The influence of cruel sentiments on the mind is greater with the young than with adults. Some hymns sung in Christian churches are positively brutal in tone. Think of human beings singing the following verse:—
“But vengeance and damnation lie
On rebels who refuse His grace;
Who God's eternal Son despise,
The hottest hell shall be their place.”
Christians seem to delight in pictures of hell. God would hardly be God to them if he did not damn somebody. In painting the divine idea vengeance and damnation are laid on thick.
Here is the Christian notion of father and son:—
“How justice frowned and vengeance stood
To drive me down to endless pain!
But the great Son propos'd his blood,