I recall another passage of wonderful import in this connection. Our Lord said: "That servant which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes." Now it is very dear that in thousands of cases those words are not fulfilled in this life. There are atrociously wicked men who are not beaten with any, not to say many, stripes. That was the Psalmist's trouble. He saw that the ungodly prospered. He said that they were not in trouble as other men, nor plagued as other men. He said that they had more than heart could wish. Plainly, the threatening was not executed upon them in the present life. If the words are to come true at all, they must be fulfilled in the next life. It is one of many passages that require our purview to be extended into the future life to understand them. But if the words are to be fulfilled in the next life, must not their fulfillment be conditioned on the theory of Restoration? Suppose there is extinction at death. How could any stripes be laid on a man who is extinct? Does not that consideration settle the idea of extinction? And what about endless torment? Certainly many stripes are laid on the man in endless torment. But what about the man who is to be beaten with few stripes? Would it be possible to conceive of endless torment as being only a few stripes? To be sure, there might be degrees of torment; and the man in a mild degree of suffering would not suffer so much as the man in an intense degree. But then, the suffering is to be for ever and ever. It is to be an eternity of suffering. In that case, the suffering might be reduced to the mildest form of discomfort; but as it is to be eternal in duration, the sum total of it would be infinite. Could any stretch of imagination conceive of such suffering being only a few stripes? It does seem to me that both the theory of extinction, and that of torment, utterly break down under that test. But how natural and reasonable is the statement on the theory of Restoration. In that case the words come literally true. We can well believe that atrocious sinners have terrible pains and penalties before they repent, and are redeemed. On the other hand, we can imagine that sins of a milder type, especially sins of ignorance, will call for but few stripes. We would go further, and believe that in the case of advanced Christians, there will be only such suffering as is inseparable from the discovery of mistakes, and consequent development. In the case of all suffering, of whatever degree, we believe that it will be rather of a reformatory, than of a punitive character. Suffering may or may not be proportionate to sin. The idea is this, that, when it has accomplished the reformation of the sinner it will cease.