The movie “The Hanging Tree” was set in a western gold-mining camp in the late 1800s. Gary Cooper played the role of doctor for the camp. One day a young boy was seen robbing gold from the camp. He was shot from a distance but managed to hobble into hiding. All hands in the camp spread out to see who would be the first to kill him for this offense.
The doctor found the hurt, frightened youth. He took him into the cabin, nursed him, and removed the bullet. After the boy regained consciousness, he inquired what the doctor would do with him now. The doctor held the slug in the boy’s face and said, “You will be my servant for as long as I want you to be, maybe forever, because that is how long you would be dead if this slug had remained in you.”
That is the length of condemnation for the slug of sin if it
...