As God really is love, He is the infinitely happy one. It is
therefore reasonable to suppose that divine love will ultimately have
its happiest expression; and that will involve the abolition of all sin.
Wrath is no constituent of the divine character; but a potentiality
only. If God is to be supremely happy there will finally be no sin to
call forth his wrath, for wrath is a disturber of happiness.
So long as God is just, He must punish sin. But punishment is His
strange work; it does not directly minister to happiness; therefore it
is reasonable to think that sin that calls for punishment will be done
away. Besides; Christ bore the penalty of all sin; infinite justice
demands no more, any further infliction of suffering is intended only
for discipline.
When the angels came to earth on the occasion of the Saviour's birth,
they said that they brought good tidings of great joy to all people. But
millions and millions of people passed away from earth without hearing
the good tidings. Then they must hear the good tidings in the life
beyond. But if they are consigned to eternal torment, there are no good
tidings for them. And if they are extinct they can hear no tidings,
either good or bad. What remains but that the good tidings that did not
reach them here will be conveyed to them there? It is likely that the
angels knew the scope of their message, and that the conveyance of that
message to those on the other side of time, was no more difficult or
abnormal than to us on this side.
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