The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1903-03-23
Pastor of the Maple Avenue Methodist
Episcopal Church.

g., Episcopal Churcn.
of punishment. Even when a good inten-
ton is behind It the good intention Is
thwarted In every passionate severity. and
though we may look back on our child
hood and see that We got some good from
those teachers and parents who took the
old-fash;oned short cut in ruling by fear,
We can trace far more harm to that meth
cd. the harm CT excited tempers. of engen-
dered hatreds. of morose disposition. Of d.
unfinished powers of self-controE. =
: Corporal punishment has worked injury
which a lifetime could not mend, and that
1t is taken out of the hands Of the public
school teacher is mutual protection for
teacher and pupil and a sign of a better
civilization than that of the good old times
of the ferrule and the switch.
When this kind of punishment is trans
find no more excuse for such Interpretation
of the heavenly Fathers method of disci-
pine. We owe our ideas of the wrath and
anger OF God to the time when wrath and
anger were thought a right and virtue OF
parental control. People transferred their
notions Of paternal discipline to Gods pa
no other way for bin to show that wrong
was wrong than by showing anger and
yIndictiyeness toward the wrongdoer
Hence ideas of the divine severity toward
the children of God are bound UP with
IDEAS Of Gods righteous rule.
In this kind of punishment we can dis
lasting. Implying. implacable Even a
human father with his imperfections can
not always be angry. After his indignant
feeling Is over his heart softens toward his
disobedient child. He does not even wait
for repentance. but helps repentance by
sigTs that his forgiveness is ready.
ners eternally. Once in his hands hope was
gone. Love all turned tc condemnation and
death made the fate Of the lost irrevocable.
What father would see his children wander
ing into the woods toward hunger and de-
struction and not follow them forever? hut
Goi was thought to be such father as
would follow them only these few years
and then let them go. caring for them no
more
our Father He seeks and saves the lost.
His mercy rules every discipline of trial,
penalty and loss. In Gods real dealing with
men we learn how his punishments are
like our punishments-in being simply the
operation Of natural cause and effect They
are always connected with the evil to be
Ignorance Is punished by the effects of
Ignorance. evil by the effects of evil, not by
thunderbots and accidents that have no
connection with ones wrong. They are al
ways corrective, not penal. Fire burns us
and pain is our warning of its danger, our
projection against death. .
. There Is no anger or hate in the divine
punfshments- People may feel that God is
angry with them. but those who are best
feelina &c h wIrh nm 90 not tell US OF such
most of God tell US of his calmness. his
serene justice. his perfect goodness. his
Impatience and vindictiveness 20 with a
thwarted will. an insufficient purpose an
Imperfect disposition. One is angry when
he cannot do what he would. But If God is
all-powerful all-wise and all-Ioytnq
10 bow can he be sngry? We know not Of
his hatred. We only know his goodness and
his love- That goodness turned against our
wrong Is a keener rebuke than anger
could be.
He uses punishment. but not in the or
binary human way. He uses 1t in natural
law. He uses IL in experience He uses II as
an education. He uses It that we may be
freed from the necessity of 1t. No man can
helD believing in punishments and in the
mercifnlness Of righteous punishments. we
Know Know them every day. too well not to be-
lieve IN them. And If they cannot finish
their work in this life, they will follow
those who need them into any other life
Death IS no more wide-open gate OF
escape than IT is fatal, irrevocable doom.
But the punishment God shows US is his,
Is one that is in his hands and not in the
hancs OF q devii-one that he uses for
good. one that will fit us for his king
DEM. The pains and sorrows and burdens Of
NE are the training of his loving Will. Hard
az they are. the hardest may be made a
means Of grace: and of the most grieyous
81 ;oo may say that 1t yieldeth the peace-
able fruit of Righteousness to them that
are exercised thereby.