. God is _just_. Fasten that
in your mind; never lose sight of it. Over and over again is this fact
impressed in the Scriptures. Yet lurking in the minds of multitudes is
a vague suspicion or dread that God will be unjust in sending some to
Hell, and that He will be unjust in the way He will punish. Many who
are thus disturbed lose sight of the fact that God is just; that
whatever God does in regard to the lost, one thing is certain,--_He
will do no injustice_. With my loved ones, with your loved ones, with
the most obscure, worthless creature, with the most refined, delicate
nature, with the most cruel, debased creature that ever lived, God
will do no wrong. Many have turned away to infidelity, not on account
of the Bible's complete teaching as to future punishment, but because
they have taken some one passage of Scripture and warped it or gotten
from it a distorted idea of the Bible's teachings as to Hell; or they
have taken some preacher's views as to the Bible's teachings on the
subject. For example, here is a boy fifteen years of age, whose mother
died when he was an infant, whose father is a drunkard and gambler and
infidel, who has given the boy but little moral training; and here is
a man seventy years of age who had a noble father and mother, who gave
their boy every advantage, the best of training, under the best of
influences; yet he when a boy turned away from all these influences
and spent his life in sin and debauchery, and in leading others into
sin. These two, the unfortunate boy and the old hardened sinner, die.
With many the idea is that God consigns them to a common punishment in
Hell. But, reader, remember that _God is just_; and if that is
justice, what would injustice be? They were different in light and in
opportunity and in sins, and yet punished alike? _The Bible does not
teach it._

But let us go back and consider this question of sin. "All have
sinned." That includes you, reader. "To him that knoweth to do good
and doeth it not, to him it is sin."--James 4:17. All have done this,
have failed to live up to the light they have had; hence, "All have
sinned." Two questions arise: first, ought sin to be punished? Second,
ought all sin to be punished, or only the coarser, grosser, more
offensive sins? As to the first, ought sin to be punished? There is a
strong drift toward the teaching that sin ought to be punished only
for the purpose of reforming the sinner. Intelligent men endorse this
teaching