Especially
is it so as we rise in the moral scale. As a worthy ultimatum it cannot
be entertained. It is far more reasonable to believe that under the
perfect government of God, sin and all its resulting pain will finally
be done away.
Further; it would be hard to find a case of such utter wickedness as not
to have some mixture of good as well. That gives us the reasonable hope
that ultimately the good will triumph. And sometimes we find great
goodness mixed with great evil. Just now I notice a very affecting
report in the newspaper of a criminal in whom there must have been a
wonderful mixture of good and bad. He was convicted of a serious crime,
and sentenced to three years in the penitentiary. When he was leaving
the city under arrest, and being taken on board the train that was to
convey him to the place of confinement, a number of his late companions
in crime appeared on the railway platform. They had come to bid him
good-bye. And it was no formal leave-taking. With tears and sobs they
flung their arms about his neck, and kissed him. So affecting was the
scene that the policeman in charge was utterly broken down. But the man
had to go to prison; and the chances are that the evil influences of
prison life will dissipate much of that extraordinary goodness which
must have been in him to develop so much affection.
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