Let no man, therefore, when he says, “Our Father which art in Heaven,” suppose that he addresses a God without any color of strength, of equity, or of penalty. He is a God who loves you so that He will not suffer wickedness in you; and that if it be needful to purge wickedness out from you by exquisite pains, will employ the pains to purge it out.
A God of love and justice will do that which is necessary to be done in order to redeem a soul from death; and whether pains and penalty will be now or hereafter, it will be averaged to the measure of necessity. The love of God does not take away the motive of fear, but augments it; it is a higher fear, it is a more generous fear. Love punishes. There is no punishment like that of love. And God is love. —BEECHER.
