ittle deeper into the mysterious facts of experience we
shall find that still goodness is rewarded and evil is punished,
because "the mind is its own place, and can itself," if virtuous,
"make a heaven of hell, if wicked, "a hell of heaven." It is a
truth, springing from the very nature of God and his irreversible
relations towards his creatures, that his united justice and love
shall follow both holiness and iniquity now and ever, pouring his
beneficence upon them to be converted by them into their food and
bliss or into their bane and misery. There is, then, no essential
need of adventitious accompaniments or results to justify and pay
the good, or to condemn and torture the bad, here or hereafter. To
be wise, and pure, and strong, and noble, is glory and blessedness
enough in itself. To be ignorant, and corrupt, and mean, and
feeble, is degradation and horror enough in itself. The one abides
in true life, the other in moral death; and that is sufficient.
Even now, in this world, therefore, the swift and diversified
retributions of men's characters and lives are in them and upon
them, in various ways, and to a much greater extent than they are
accustomed to think. History preaches this with all her revealing
voices. Philosophy lays it bare, and points every finger at the
flaming bond that binds innocence to peace, guilt to remorse. It
is the substance of the gospel, emphatically pronounced. And the
clear experience of every sensitive soul confirms its truth,
echoing through the silent corridors of the conscience the
declarations which fell in ancient Judea from the lips of Jesus
and the pen of Paul: "The pure in heart shall see God;" "The wages
of sin is death."

We will briefly sum up the principal positions of the ground we
have now traversed. To be enslaved by the senses in the violation
of the Divine laws, neglecting the mind and abusing the members,
is to be dead to the goodness of God, the joys of virtue, and the
hopes of heaven, and alive to guilt, anguish, and despair. To obey
the will of God in love, keeping the body under, and cherishing a
pure soul, is to be dead to the evil of the world, the goading of
passions, and the fears of punishment, and alive to innocence,
happiness, and faith. According to the natural plan of things from
the dawn of creation, the flesh was intended to fall into the
ground, but the spirit to rise into heaven. Suffering is the
retributive result and accumulated merit of iniquity;