“When love has done its utmost, when all kindly means prove unavailing, when not the least spark of good in the soul can be found to be enkindled into a regenerating flame, then Justice steps upon the scene. And now let angels and men veil their faces from the awful issue. For, to just as great and unbounded depths as love has gone, will the infinitely terrible, pitiless, and destroying sword of justice now pierce. For the measure of love is ever the measure of hate. The capacity for, and the exercise of, the one are the rule for the administration of the other.
It is only a morbid sentimentality, entirely at variance with what we see interwoven with the whole web of existence, which prompts one to ignore this essential condition of things.
A vacillating prince in a time of impending revolt, or an irresolute judge in the face of defiant criminals, is not a friend, but the worst enemy society can have. To compromise, then, is no exhibition of the genuine quality of mercy. It is confession of weakness, and worse — it is deliberately “unchaining the tiger.” “On the whole,” says Carlyle, “we are not here altogether to tolerate. We do not tolerate Falsehoods, Thieveries, Iniquities, — we say to them, Thou art not tolerable! We are here to extinguish Falsehoods, and put an end to them in some wise way.
From Reimensnyder, Junius Benjamin. Doom Eternal: The Bible and Church Doctrine of Everlasting Punishment. 1880/2021. LutheranLibrary.org
