Does it express horror of sin ? Surely. But hor-
ror can never be an end in itself. The exhibition
of Divine horror at wrong-doing is not a worthy ex-
planation of penal suffering. What shall be said
of the sufferings which follow mistakes ? Of those
which are purely matters of heredity, and for which
the agent is not responsible ? A " child of the
Ghetto," who chose neither father nor mother, nor
place of birth, nor being born at all, yielding to
the tendencies within him, violates an eternal and
universal principle of right. But he never heard
of any such principle. What results ? Suffering,
perhaps as intense and long continued as if he had
acted in the light. Is that suffering a manifesta-



PUNISHMENT OR DISCIPLINE 245

tion of Divine horror against sin ? Whose sin ?
That of the one who did the wrong, or of the be-
ing who allowed such a creature to be born ? If
the common idea of punishment is imported into
such suffering, and it is insisted that the man is
being punished for doing what he did not know
to be wrong, neither Divine horror nor Divine
justice appear, but something strangely like a
travesty of righteousness.
If there is no other solution of this problem, it
will never be solved, for there is no special need
of the manifestation of Divine horror for its own
sake ; and if it is manifested for any end outside
itself, it must be for the welfare of man, and thus
it becomes remedial rather than punitive.
