ANSWER: Rewards and punishments are administered at the day of Judgment. But the natural consequences of righteous or wicked conduct, happiness or misery ensue immediately, the righteous having present joy and glorious anticipations, and the wicked are stung with remorse and are foreboding the punishment which awaits them, like the murderer in jail awaiting his trial and sentence. There is a great difference between the natural consequences of a wicked life and its punishment. No one has yet experienced the punishment due to his sins. Nor has any saint yet experienced the fullness of joy which will follow the "Come ye blessed." The righteous dead are happy. "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord." They are in the vestibule of heaven awaiting the resurrection when their felicity will be supreme. The wicked dead are miserable (II Pet. 2:9, Jude 6). For the happiness of the righteous after death see Luke 23:42, II Cor. 5:6, Phil. 1:23.
— From Steele's Answers pp. 29, 30.
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