ll them that love and work
iniquity.

"But why," it may be asked, "why dwell upon these things? Is there not
something coarse and vulgar in this appeal to men's fears? And, after
all, to what purpose is it? If men are not won by the love of God, of
what avail is it to speak to them of His wrath?" But fear is as real an
element in human nature as love, and when our aim is by all means to
save men, it is surely legitimate to make our appeal to the whole man,
to lay our fingers on every note--the lower notes no less than the
higher--in the wide gamut of human life. The preacher of the gospel,
moreover, is left without choice in the matter. It is no part of his
business to ask what is the use of this or of that in the message given
to him to deliver; it is for him to declare "the whole counsel of God,"
to keep back nothing that has been revealed. And the really decisive
consideration is this--that this is a matter on which Christ Himself has
spoken, and spoken with unmistakable clearness and emphasis. Shall,
then, the ambassador hesitate when the will of the King is made known?
More often--five times more often, it is said[61]--than Jesus spoke of
future blessedness did He speak of future retribution. The New Testament
is a very tender book; but it is also a very stern book, and its
sternest words are words of Jesus. "For the sins of the miserable, the
forlorn, the friendless, He has pity and compassion; but for the sins of
the well-taught, the high-placed, the rich, the self-indulgent, for
obstinate and malignant sin, the sin of those who hate, and deceive, and
corrupt, and betray, His wrath is terrible, its expression is
unrestrained."[62] "Jesu, Thou art all compassion," we sometimes sing;
but is it really so? St. Paul writes of "the meekness and gentleness of
Christ"; and for many of the chapters of Christ's life that is the right
headline; but there are other chapters which by no possible manipulation
can be brought under that heading, and they also are part of the story.
It was Jesus who said that in the day of judgment it should be more
tolerable for even Tyre and Sidon than for Bethsaida and Chorazin; it
was Jesus who uttered that terrible twenty-third chapter of St.
Matthew's Gospel, with its seven times repeated "Woe unto you, scribes
and Pharisees, hypocrites!" it was Jesus who spoke of the shut door and
the outer darkness, of the worm that dieth not, and the fire that is not
quenched, of the sin which hath never