remorse which would be my real punishment if, my nature being higher, I
had done the same thing.

The absolute justice of the system of things is as clear to me as any
scientific fact. The gravitation of sin to sorrow is as certain as that
of the earth to the sun, and more so--for experimental proof of the fact
is within reach of us all--nay, is before us all in our own lives, if we
had but the eyes to see it.

Not only, then, do I disbelieve in the need for compensation, but I
believe that the seeking for rewards and punishments out of this life
leads men to a ruinous ignorance of the fact that their inevitable
rewards and punishments are here.

If the expectation of hell hereafter can keep me from evil-doing, surely
a fortiori the certainty of hell now will do so? If a man could be
firmly impressed with the belief that stealing damaged him as much as
swallowing arsenic would do (and it does), would not the dissuasive
force of that belief be greater than that of any based on mere future
expectations?

And this leads me to my other point.

As I stood behind the coffin of my little son the other day, with my
mind bent on anything but disputation, the officiating minister read, as
a part of his duty, the words, "If the dead rise not again, let us eat
and drink, for to-morrow we die." I cannot tell you how inexpressibly
they shocked me. Paul had neither wife nor child, or he must have known
that his alternative involved a blasphemy against all that was best and
noblest in human nature. I could have laughed with scorn. What! because