merely as a man, but, by his
special authority, in the likeness of God, who has power over life and
death, therefore he also, as far as his authority goes, has power over
life and death. That is my opinion, and that was the opinion of St.
Paul. For what does he say--and say not (remember always) of Christian
magistrates in a Christian country, but actually of heathen Roman
magistrates? "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For
there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.
Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God:
and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation." Thus spoke
out the tenderest-hearted, most Christ-like human being, perhaps, who
ever trod this earth, who, in his intense longing to save sinners,
endured a life of misery and danger, and finished it by martyrdom. But
there was no sentimentality, no soft indulgence in him. He knew right
from wrong; common sense from cant; duty from public opinion; and divine
charity from the mere cowardly dislike of witnessing pain, not so much
because it pains the person punished, as because it pains the spectator.
He knew that Christ was King of kings, and what Christ's kingdom was
like. He had discovered the divine and wonderful order of men and
angels. He saw that one part of that order was--"the soul that sinneth,
it shall die."

But some say that capital punishment is inconsistent with the mild
religion of Christ--the religion of mercy and love. "The mild religion
of Christ!" Do these men know of Whom they talk? Do they know that, if
the Bible be true, the God who said, "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man
shall his blood be shed," is the very same Being, the very same God, who
was born of the Virgin Mary, crucified under Pontius Pilate--the very
same Christ who took little children up in His arms and blessed them, the
very same Word of God, too, of whom it is written, that out of His mouth
goeth a two-edged sword, that He may smite the nations, and He shall rule
them with a rod of iron, and He treadeth the wine press of the fierceness
and wrath of Almighty God? These are awful words, but, my dear friends,
I can only ask you if you think them too awful to be true? Do you
believe the Christian religion? Do you believe the Creeds? Do you
believe the Bible? For if you do, then you believe that the Lord Christ,
who was born of the Virgin Mary, a