“Are wicked men punished?”
“In the language of the Bible, I believe, that ‘He that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong he hath done, and there is no respect of persons.’ ‘Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not go unpunished.’ ‘God is not mocked; whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. He that soweth to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption.’”
“You deny though, everlasting punishment.”
“I believe in everlasting punishment in the Bible sense of the word, but not in the present popular sense. Punishment is as lasting as sin; but the Bible no where teaches that sin and wrong are immortal.”
“How long do you suppose punishment will continue?”
“I know not how long. If you can inform me how long men will be corruptible, earthy, sensual, I will tell you how long they will suffer.”
“Do you think that in the other world all will be equally happy?”
“There will, doubtless, be different degrees of purity, virtue and happiness, on the other side of the grave. There must be a moral connection between this life and the life to come. As we end here we shall begin there. Character belongs to the soul, and the death of the body will not make a wise man of a fool, or a saint of a sinner.”
“Do you believe in the resurrection of the body?”
“I believe in the resurrection of man, the inner man, that which now lives, thinks, and acts, but not of the body, these bones and muscles, this flesh and blood. This body connects the spirit with the material world, but when it shall be withdrawn from this outer sphere, and live wholly in the interior world, it will have no farther use of this physical frame. It will be clothed there with a body adapted to that heavenly home.”