DISCOURSE XIV.

RETRIBUTION.

MARVEL NOT AT THIS: FOR THE HOUR IS COMING, IN THE WHICH ALL THAT ARE IN THE GRAVES SHALL HEAR HIS VOICE, AND SHALL COME FORTH; THEY THAT HAVE DONE GOOD, UNTO THE RESURRECTION OF LIFE; AND THEY THAT HAVE DONE EVIL, UNTO THE RESURRECTION OF DAMNATION.- John v. 29.

28,

IN connection with the doctrine of immortality, Christ taught distinctly and emphatically the doctrine of retribution; that those who have done good shall come forth to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.

All terms, of course, in the New Testament, which speak of judgment, acquittal, condemnation, &c., are figurative and analogical. They are taken from human modes of administering justice, of convicting the guilty and discharging the innocent.

The Divine government is differently administered. A system of retribution is interwoven into the nature of things. The laws of God are spiritual, and execute themselves. To be vicious is to be miserable. To be virtuous is measurably to be happy.

There are, of course, impediments to each; there are hindrances to a perfect retribution in the present life. Death will remove those impediments, and a continued spiritual existence will necessarily bring about a complete retribution. Hence it is, that death and the day of judgment are spoken of in such close connection. The true character then will become known, the ties which connected the good and the bad will be dissolved. The good will no longer suffer with the bad the consequences of their vices, nor the vicious be sheltered from the consequences of their misdeeds by the society and compassion of the virtuous.

They were docat the time of Martha says to

In announcing and establishing the doctrine of immortality, Christ at the same time announced and established the doctrine of retribution. But neither did the doctrine of a resurrection or a retribution originate in the teaching of Jesus. trines common among the Jews Christ, and for many ages before. Jesus, of her brother Lazarus, "I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day." This doctrine she did not first learn from Jesus, but had received it as a common doctrine of religion current among the Jews. Such a doctrine had prevailed as early at least as the writing of the book of Daniel. In that, it is said, " And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." And it is remarkable how spiritual are the instruments of future punishment which are introduced into this early announcement. The punishment by hell-fire, which our Saviour adopts, was an

image introduced in an after age. The images of that early day were "everlasting life," and "shame and everlasting contempt." One of the young men immolated by Antiochus Epiphanes, as related in the Second Book of Maccabees, for his adherence to the Mosaic religion, addressed to him the following speech: "Thou, like a fury, takest us out of this present life; but the King of the world shall raise us up, who have died for his laws, unto everlasting life."

But Christ taught as a doctrine of revelation that which before had prevailed as an opinion. "And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one that seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day." He announces this in his prophetic character. "This is the will of God."

But the Jews had held the opinions of immortality and retribution in connection with fundamental error. It was a saying among their Rabbins, which everywhere occurs in their writings, "There is a part for all Israel in the world to come." All Israel are sure of future happiness, let their individual and private character be what it may. But there was no salvation for a heathen, no portion in future blessedness, let his virtues be never so eminent. This grand error both Jesus and John the Baptist set themselves immediately to correct. It stood in the way of the preliminary message of John, "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand." The Jews, in their conceit, imagined that they had no need of repentance. They were of the holy seed of Abraham, and therefore they could not be lost. This mistake

he at once cut up by the roots, and admonished the scribes and Pharisees, Jews though they might be, "O generation of vipers! who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth, therefore, fruits meet for repentance; and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham for our Father; for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham." And he closes with announcing the opposite doctrine of personal, individual responsibility. "And now, also, the axe lieth at the root of the trees; therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit, is hewn down and cast into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire; whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."

There is nothing, perhaps, in the New Testament which bears a greater verisimilitude than this passage. The images are rural, and appropriate to him who appeared in the desert, and was clothed with camel's hair, and fed on locusts and wild honey. The axe and the threshing-floor were the most familiar things to the inhabitants of the country, the barren and the fruitful tree, the wheat and the chaff, were the most impressive symbols of the righteous and the wicked, to an agricultural people, and the power and glory of the approaching Messiah are well set forth by him who has the power to baptize with the Holy Ghost and with fire, and to separate the chaff from

the wheat, to confer upon mankind new and higher degrees of spirituality and happiness, or to involve them in a misery more complete. In this new dispensation, no regard will be paid to race or nation; the personal and individual character will be all that will be considered. Retribution, then, was the main feature of the Gospel from the beginning, from its first annunciation in the wilderness by John the Baptist.

The doctrine of retribution is the main burden of Christ's Sermon on the Mount. It is so in the largest and most generous sense. It dwells chiefly on rewards. It begins with large, affectionate, and liberal promises of reward. Christ preached no one-sided Gospel. He did not regard it as a mere instrument of police, or represent the main object of God's gov. ernment to be to keep people in order. There was no ecclesiasticism in his exhibition of Gospel truth. Retribution was not a thing to be addressed exclusively to the sense of guilt, to the fears and apprehensions of mankind. According to him, it is God's pleasure to bestow happiness on his children, as far as they have fitted themselves to receive it. Punishment is his strange work.

Accordingly, he commences his preaching with the announcement of blessings, instead of the denunciation of punishments. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

... Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which