58 



"by the fear of pain would not be moral and of the 

 nature of virtue. Furthermore, if true reforma- 

 tion could be produced by punishment, why 

 should not the legal and punitive method of the 

 Old Testament have been the only one ? The 

 •old economy was full of threatenings and penal- 

 ties, and fearful examples of their actual execu- 

 tion. Why did God send his Son, and make a 

 new covenant and economy of mercy? Of what 

 rise is redemption, or the remission of punish- 

 ment, if punishment is, in itself, healing and 

 remedial ? The Scriptures never represent pun- 

 ishment as reformatory. The proper punish- 

 ment of sin is death. (Rom. 6:23). As temporal 

 death, which is the extreme penalty in human 

 legislation, is not intended to reform the crimi- 

 nal, and reinstate him in human society, but for- 

 ever cuts him off from it, so eternal death, in the 

 Biblical representation, is not intended to be a 

 means of educating the sinner, and fitting him 

 for the kingdom of heaven, but forever banishes 

 •and excludes him from it." 



This thought is too obvious to demand elabor- 

 ation. To allow heterogeneous peoples to under- 

 stand that "justice is tempered with mercy" is 

 to throw open the flood-gates of crime. 



It is the knowledge that law is inexorable that 

 makes it effective. The government that prac- 

 tices leniency in the administration of its laws, 



