248 THE WHENCE AND THE WHITHER OF MAN 



for their sins. This is part of a creed, unconsciously 

 very widely held to-day, that comfort, not character, 

 is the chief end of life. Now if God is too kind to 

 allow his children to suffer some of the natural con- 

 sequences of sin, he is not a really kind and loving 

 father, he is spoiling his children. Salvation is 

 soundness, sanity, health ; just as holiness is whole- 

 ness, escape from the disease, and not merely from 

 the consequences of sin. A physician, unless a quack, 

 never promises relief from a deep-seated disease with- 

 out any pain or discomfort. And if the disease is the 

 result of indulgence, he warns us that relapse into in- 

 dulgence will bring a worse recurrence of the pain. 

 Perhaps, after all, Socrates was not so far from right 

 when he maintained that if a man had sinned the 

 best and only thing for him is to suffer for it. " God 

 the Lord will speak peace unto his people, and to 

 his saints : but let them not turn again to folly." 

 And our Lord says, " Think not that I am come to 

 destroy the law or the prophets ; I am not come to 

 destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till 

 heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no 

 wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. For I say 

 unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed 

 the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye 

 shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." 

 If we would be great in the kingdom of heaven we 

 must do and teach the commandments. One of the 

 best lessons that the clergy can learn from science is 

 that law and penalty are not things of the past. They 

 are eternal facts ; and if so, ought sometimes to be at 

 least mentioned from the pulpit as well as remem- 

 bered in the pew. 



