his brother is a
murderer" But these texts rather in
vite the ministry of good men and an
gels than repel it. Because the world
was dead God sent his Son to give us
life.
Because the murderer is without
eternal life, every priest of the Gospel
will follow him to prison and to the
scaffold that the culprit may lay
hold securely on this eternal life.
And the Christian world applauds
these spiritual offers of mercy. They
declare the priests mission a heaven
ly benediction to lost soul. But
will the mercies of the good be extin-
guished because they have crossed.
the Jordan' Are the righteous for
hidden the exercise of compassion
and charity because they have put on
robes and wings? Was Christ the
king of saints when he walked among
sinners ON the earth. but the prince
of traitors when he preached to the
spirits in prison7 What! Shall the
criminals out of the flesh be thrust
into enforced idleness to increase
their misery, and the saints in glory
be restrained in sullen inactivity lest
they decrease that misery? Is heaven
emptied of mercy that hell may be
filled with malice? o God, forgive
such conceptions of eternal things!
Will the Lord pardon this ungodly
reproach against the divine govern
ment! Inasmuch as God is unchang
able and his moral attributes forever
the same, righteous punishment in
the world to come will be punish
ment that is useful, that enlightons,
that reforms, that leads toward per-
lection, that finally the transgressors
may become partakers of Gods holt
ness. For so will the loving Father
bring it to pass that, Though their
sins be as scarlet, they shall be as
white as snow; though they be red
like crimson, they shall be as
WOOL" A. A. t.