“It is a horrible thought, I know, yet there are many horrible things in life that we cannot escape. The hell or the punishment is of man’s own making, not of God’s. “If a farmer who has good soil, rain and sunshine, wastes his time in idleness, how can he blame God for not giving him a harvest? When a man wastes his life in vice and crime and becomes a hell to himself, how can he accuse God of being unjust or unmerciful? The moral laws are as exact and reasonable as those of nature. “The mistake is, I think, in leading people to believe that the church by some supernatural power given to it, or by a sudden belief, hope or regret of the man himself, can change this inexorable, inevitable law of God so as to make the vilest sinner become a saint. The soul that sinneth shall die, and my belief is that God will not frustrate the execution of His own laws. There are no miracles in nature or anywhere else. It is inconsistent to suppose that the Creator of the universe would permit or give power to a few poor mortals anywhere to interfere with or change the working of His laws. In the revolution of the spheres there has not been for ages the slightest variation or shadow of a change. It is impossible to suppose that there could be such a variation in the orbit of a planet so slight as to be beyond the power of man to detect it with his most delicate instruments, without believing that chaos would be the result sooner or later. There is as much harmony and equilibrium in a globule of water as in the largest planet. The dazzling glory in a dew-drop is but the exact reflection of some greater and higher glory. Everything in nature is according to the strictest kind of inerrant, unchangeable law. Why then should we expect or believe that in the spiritual or moral life its laws are errant or changeable? Why should cause and effect be different in the one than in the other? When water can be produced by any power of God or man without the exact proportions of oxygen and hydrogen, then I will attempt to believe that a vile man, dead in trespasses and sins can suddenly be changed into an angel and be fit to enjoy the society of the pure and the good. “The mercy of God! It is blasphemy to make such a plea to ward off and escape the consequences that are the result of the deliberate violations of God’s moral laws. Earthquakes and cyclones are in harmony with nature’s laws that God has made. Why not demand that the mercy of God shall suddenly interfere and prevent these from engulfing cities and destroying thousands of innocent women and children, as to believe that the mercy of God will interfere with His spiritual laws and save a soul that is dead in sin or has never wished for salvation.” “But,” I inquired, “do you not believe in the forgiveness of God?”