==14. Punishment for Sin.--As rewards for righteous deeds are proportionate to deserving acts, so the punishment prescribed for sin is made adequate to the offence.[149] Punishment is inflicted upon the sinner, for disciplinary and reformatory purposes, and in support of justice. There is nothing of vindictiveness or of desire to cause suffering in the Divine nature; on the contrary, our Father is cognizant of every pang, and permits such to afflict for beneficent purposes only. God's mercy is declared in the retributive pains which He allows, as in the blessings of peace which issue from His hand. It is scarcely profitable to speculate as to the exact nature of the spiritual suffering imposed as punishment for sin. Comparison with physical pain,[150] such as the tortures of fire, in a sulphurous lake, serve to show that the human mind is incapable of comprehending the depth of these dread penalties. The sufferings entailed by the awful fate of condemnation are more to be feared than are any possible inflictions of purely physical torture; the mind, the spirit, the whole soul is doomed to suffer, and the extent of the torment no man knoweth. [149] Doc. and Cov. lxxvi, 82-85; lxxxii, 21; civ, 9; lxiii, 17; II Nephi i, 13; ix, 27; xxviii, 23. [150] Doc. and Cov. lxxvi, 36, 44; Jacob vi, 10; Alma xii, 16-17; III Nephi xxvii, 11-12. =15.= Consider the word of the Lord regarding those whose sin is the unpardonable one, whose transgression has carried them beyond the present horizon of possible redemption; those who have sunk so low in their wickedness as to have lost the power and even the desire to attempt reformation.[151] "Sons of Perdition" is the terrible designation by which they are known. These are they who, having learned the power of God, afterward renounce it; those who sin wilfully, in the light of knowledge; those who open their hearts to the Holy Spirit, and then put the Lord to a mockery and a shame by denying Him; and those who commit murder, wherein they shed innocent blood;[152] these are they of whom the Savior has declared that it would be better for them had they never been born.[153] These are to share the punishment of the devil and his angels--punishment so terrible that the knowledge is withheld from all except those who are consigned to this dread doom, though a momentary glance at the awful picture is permitted to some.[154] These sinners are the only ones over whom the second death hath power, "Yea, verily, the only ones who shall not be redeemed in the due time of the Lord."[155] [151] See Doc. and Cov. lxxvi, 26, 32, 43. [152] Doc. and Cov. cxxxii, 27. [153] John xvii, 12; II Thess. ii, 3; Doc. and Cov. lxxvi, 32. [154] Doc. and Cov. lxxvi, 45-48. [155] Doc. and Cov. lxxvi, 38-39.