The Origin of Sin
An original discussion of the origin of sin and its relations to God and the universe. By Rev. E. W. Cook, A.M. Printed in 1899.
“The bearing of this great principle, so universally recognized, upon the matter of future punishment, is clearly evident. Could it be demonstrated that the supremacy of God’s law in His universe through endless ages could be secured only by the endless punishment of the transgressors of it, then the perfect benevolence of even this tremendous evil would be also perfectly demonstrated. For the punishment and the suffering of the violators of God’s great law to any extent, even that of endless punishment, is not by any means the worst thing. Endless contempt of law in an endless universe, in the utter disorder and awful terror, and mighty suffering that would follow it, would be inconceivably more dreadful. And even as jails, penitentiaries and prisons are benevolent in the limited and inferior interests of human governments, and because indispensable to keep down the tendencies to human license and lawlessness, are felt to be the necessary safeguards of the public welfare, so, on the loftier field of God’s administration, where this same tendency exists--where the inclination to throw off the restraints of law, growing out of the conscious freedom and independence of the moral agent, is ever the terrible emergency to be met and counteracted, and which, we have every reason to believe, will exist forever, even the great prison-house of Hell, considered as the place of punishment for the incorrigibly wicked, is, even upon the grounds of human reason, a necessary and indispensable, and therefore benevolent arrangement. For be it remembered, that the endless suffering of all the sinners in God’s dominions who will finally be punished, as compared to the misery of unrestrained rebellion, would only be as a drop to the ocean.”