Uses of suffering.

Jehovah is to be feared.

Fies concealed; and it is an apparatus which is seldom out of order. Sickness deranges and weakens the other powers, but it seldom interferes with this; it remains always at its post, in the eye, the ear, the brain, the hand, -in every organ and every limb, and always ready to do God's bidding.

Nor is it useless; an idle preparation of instruments, never to be employed. It is called into action often, and with terrific power. God accomplishes a great many of its most important purposes by it. These purposes it is not our business now to examine, though there can be scarcely a more interesting field of inquiry for us, than the uses of suffering, and the extent to which God employs it in the accomplishment of his plans. These These purposes are all benevolent, most highly so; still, suffering, freely employed, is the means through which they are produced. All nature corroborates what the Bible asserts, that our Maker is not only a father to be loved, but a magistrate to be feared.

The dreadful suffering, which God has in providence inflicted upon communities and individuals, for the violations of his laws, cannot be described, nor can they be conceived, by those who have not experienced them. We know, however, something of their power, and the awful extent to which retribution for sin has been poured out upon men. It is far pleasanter, in examining the character of God, and his dealings with us, to dwell upon the proofs of his love, than upon those of his anger, but we must not yield to the inclination, so as to go to the Judgment, with expectations of lenity and forbearance which we shall not find. It is best to know the whole, and to be prepared for it; and not to attempt to avoid a coming storm, by denying its approach, or shut. ting our eyes to the evidences of its destructive power.

Still, however, the feelings which a knowledge of

Value of an efficient government.

Conclusion.

God's character as a magistrate, will awaken in us, will depend in a great degree, upon the side we take in respect to obedience to his law. An efficient government sa terror to evil doers, but it has no terrors for those who do well. We all love to be under the dominion of just and righteous laws, and if we are disposed to keep them ourselves, we love to have them inflexibly administered in respect to others. If, therefore, to any of our readers the subject of this chapter is a gloomy one, we assure them, in conclusion, that they may divest it of all its gloom, by giving up sin and returning to duty. When we think of the ravages of sin in this world, the cruelty, the oppression and indescribable miseries it has brought down upon its victims, we feel that we need an efficient and a strong protector. We must be more or less exposed, a little longer, here, but the time will come, when we shall enjoy full protection, and perfect safety, and though we cannot but feel sorrowful and sad, to reflect that any of our fellow beings are to be shut up at last in an eternal prison, we still cannot but rejoice that the time will come, when neglect and disobedience towards God, and selfish and ungovernable passions towards man, will be confined and separated from all that is pure and holy, by a gulf that they cannot pass over. We know that this little planet, with all its millions, is as nothing among the countless worlds which fill the widespread regions all around it. Into those regions we cannot but hope that sin and misery has not yet extended. There may be, we hope there is, unbroken peace and happiness and virtue there. The destructive disease which has raged here for forty centuries, spreading misery, and ruin everywhere, can be controlled and stopped, only by Jehovah's hand. All depends on him; and the only hope of our ever finding a safe and quiet home, where we can once more be protected and happy, depends upon the firm and inflexible decision with which

Pardon possible.

Always desirable when it is safe,

he manages this case of rebellion. He must not pardon, unless he can pardon safely. He must not endanger the peace and happiness of his empire, to save, comparatively a few, who have deliberately rejected his reign.

CHAPTER VI.

PARDON,

OR CONSEQUENCES SAVED.

"God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him."

NOTWITHSTANDING all that was said in the last chapter, in respect to the necessity of the most vigorous and energetic measures in arresting the consequences of sin, there is such a thing as pardon;- forgiveness, perfectly free, and yet perfectly safe. There are various ways by which the objects of punishment can be secured, without punishment itself, though these various modes are perhaps only different applications of the same or similar principles. The object of law and penalty is to hold up to the community distinctly the nature and the effects of sin,— to make a strong moral impression against it, and thus to erect a barrier, which shall prevent its extension. A wise parent or teacher, who feels the necessity of being firm and decisive in government, will find a great many cases occur, in which punishment that is really deserved, is unnecessary; that is, when the objects enumerated above, can be attained without it. Now every wise parent and teacher desires to save suffering wherever it can be saved, and though there is great danger of doing this when it cannot be done safely, still there are cases where it certainly is safe

The story of the lost cap.

The teacher's motives.

The reader is requested to call to mind here, the story of the lost cap, given at the commencement of the third chapter of this work. It was there introduced for another purpose, but it illustrates very well, the point we have here in view. The course which the teacher pursued in that case, was undoubtedly far better than any plan of punishment would have been. Every body will admit this. There cannot be a question in the mind of any one who understands human nature, that the course there described, was most admirably adapted to secure the object. In order to perceive this, however, it must be distinctly understood, what the real object of punishment is, viz. a good effect upon the community, not the gratification of personal resentment against the offender. If the teacher, in that case, had been a passionate man, and if his feelings of resentment had been aroused at the misconduct of his pupil, he never would have devised such a plan to save him. It is difficult to tell which appears most conspicuous in such a case as that, the wish to promote the highest welfare of the little community over which he presided, or delicate and compassionate interest in the feelings of the offender. Any person who is capable of perceiving moral beauty at all, will see that, in the plan he adopted, both these feelings, viz. firm and steady regard for the safety of the community, and benevolent interest in the transgressor, were singularly and beautifully blended. The plan he adopted, was in substance, this: he substituted his own inconvenience and suffering for the punishment of his pupil, so as to rely upon the former for the production of that moral effect which would naturally have resulted from the latter. We observe three things in the character of this transaction, which are of importance to be mentioned here. First, the plan originated in love for the offender, and a wish to save him suffering. Secondly, it was exactly adapted to touch his feelings, and produce a real

Cases common.

Not precisely analogous to the plan of salvation.

change in his heart, which punishment probably would not have effected. Thirdly, it secured the great object, the right moral impression upon the little community which witnessed it, far more perfectly and more pleasantly, than any other mode could have done. The whole plan is an instance of what may be called moral substitution, putting the voluntary suffering of the innocent, in the place of the punishment of the guilty. This principle, substantially, though seldom or never brought to view by writers on rewards and punishments, is very often applied. They who resort to it, perceive, in the individual cases, by a kind of instinctive feeling, its powerful and healthful effect, though they may not perhaps philosophize on its nature. The story of the lost cap, is a specimen of many cases, where this or a similar principle is acted upon by intelligent parents or teachers. Each particular case, however, is different from the others, and presents the principle in a different aspect. I will therefore add one or two others, describing them as they actually occurred. Refore proceeding, however, I ought distinctly to say, wat no human transactions can be entirely analogous to the great plan of redeeming man from sin and misery by the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ. They may partly illustrate it, however, some conforming to it in one respect, and some in another. The reader will therefore understand that I offer these cases as analogous to the arrangement made for saving men through the atoning sufferings of Jesus Christ, only in the general principle, viz. that of moral substitution,- accomplishing, by means of the suffering of the innocent, what is ordinarily secured by the punishment of the guilty. I will first mention a very trivial case. I give this rather than more important and extraordinary ones, because it is more likely to recall to the minds of parents, similar instances which may have occurred in their own government.