O sinner! consider the fearful danger you are in:  it is a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath, that you are held over in the hand of that God whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much against you as against many of the damned in hell:  you hang by a slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about it, and ready every moment to singe it and burn it asunder; and you have no interest in any Mediator, and nothing to lay hold of to save yourself, nothing to keep off the flames of wrath, nothing of your own, nothing that you ever have done, nothing that you can do, to induce God to spare you one moment.

    Consider this, you that are here present, that yet remain in an
    unregenerate state.  That God will execute the fierceness of His
    anger, implies that He will inflict wrath without any pity.

Even though increasing knowledge may have somewhat softened the language of vengeance, still both religion and the law have found their chief justification for punishment in the doctrine of revenge.

The church has constantly taught from the first that God would punish the sinner with everlasting torment.  It has taught that all are bad from birth and can be saved only by grace.  The punishment to be suffered was as terrible as man’s mind could conceive.  It would continue infinitely beyond the time when it might be needed for correction or example.  In spite of a few humane or over-sensitive ministers, the doctrine persists and is carefully preserved by the church.  That the State likewise holds fast to the idea of vengeance, punishment for the sake of suffering, is just as evident.  One needs only to note the force and degree of hatred of the good to the one accused of crime, and the zeal that is shown for a man hunt, to realize how deeply the feeling of vengeance is planted in the structure of man.  The truth is that it was a part of life before religion and political institutions were evolved.

Still, most people are now ashamed to admit that punishment is based on vengeance and, for that reason, various excuses and apologies have been offered for the cruelty that goes with it.  Some of the more humane, or “squeamish,” who still believe in punishment, contend that the object of this infliction is the reformation of the victim.  This, of course, cannot be urged of the death penalty or even punishment for life, or for very long-term sentences.  In these cases there is neither inducement to reform nor any object in the reformation.  No matter how thorough the reform, the prisoner never goes back to society, or he returns after there is no longer a chance for him to be of use to the world or to enjoy life.