e of conduct shall not only
communicate happiness, but protract life so certain as they engage in
it.

Here then, my young friends, you may readily perceive how God punishes
vice and rewards virtue. He does not do it by any abstract law, or
arbitrary mode of procedure, but lie has in infinite wisdom
interwoven, the whole in the very constitution of our natures, so that
the wicked cannot go unpunished, nor the righteous unrewarded. To
teach that man can indulge in vice, and yet escape its punishment by
future repentance, is not only dangerous to the morals of society, but
is a direct impeachment of the divine administration, as it must in
such case, be defective. And to teach that men may live righteously
and godly and yet go unrewarded, is equally dangerous to the morals of
the community, as it is but discouraging them from engaging in a
virtuous course of conduct. To teach that men are to be rewarded in a
future world for their _goodness_ here, is but in substance saying
that virtue is attended with mental misery, and so far as it fails of
rewarding its possessor _here_, the balance is to be made up
_hereafter_. And to teach that men are to be punished in a future
state for their _badness_ here, is but in substance saying, that vice
is attended with some mental joys, and so far as it fails of punishing
its possessor _here_, the balance is to be made up _hereafter_.

It is readily granted that the righteous may suffer. But we ought ever
to make a plain distinction between afflictions and punishments, for
the Bible does this. It is impossible in the nature of things that
punishment can exist except in connexion with guilt. Paul and Silas
were cast into prison and fastened in the stocks, on account of their
religion. But nothing could disturb their mental peace--their heaven-born
repose. They joyfully sung psalms, and lifted up their voices in
prayer to God in the calm enjoyment of a pure unsullied conscience.
They suffered afflictions that were, under the government of God, to
work out for their good. There were no doubt others in that prison
justly suffering for their crimes. To them it was punishment. Because
the _former_ were suffering _affliction_, the _latter, punishment_.
The scriptures say, "Great peace have they that love thy law; and
nothing shall offend them." "There is no peace, saith my God, to the
wicked;" and he who says there _is_, contradicts Jehovah.

If you would, my young friends, avoid punishment,