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I do not think it is right for one sinner to punish another sinner. None but a righteous person is capable of inflicting a righteous punishment. God knowing this, instructs us to 1eave this matter entirely to Himself. He may rise up and qualify a class of capacitated judges from the human race, to whom this power of judgment may be delegated.

But I think this will never be the case, so long as God's image in man is so defaced. The lost image of the godhead must be restored in man, before he can be fitted to be God's representative on the earth as judge of his fellow men.

I think the time is not far distant when righteousness shall be established on the earth; when Christ-like men will rule supreme over fallen perverted humanity. Then the demon, Penalty, will give place to the law of love and kindness, by means of which the transgressor will be reformed and restored to virtue, instead of being crushed down and debased by penalties as he now is. His God-like nature is now trampled in the dust, and no effort to rise are encouraged, but rather smothered by attempts to degrade him to the level of a beast.

Punishments of a corporal kind are only adapted to man as an animal, in the earlier stages of his existence; their influence can never be salutary after he has become a reasonable and accountable moral agent. He then sins through his reason and his intelligence, and he must be punished through his moral faculties as God has ordained. Shame and contrition must be awakened through the influence of respectful kindness to the wrong-doer; not by trying to degrade the noble faculties of his nature to a state of insensibility to moral influences by punishments.

The more man becomes developed as a reasonable being, the more sensitive he becomes to those penal enactments whose legitimate tendencies are to obstruct, limit and destroy the natural aspirations of a moral agent.

The age of penalties seems now to have culminated in this horrible civil war, wherein the developed reason of man is fiendishly employed in inventing means of destroying one another in the most barbarous manner. This crisis once passed I believe the reign of peace will be inaugurated, wherein virtue will be protected, and cultivated by the influence of love and kindness, entirely independent of penalties and restraints.

Now I claim, that these principles of punishment are applicable to these asylum systems, and also of reforming Dr. McFarland, and other great sinners.

Some of the moral forces of the universe have already ripened into vigorous manhood, and through their combined influence, evil is becoming timid, and seeks concealment, which is one step towards its annihilation.

Like the concealing of the gallows from public observation into the prison yard, within the prison walls, indicating that the death penalty is to be destroyed, and is now on its way to destruction -- this may be what is meant by death and hell being destroyed -- that the death penalty and punishment both are to be annihilated in that community where moral power has acquired its manhood strength, and can stand alone, self-reliant, independent of penalties for its existence, just as a child naturally outgrows his educational influences, and with them, the penalties of disobedience, which in his infancy and childhood are necessary helps to his virtues. But when these have acquired manly strength, he no longer needs restraint and penalties, but can be trusted to take care of himself independent of dictation or control from others. In his own heart he has the only monitor he needs for virtuous action, viz: the dictates of an enlightened conscience.

I believe the time has come when this hard-hearted man must be punished for his iniquities. For a long time he has sustained the responsibilities of his position with honors not deserved. He has for along time been trying to cover up the barbarities of his treatment of the prisoners, and has succeeded in making it appear otherwise. He has so deluded the mind of the Trustees and Legislature, by his sophistry and deep, cunning artifice, as to secure such laws as protect him in doing his nefarious work thus long undetected and unmolested.

But the "searcher of hearts" can not be deceived or deluded. He cannot be controlled by misrepresentations and a covert of lies. Lo! God, himself, by his providence, is now bringing him to justice; for after his long forbearance towards him, by giving him opportunities and space for repentance, he persists in clinging to his sins, instead of repenting of them.

And now, Pharaoh like, lie has sinned away his day of grace, so that repentance cannot now be accepted and pardon secured; but on the contrary, he must suffer the punishment due for his transgressions. The curse which his own conduct has secured, must come upon him, and no human power can prevent it.

I do believe Dr. McFarland is now, like Pharaoh, undergoing that hardening of heart process which God calls his work; that is, God will not let him repent until he has been punished. In other words, justice, stern justice, has taken the place which mercy before occupied. "And when God hardens the heart no man can soften it. Inevitable destruction invariably follows God's hardening process.