conjoined with kindness, than truth can when conjoined with opposition and persecution. And to this, I will add, what appears to me an unquestionable proposition, viz., that those individuals or sects who are harsh and uncharitable in advancing their peculiar views; who strive to enforce those views upon others, in an unkind and violent mode; are not only unwise, but are positive enemies to the Saviour; since his cause is never so endangered as when its professed followers become persecutors. The true guide and light for professed Christians, when propagating what they consider religious truth, are contained in the expressive direction of the apostle Paul-" SPEAKING THE TRUTH IN LOVE." CHAPTER XI. KINDNESS AND PUNISHMENT. "Her weeds to robes of glory turn, THERE is a point, however, concerning the law of kindness, where some perplexity arises, and much doubt exists. Many people associate with the idea of a uniform practice of kindness, the absence of pain, the putting aside all restraints upon evil, and the sufferance of offenders, without attempting to check them otherwise than by a mild word. This is a mistake. The law of kindness has no affinity to lawlessness. It indeed pre-supposes the absence of all cruelty -but it does not pre-suppose the absence of proper punishment for sin, or the necessary check upon the transgressor. Kindness often dictates the application of pain, as frequent cases of the amputation of limbs to save the lives of sufferers, fully prove. The parent who neglects to restrain and correct his children, is as unkind as the parent whose chastisements become cruel ties from excessive severity. The state or kingdom which is weak in the administration of just and proper laws, is as unkind as the state or kingdom which possesses cruel and sanguinary laws, and is revengefully bloody in their execution. Therefore, while kindness deprecates all cruelty, and is totally opposed to all pain resulting from a revengeful spirit and having no good object in view, it, at the same time, contends for all chastisement which is calculated to produce good as its ultimate effect. For when an individual is diseased with sin, kindness advocates the use of the probe and lancet of pain, in order to produce sound, moral health in him. This view accords with Christianity and true philosophy. In the Bible, punishment is represented as flowing from the purest kindness, and as aiming to produce reconciliation and obedience in him or them who are exercised by it. For while, in the voice of divine justice, it denounces chastisement upon all sinners, according to their criminality, it also affirms that the merciful wisdom and loving kindness of him who is Governor in all the earth, are manifested in that chastisement, by so arranging it that it shall ultimate in the reformation of its subjects. And as an illustration of its nature, the Saviour spoke of a wandering prodigal, who strayed from the my house of his father, fell into sin, was punished, and was so subdued by it, that he returned home a repentant son. The following two passages are distinct in setting forth the character of punishment which the kindness of God administers: "If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; if they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments; then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless, my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer faithfulness to fail."* "Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby." The teaching of these passages is too obvious to be mistaken. Formed in the faultless principles of infinite. justice and love, it seeks to render substantial kindness to those who suffer it, by purging them of the evils of sin. And that this punishment, conjoined with heavenly truth, in the hands of the Saviour, will succeed in reforming all sinners according to the times of divine appointment, is demonstrated by the Scriptures :-"For it pleased the Father that in him (Christ) should all fulness dwell; and having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to Hebrews xii. 11. *Psalm lxxxix. 30-33. reconcile all things unto himself; by him I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven."* When this sublime and ever desirable work shall be accomplished, then the spiritexciting declaration of John shall be fulfilled: "And every creature which is in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, forever and ever."t Taking these views as the basis of kindness when connected with punishment, we discover the philosophy of divine justice and benevolence to be the prevention of sin and the reformation of the offender. And no reflecting mind can fail of perceiving that this philosophy is rapidly manifesting itself in the government of nations, of schools, of families, and of criminals. President Wayland remarked, in an address to the Prison Discipline Society, that "it is in vain to punish men unless you reform them." The world is rising up to this noble fact. Though a popular author has said, "To reform the criminal, to cure him of the moral disease which led him into crime, to impart appropriate instruction to his mind, and to prepare the way for his * Col. i. 19, 20. See also 1 Cor. xv. 24-28. † Rev. v. 13. See p. 163 of Ladies' Repository, Vol. IX. |