Page:A Defence of Revealed Religion.pdf/32

32 law which teaches us that human hands will get burnt if they touch hot iron, or the person who put the iron in the fire, with burning him. The burning resulted not from the iron having been put in the fire, nor from the laws regulating the consequences of contact between human hands and hot substances, but from his own act of touching the iron.

Or take another illustration. A man, though warned of the danger, eats the berries of the deadly nightshade, and he dies, or is made ill, as the case may be. His suffering does not come from the maker of the berries, nor from the fact that they were within his reach—for belladonna is one of the most useful and powerful of known medicines, in small doses it is almost a specific in cases of scarlet fever and throbbing headache—the suffering comes from the man eating it in large quantities, and is evidently self-inflicted.

So it is with the suffering that ensues from the indulgence of man in sin. It emanates not from any arbitrary decree of the Lord; and the workings of His Providence convince us that if a word of His could ensure the eternal happiness of us all, that word would long ago have been spoken. But since freedom is essential to happiness—"for a gilded cage is still a prison"—the Lord leaves us in perfect liberty to choose for ourselves. But punishment and sin are united. If a man breaks a natural law he will bring upon him self a natural punishment; if he breaks a spiritual law he will bring upon himself a spiritual punishment.