The hell

THE HELL

If it exists - What is it - How can we avoid it

PER

Mgr. of SEGUR

SECOND EDITION

Approved by the Honorable and Reverend Mr. D. Antonio

Bishop of Porto

HARBOR

Porto Catholic Bookstore

1905

canonical approval

It can be published.

Porto, September 2, 1905.

+ A, Bishop of Porto

SHORTLY

DIRECTED BY

His Holiness Pope Pius IX to the author

PIO IX, POPE

Beloved Son, Health and Apostolic Blessing.

We congratulate you with all our heart for not failing to follow faithfully and with so much benefit your vocation as herald of the Gospel. Your publications are very quickly spread among the people in thousands of copies.

If your writings are so sought after, it is because they please; and if they did not have the gift of attracting spirits, of penetrating to the depths of hearts, and of producing in them its beneficial effects, they could not please.

Therefore, take advantage of the grace that God has given you, continue to work ardently and carry out your ministry of evangelization.

As for We, we promise you from God a great protection that you may bring more and more souls to the path of salvation, and thereby gain a magnificent crown of glory.

In this expectation, receive, as a pledge of divine protection and of the other gifts of the Lord, the Apostolic Blessing, which We grant to you, most beloved Son, with all the affection of Our heart, to witness to you Our paternal benevolence.

Given in Rome, at St. Peter's, on March 2, 1876, the thirtieth year of Our Pontificate.

Pro IX, Pope.

PROLOGUE

It was in 1837. Two ensigns, still young, who had recently left Saint-Cyr, visited the monuments and rarities of Paris. They entered the Church of the Assumption, next to the Tuileries, and stopped to observe the pictures, paintings and all the artistic works of that beautiful building. They didn't even think about praying.

One from them saw at the foot of a confessional a priest, still young, with surplice, who loved the SS. Sacrament. "Look at this priest, he said to his comrade; without a doubt waiting for someone. - Maybe because of you, replied the other, laughing. - For me? For what? - Who knows? Maybe to confess to you. — To confess to me?! Well then, bets that I am capable of going there? — You, are you going to confess?! Now!” And he started laughing, shaking his shoulders. "Betting? repeated the officer young, with a mocking and determined manner. Let's bet on a good dinner, accompanied by a bottle of Champagne wine. — I accept the bet of dinner and wine. I dare you to go and confess." Said This, the other went to the priest and spoke in his ear; This one got up, entered the confessional, while the pretended penitent gave his comrade a victorious look, and knelt like to confess.

"He has grace!", murmured the other; and sat down to see what would happen give that. He waited five minutes, ten minutes, a quarter of an hour. "O what does he do? he asked himself, with a curiosity almost impatient. What could he have said all this time?"

Anyway, O confessional opened, the priest came out with an excited face and serious, and; After having probed the young soldier, he entered the sacristy. The officer also stood up, red as a rooster's comb, pulling at his mustache with a somewhat disguised air, and signaled to his friend to follow him, in order to leave the church.

— You confessed indeed. Indeed, you earned your dinner well. Do you want this to be afternoon?

— No, replied the other with bad humor; not today. We'll see you one day. I have things to do and I need to get away from you." Pressing the hand of his companion, he hurriedly walked away, physiognomy.

O What would have happened between the lieutenant and the confessor? Here it is: Just the priest opened the little door of the confessional, he saw, by the manner of the young officer, who was there, not to confess, but to make fun. Had he dared to tell her, concluding I don't know what phrase: "Religion! confession! I mock all of this!"

O The priest was a smart man. "Pardon me, my dear sir, I said interrupting him gently; I see that what you do is not serious. Let's leave aside the confession and talk for a few moments. I like much of the military, and, as it seems to me, you are a good young man and kind. Tell me: what is your degree?" The officer He was beginning to recognize that he had committed something stupid.

Happy per finding a way out of this embarrassment, he replied courteously: "I'm just an ensign. I just left Saint-Cyr.

— Ensign? And will you stay long, lieutenant?

— I whatnot. Two years, or three, four maybe. — Then I will move on to lieutenant. - And then? — Then I will be captain. — Captain? in What age can you be a captain? —If you have fortune, replied the officer smiling, I can be captain at twenty-eight or twenty-nine years. - And then? —Oh! then it's difficult. It stays a long time captain. Then you become major, then lieutenant colonel, and then colonel.

— Very good! There you are, colonel, forty or forty-two years of age. age.

AND after? — Then I will be a brigadier general and then a general. division. - And then? — Then there is nothing left but the degree of marshal; but my aspirations don't reach that far. - Although; but will you not get married? — Maybe it will come, maybe; but it will be only when he is a superior officer. — Well done!

Then you will be married, senior officer, brigadier general, general division or maybe even Marshal of France, who knows? And then, Sir? added the priest with authority. - After? after? replied the officer, almost confused. Oh! believe; I don't know what will happen after. —See how singular this is, said the priest with an increasingly serious accent. You know what will happen until then and you don't know what will happen next. Well, I know it and I'm going to say it.

After, sir, you will die. As soon as you die, you will appear before God to you will be judged. If you continue to live as you have until now, you will be condemned and you will burn eternally in hell. Here's what after will happen!"

O young man, terrified and tired of this shot, seemed to want dodge. "One more moment, sir," continued the priest. I still have a few words to say to you, You are honored, aren't you? Well, so am I. You came here to mock me; you owe for that gives me some reparation.

I ask, I demand it in the name of honor. It will also be very simple. You must assure me that, for a space of eight days, at night, before I you lie down, on your knees, you will say out loud: "One day I will die, but he laughed at me about it. After my death I will be judged, but I laughed at that.

After of I will be condemned at my trial, but I laughed at that. I will burn eternally in hell, but he laughed at me about it."

You will say this; but give me your word of honor that you will not missing, right?"

If you have If you need me, here you will always find me at my post. Do not forget the word given." Then they separated, as saw.

O new officer had dinner alone. It was obvious that he was vexed. At night, before lying down, he hesitated a little; but he had given his word of honor; no failed what was promised, "I will die, I will be judged; perhaps I will go to hell... "he didn't have the heart to add:" he laughed at me from that."

Like this took place some days, His penance reminded him continually and it seemed to ring in his ears. To her nature, like that of the nineties nine hundredths of the youth, she had more dissipated than bad. The eighth day did not pass without the officer returning, so unaccompanied, to the Church of the Assumption. He confessed with contrition sincere, and left the confessional with her face bathed in tears and the joy in the heart.

Second somebody certified me, he was later a worthy and fervent Christian. It was the meditation of hell that, with the grace of God, wrought that change. Now, the fruit it bore in the spirit of this new official, why won't it produce it in yours, dear reader?

AND I need, therefore, to meditate on hell while there is still time.

Comply think in hell. Its existence is a personal matter, and, confessing it is deeply fearful. That question is proposed to each one of us; and, whether we like it or not, it needs a solution positive.

Let's go then, If you wish, examine, briefly but rigorously, two things: 1st- if there is hell; 2nd- what is hell? Appeal here solely for your faith and probity.

THE HELL

if there is hell

There is hell: this has been the belief of all peoples at all times

What all peoples have always believed at all times constitutes what is called a common-sense truth, or, if you want to say so, a common-sense, universal truth. Anyone who did not want to admit one of these great universal truths would not have, as is well said, common sense. Indeed, only a fool can imagine that he can be right against everyone else.

Now, at all times, from the beginning of the world to our days, all peoples have believed in hell.

Under one name or another, in more or less altered forms, it has received, preserved and proclaimed the belief in terrible and eternal punishments, in which fire always appears, as punishment for the wicked after their death.

This is a certain fact, and one which has been so clearly established by our great Christian philosophers, that it would be superfluous, as it were, to take the trouble to prove it.

Since the beginning of the world, the existence of an eternal hell of fire has been found in very clear terms in the oldest known books, which are those of Moses. I do not quote them here, mind you, except from a purely historical point of view.

The name of hell is there with all its letters.

In Deuteronomy the Lord says through the mouth of Moses: "The fire was kindled in my wrath, and its ardors shall penetrate to the depths of hell (et ardebit usque ad inferni novissima)."

In the book of Job, also written by Moses, as affirmed by the greatest sages, the wicked, whose life is full of joy, and who say to God: "We have no need of you, nor do we want your law; ye and pray?", these wicked "fall in an instant into hell (in puncto ad inferna descendunt)."

Job calls hell "the region of darkness, the region shrouded in the shadows of death, the region of disgrace and darkness, where there is no order, but eternal horror reigns (sed sempiternus horror inhabitat)." Here are certain testimonies, very respectable, that go back to the primitive origins of history.

A thousand years before the Christian era, at a time when Greek and Roman history did not yet exist, David and Solomon often speak of hell, as of a great truth so known and recognized by all that there is no need to demonstrate it. . In the book of Psalms, David says, among other things, speaking of sinners and that they will be cast into hell (convertantur peccatores in infernum). That the wicked will be confounded and cast into hell (et deducantur in infernum.)" Elsewhere he speaks of the "pains of hell (dolores inferni)." Solomon is no less formal. In referring to the designs of the wicked, who want to seduce and lose fair, attributing to them these words: "Let us devour him alive, as hell does (sicut infernus)." And in that famous passage from the book of Wisdom,in which he so admirably describes the despair of the damned, he adds: "Behold what they say in hell (in hell) that they have sinned; for the hope of the wicked vanishes like smoke in the wind."

In another of his books, called the Ecclesiastical, he says: "To the multitude of the wicked is like a bundle of tow, and their last end is the flame of fire (flamma ignis); they are the hells, the darkness and the pains ( et in fine illorum inferi, et tenebrae, et paenae).”

Two centuries later, more than eight hundred years before Christ, the great prophet Isaiah said, "If there is Hell— How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer? to the Most High," you are cast down into hell, at the bottom of the abyss (ad infernum detraheris, in profundum laci)." In another passage of his prophecies Isaiah speaks of the eternal fire of hell. "Sinners, he says, are terrified. . Who among you will be able to dwell with the devouring fire (cum igne devorante) and with the eternal flames (cum ardoribus sempiternis)?" The prophet Daniel, who lived two hundred years after Isaiah, says, speaking of the resurrection and the Last Judgment: "And the multitude of those who sleep in the dust shall awake, some to eternal life, others to a reproach that will never end."The same testimony was given by the other prophets up to the forerunner of the "Messiah, St. John the Baptist, who also spoke to the people of Jerusalem of the eternal fire of hell, as a truth known to all, and which no one ever doubted. "Behold, Christ has arrived, he exclaims. It will bear its grain, it will gather the wheat (the chosen ones) in its barns; as for the chaff (sinners), he will cast it into the fire that never goes out (in igne inextinguibili)."he will cast it into the fire that never goes out (in igne inextinguibili)."he will cast it into the fire that never goes out (in igne inextinguibili)."

Such is the Tartarus of the Greeks and Latins, "The wicked who despised the holy laws are thrown into Tartarus, never to leave it and to suffer there horrible and eternal torments", says Socrates, quoted by Plato, his disciple.

And Plato says, "Account must be given to the ancient and sacred traditions, which teach that after this life the soul will be judged and punished severely if it has not lived as it should." Aristotle, Cicero and Seneca speak of these same traditions, which are lost in the night of time.

Homer and Virgil coated them with color from their immortal poetry. Who has not yet read the account of Aeneas' descent into hell, where, under the name of Tartarus, Plato, etc., we discover the great primitive truths, disfigured but preserved by paganism? The torments of the evil ones there are eternal, and one of these evil ones is painted to us as “eternally fixed in hell.” This universal, indisputable and undisputed belief was also accepted and recognized by the first skeptical philosopher, Bayle. the Englishman Bolinzbroke. declared it with equal frankness. He formally says: "The doctrine of a future state of rewards and punishments seems to be lost in the darkness of antiquity: it precedes all that we know for sure.

As soon as we began to unravel the chaos of ancient history, we found this belief most solidly in the spirit of the first nations we know.” Remnants of it are found among the formless superstitions of the savages of America, Africa, and Oceania. paganism of India and Persia, retains very notable traces of it, and, finally, Mohammedanism counts hell in the number of its dogmas.

Within Christianity, it goes without saying that the dogma of hell is clearly taught as one of the great fundamental truths that underpin the building of Religion. Even the Protestants, who have attacked everything with their mad doctrine of free examination, dared not touch the dogma of hell. Strange, inexplicable thing!

In the midst of so many ruins, Luther, Calvin and the other Coryphaites of the Reformation had to leave standing this terrible truth, which should nevertheless be so importunate to them! My children, avoid hell!

Therefore, all peoples at all times knew and recognized the existence of hell. Therefore, this terrible dogma is part of the treasure of the great universal truths that constitute the light of humanity. Thus, it is not possible for a sensible man to doubt it by saying, in the madness of proud ignorance: There is no hell!

Therefore, hell exists.

There is hell: hell was not and could not be invented

If, which is impossible, credit was given to that strange invention; if, due to an even more evident impossibility, all peoples, subjugated by the words of the aforementioned philosopher, came to believe in hell, this would be a great event. Now tell me: could the name of the inventor, the century, the country where he lived, could no longer be recorded in history? No. Now is there any man marked as having introduced into the world this terrible doctrine, so contrary to the deepest passions of the human spirit, heart, and senses? No. Therefore, hell was not invented.

And it wasn't invented, because it couldn't be, The Eternity of Hell's Pains is a dogma that reason cannot understand; you may know it but not understand it because it is superior to reason.

How, then, do you wish that man could invent something that he is not capable of understanding?

It is true that hell, eternal hell, cannot be understood by reason; and reason rebels against it when it is not enlightened and illustrated by the supernatural lights of faith. As we shall see later, reason qualifies divine justice as injustice because it punishes the unrepentant sinner with eternal penalties and denies the possibility of such torments.

The dogma of hell is what is called "an innate truth", that is, one of those lights of divine origin that shines in us, despite our will; which is in the depths of our consciousness, engraved in the pHá hell: God has revealed to us the existence of the depths of the soul like a black diamond, which shines with a dark radiance.

Nobody can pluck it from the soul, because it was God who put it in it. You can cover this diamond and its somber shine; one can look away from it and forget about it for a while, one can deny it in words; but, although one does not want to, it is believed in it, and conscience does not cease to proclaim it.

The wicked who mock hell are inwardly very afraid of it. Those who say that it seems to them that there is no hell lie to themselves and lie to others.

It is an ungodly desire of the heart rather than a reasonable denial of the spirit. In the last century one of these insolent ones wrote to Voltaire that he had discovered the metaphysical proof of the non-existence of hell, "You are very happy, replied the old patriarch of unbelievers; I am very far from it."

No, man did not invent hell.

He did not invent it, nor could he invent it. The dogma of eternal hell-fire goes back to God. It is part of the great early revelation, which is the basis of Religion and the moral life of mankind.

Therefore, there is hell.

There is hell: God revealed his existence to us

Jesus Christ solemnly confirmed this revelation, and fourteen times in the Gospel he tells us of hell. We will not say all your words here, so as not to repeat them. Do not forget, dear reader, that it is God who speaks, and who said: "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away".

Some time after his marvelous transfiguration on Mount Tabor, Jesus said to his disciples and to the crowd that followed him: "If your hand (this is your most precious thing) is an occasion for you to sin, cut it off: it is worth more to enter the other life with one hand, than with both to go to hell, to the fire that never goes out, where the worm of remorse does not die and the fire will never extinguish.

If your foot or your eye is an occasion for you to sin, cut it off, pluck it out and cast it away from you: it is better to enter into eternal life with one foot or with one eye, than to be cast with the your two feet or with both eyes in the prison of eternal fire (in gehennam ignis inextinguibilis), where remorse does not cease and fire does not go out. (et ignis non extinguitur)".

Speaking of what will happen at the end of the world, he says: “Then the Son of man will send his Angels, who will seize those who have done evil, and throw them into the furnace of fire (in caminum ignis), where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear".

When the Son of God foretold the Last Judgment, in the twenty-fifth chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel, he made known to us beforehand the very terms of the sentence he is to pronounce against the reprobate: "Depart from me, ye cursed, for the eternal fire (discedito au me, maledicti in ignem aeternum)". And he added: "These will go to eternal punishment (in supplicium aeternum)." I ask you: is there anything more explicit?

The apostles, charged by the Savior to develop his doctrine and complete his revelations, speak to us of hell and its eternal flames in a way no less intelligible. To cite but a few of his words, let us remember what St. Paul said to the Christians of Thessalonica, in his preaching on the Last Judgment, that the Son of God "will take vengeance in the flame of fire (in flamma ignis") , of the wicked who have not wanted to obey God and who do not obey the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ; they will have to suffer eternal punishments in death, far from the face of the Lord (paenas dabunt in interit aeternas)".

The apostle St. Peter says that sinners will have part in the punishment of the evil angels that the Lord precipitated into the depths of hell, in the torments of Tartarus (rudentideun inferai detractoe in Tartarum tradidit ads)". He calls them "sons of the curse (maledictiones) filius), to whom the horrors of darkness are reserved".

St. John also speaks to us about hell and its eternal fire. Of the Antichrist and his false prophet, he says: "They shall be cast alive into the burning abyss of fire and brimstone (in stagnum ignis ardentis sulphoro), to be tormented there day and night for all ages and ages (crusciabuntur die) ac nocte in saecula saecula) There is hell: God has revealed his existence to us.

Finally, the Apostle St. Judas speaks to us of hell, showing us the demons and the reprobate "trapped for all eternity in the midst of darkness and suffering the pains of eternal fire (ignis aetemni paenam sustinentes)".

And throughout the course of their inspired epistles the apostles continually urge the fear of the judgments of God and the eternal punishments that await unrepentant sinners.

And throughout the course of their inspired Epistles the apostles continually urge the fear of the judgments of God and the eternal punishments that await unrepentant sinners.

After such clear teachings, is it any wonder that the Church presents us with the eternity of the pains and fire of hell as a dogma of faith proper?

And this in such a way, that whoever dared to deny it, or only to doubt it, would be by this fact a heretic. Therefore, the existence of hell is an article of Catholic faith, and we are as certain of it as of the existence of God. Then there is hell.

In short: the witness of the entire human race and of its most ancient traditions, the witness of human nature, of the right reason of heart and conscience, and, furthermore, the witness of the infallible teaching of God and of his Church are in agreement. in attesting to us with absolute certainty that there is hell, hell fire and darkness, eternal hell, to punish the wicked and unrepentant sinners.

Dear reader, can a truth be established more peremptorily?

If it's true that there is hell, how come someone never returned from there?

Hell exists for the punishment of the reprobate and not to let them return to the world, When you fall into it, you stay in it.

Do you say that no one ever returned from there?

It is true in the usual order of Providence. But is it true that no one ever came back from hell? Are you sure that, to show his mercy and justice, God never allowed a condemned man to appear on earth?

In Sacred Scripture and in history there is evidence to the contrary, however superstitious the almost general belief in souls that come from the other world has become, it would be inexplicable if it were not based on the truth.

Allow me to tell you here some facts whose authenticity seems incontestable, and which prove the existence of hell, by the tremendous testimony of those who returned from there.

Dr. Raymundo Diocres

— In the life of St. Bruno, founder of the Carthusian order, one finds a fact, studied in depth by the most learned Bolandists, and which presents to the most serious critics all the historical characters of authenticity; an event that took place in Paris in broad daylight, in the presence of many thousands of witnesses, and whose accounts were collected by contemporaries; finally, that gave birth to a great religious Order.

A famous doctor from the University of Paris, named Raymundo Diocres, had just died amidst the universal admiration and sadness of all his disciples. It was in the year 1082. One of the wisest doctors of that time, known throughout Europe for his science, talent and virtues, by name Bruno, was then in Paris with four companions, and he took it as a duty to attend the funeral of the illustrious dead . The corpse had been deposited in the great chancellery room, near the Church of Notre-Dame, and a huge crowd surrounded the bed, where, according to the usage of time, the dead man was exposed, covered with a simple veil.

Ecclesiastical authorities did not know what to resolve. Some said: "He is a reprobate; he is unworthy of the prayers of the Church." Others said, "No, this is all very terrible indeed; but, after all, shall we not all be accused first, then judged by a just judgment of God?" The Bishop was of this opinion, and the following day the funeral resumed at the same time. Bruno and his companions attended, as the day before. The University and all of Paris crowded together at Notre-Dame. The same lesson: "Answer me", the corpse of dr. Raymundo got up, sat down, And with a pause, which froze with terror all those who were watching, he exclaimed: "By the just judgment of God I am condemned"; and fell still.

This time no one was in doubt. The terrible prodigy manifested to the point of evidence was undisputed. By order of the Bishop and the Chapter, the corpse was stripped of the insignia of its dignity, and was taken to the dunghill of Montfaucon.

On leaving the great hall of the chancellery, Bruno, almost forty-five years old, irrevocably decided to leave the world, and went, with his companions, to seek a retreat in the solitudes of the Grand-Chartush, near Grenoble, where they could, more tranquilly, secure their salvation and thus prepare themselves for the righteous judgments of God.

Here, then, is a reprobate, who has returned from hell, not to come out of it, but to be the most irrefutable of hell's witnesses.

The Religious of St. Antoninus

— The learned Archbishop of Florence, Saint Antoninus, refers in his writings to a fact no less terrifying, which, by the mid-fifteenth century, filled northern Italy with astonishment. A young man, illustrious for his nobility, at sixteen or seventeen years old had the misfortune to hide a mortal sin in confession and to take Communion in that state, and he was postponing from week to week, month to month the confession of his sacrilege, continuing however to confessing and communing out of miserable human respect. Tortured by remorse, he sought relief in great penances, so he passed for a saint.

However, not finding him in them, he entered a monastery. "There, at least, he thought, I will say everything and seriously atone for my hideous sins." To his disgrace, he was welcomed like a saint by his superiors, who already knew him by reputation, and his shame was increased by this even more. He left his confession for later, redoubled his penances, and one, two, three years passed in this pitiful state. He dared not reveal the horrible, shameful weight that weighed him down.

Finally, a deadly disease made it easier for him to make a good confession. "Now that I'm sick, he said, I'm going to confess everything. I want to make a general confession before I die." But, overcome by pride, he wrapped up the confession of his guilt in such a way that the confessor could not understand.

A few moments before the scheduled time for the funeral, one of the religious, as he went to ring the bell, suddenly saw the deceased in front of him, surrounded by chains that, from being scorched by fire, seemed red, and he spotted in his figure something incandescent. Terrified, the poor religious fell to his knees, his eyes fixed on the hideous apparition. Then the reprobate said to him, "Pray not for me. I am in hell for all eternity." He told the pitiful story of his disastrous shame and his mistakes, and then disappeared, leaving a stench in the church that spread. through the convent, as if to attest to the truth of everything the priest had just seen and heard. The superiors being informed, they immediately ordered the corpse taken away, deeming it unworthy of an ecclesiastical burial.

the whore of naples

— St. Francis de Jerome, a famous missionary of the Society of Jesus at the beginning of the eighteenth century, was in charge of directing the missions of Naples. One day, while he was preaching in a square there, some ill-fated women, gathered at the invitation of one of them named Catherine, endeavored to disturb the sermon with rants and loud exclamations, in order to force the priest to withdraw; but he did not fail to conclude his sermon, showing signs of not being disturbed by her insolence.

Some time later he went again to preach in the same square. Seeing the door closed and all of Catherine's house, where there was ordinarily great turmoil, in a profound silence the saint exclaimed: "Oh, what happened to Catherine?

— Father, don't you know? The bastard died yesterday afternoon without being able to utter a single word.

"Catherine died?" replied the saint; died suddenly? Let's go in and see. "They opened the door; the saint climbed the stairs, and followed by a crowd of people, entered the room where the corpse lay on the floor, on a mortuary cloth, surrounded by four candles, according to the usage of the country. for a while with startled eyes, and then he said aloud: "Catarina, where are you now?" The corpse did not answer. The saint repeated: "Catarina, tell me where you are now. I command you to tell me where your abode is." Then, to everyone's great astonishment, the corpse's eyes opened, its lips twitched convulsively, and in a terrifying voice it replied, "In hell! I am in hell!" At these words, those who heard them fled in astonishment, and the saint descended with them, repeating: "In hell! Oh God!In hell! Did you hear? In hell!"

The impression of this marvel was so vivid that many who witnessed it did not dare enter their homes without first having confessed.

Count Orlof's friend

— In the present century, three facts of the same kind have occurred, each one more authentic, and which have come to my knowledge. The first one took place almost in my family. It took place in Russia, in Moscow, shortly before the horrible campaign of 1812. My maternal grandfather, Count Rostopchine, military governor of Moscow, was close friends with General Count Orloff, celebrated for his bravery but more impious than brave.

I had left Moscow two or three weeks before, when very early one morning, as my grandfather was getting dressed, someone hastily opened the door to his room. It was Count Orloff, dressed in white, in slippers, with his hair up, his eyes startled, and pale as a dead man. "What is it, Orloff? Are you, at this hour, in such a garment? What have you, what has happened to you?

"My friend," replied Count Orloff, "I think I'm mad." I just saw General V.

"General V.?" Is he back already?

— Ah! no, replied Orloff, sitting down on a settee and holding his head in his hands. No, it hasn't come back and that's what amazes me."

My grandfather didn't understand anything and tried to reassure him. "Tell me what happened to you and what it all means."

Then, striving to subdue his commotion, Count Orloff narrated the following: "My dear Rostopchine, for some time General V. and I swore to each other that the first one to die would come and tell the other if there was anything beyond the grave .

This morning, just half an hour ago, I was peacefully in my bed, having just woken up, and not even thinking about my friend, when suddenly the curtains on my bed opened and I saw General V., two steps away from me, standing, pale, and with his right hand on his chest. He said to me, "There is hell, and I have fallen into it." And disappeared immediately. I ran quickly looking for you. My head breaks. How strange! I don't know what to think."

My grandfather calmed him down as best he could. It was difficult, She told him about dreams, and that he might still sleep. I told him that there are many extraordinary and inexplicable things, and other such trivialities, that give consolation to strong spirits. Then he had the horses harnessed and led Count Orloff to his home.

Ten or twelve days after this strange success, a postilion brought my grandfather, among other news, the death of General V. on the morning of the same day that Count Orloff saw and heard him, at the same time he appeared to him in Moscow, the unfortunate general, having gone out to recognize the enemy's position, was wounded in the chest by a bullet and immediately dropped dead.

"There is hell, and I fell into it!" Here are the words of one who returned from there.

the lady with the gold bracelet

"She was in London in the winter of 1847 to 1848, She was a widow, then nearly twenty-nine years old, and was worldly, wealthy, and pleasant-looking. Among the elegant who frequented her salon, there was a lord still new, whose attendance singularly compromised her, and whose procedure was, moreover, unedifying.

"One afternoon, or rather one night (because it was already midnight), the aforementioned lady was reading in her bed I don't know what novel, in order to go to sleep. Only the clock struck one hour, the light turned off. falling asleep, when, to his great astonishment, he saw a pale, strange flash, which seemed to come from the hall door, spread little by little through the room, and gradually increased.

Dumbfounded, she opened her eyes wide, not knowing what that meant. He was beginning to ground himself. when he saw the door of the hall open slowly and the lord, the accomplice of his sins, enter his room. Before she could say a word to him, the man was beside her, he gripped her arm and raised it by the wrist, and in a shrill voice he spoke to her in English; "There is hell." The pain he felt in his arm was such that he was rendered unconscious.

"When, in half an hour, he came to, he called the chambermaid. When she entered, she felt a great smell of burning; and approaching her mistress, who could hardly speak, she saw such a deep burn on her wrist. , that the bone was visible and the flesh was almost consumed, and that a man's hand was as wide. the fabric on the other side. By order of his mistress, he opened the door to the hall, and found some more traces on the rug.

"In the morning the unhappy lady learned, with a terror easy to conceive, that that night, at one o'clock, her lord had been found dead at a table which she had had taken to her room, where she expired after getting drunk. .

"I don't know, continued the Superior, whether this terrible lesson converted the wretch; but what I do know is that she is still alive, and that, to hide the signs of the sinister burn, she wears a bracelet-like bandage on her left wrist. gold, which he does not abandon by night or by day. I repeat: this fact was told to me by a close relative of that lady, a fervent Christian, and to whose word I give all the credit.

"In the family this is not talked about; and I myself trust you by hiding people's names."

Despite the veil in which this apparition has been and must be wrapped, it seems to me impossible to doubt its awful authenticity. Certainly the lady with the bracelet would have had no need since then for anyone to come to her proof of the existence of hell.

the whore of rome

— In the year 1873, a few days before the Assumption, one of those terrible apparitions of souls from another world took place in Rome, which effectively corroborate the truth of the existence of hell. In one of those infamous houses, which the sacrilegious invasion of the Pope's temporal domain had opened in many places in Rome, an unfortunate maiden had a wound on her hand, which forced her to be transported to the hospital in Consolação.

No one could calm the despair and terror of this unfortunate woman, who at dawn left, leaving the whole house permeated with horror.

In the meantime, the lady of the exalted Garibaldina house fell ill, and as such, known by her brothers and friends. He hurriedly sent for the parish priest. Before going to such a house, the respectable priest consulted the ecclesiastical authority, which delegated for this purpose a worthy prelate, Monsignor Sirolli, parish priest of S. Salvador in Lauro. The latter, armed with special instructions, presented himself and immediately demanded from the patient, in the presence of many witnesses, the full and complete retraction of the scandals of her life, of her blasphemies against the authority of the Supreme Pontiff, and of all the evil she had done. To the next. The unfortunate woman did so without hesitation, confessed and received the Sacred Viaticum with great feelings of repentance and humility. Feeling that she was going to die, she begged the good parish priest with tears not to abandon her, terrified, as she was,of what he had witnessed. But night was approaching, and Monsignor Sirolli, placed between charity, which told him to stay, and decorum, which forced him not to spend the night in such a place, asked the police for two guards, who came and closed the house and guarded it, until the dying woman exhaled her last breath.

All of Rome knew these tragic events very quickly. As always, the wicked and libertines mocked them, taking no advantage of the lesson; the good used them, to be even better and more faithful to their duties.

In view of such facts, whose list could be even longer, I ask the upright and conscientious reader whether it is reasonable to repeat, with the multitude of unbelievers, the famous phrase that served as an epigraph: "If it is true that there is a hell, what is it like? that no one ever came back from there?"

But even if, rightly or wrongly, if I did not want to admit the very authentic facts I have just narrated, the absolute certainty of the existence of hell would not be any less unshakable.

Indeed, the belief in hell does not rest on these wonders, which are not of faith, but on the common sense reasons, which we have already explained, and especially on the divine and infallible witness of Jesus Christ, the prophets and the apostles, as well as on the formal, invariable and inviolable teaching of the Catholic Church.

Wonders can either support our faith or revive it. For this reason, we think we should quote here a few, who are quite capable of closing their mouths to those who dare to say: "There is no hell"; to confirm in the faith those who are tempted to say, "Is there hell?" and, finally, to console and illuminate even more those who, faithful and docile to the teaching of the Church, say with her: "There is hell."

Why do so many people strive to deny the existence of hell

First, it is because most of these people have a strong and direct interest in denying it. Thieves, if they could, would finish off the police; in the same way, all those who feel remorse are always ready to do the possible and the impossible in order to persuade themselves that there is no hell, especially hell of fire. They feel that if hell exists, it's for them. They do as the poltrons, who sing loudly in the middle of the night, in order to be entertained and not feel the fear that afflicts them.

They write this in their books, more or less scientific and philosophical; they repeat it, now loud, now soft, in all tones and in all manners; and, thanks to this noisy concert, they end up believing that no one believes in hell, and that, consequently, they have the right not to believe either.

Such were, in the last century, almost all the heads of Voltairean unbelief. They had established by A+B that there was no God, no Paradise, no Hell; they wanted in this way to be calm. And yet history shows them, one after another, seized with a horrible panic at the moment of death, recanting, confessing and asking God and men for forgiveness. One of them, Diderot, wrote of Alembert's death: "If I hadn't been with him, I would have recanted like everyone else." And even so, there was little lack of it, because he had asked for a priest.

Everyone knows that Voltaire, on his deathbed, asked two or three times with insistence that he be called the parish priest of S. Sulpicio; but his disciples have so well surrounded his bed that the priest cannot reach the foot of the dying old man, who has expired in a fit of rage and despair.

You can still see in Paris the room where this tragic scene took place.

Those who scream the loudest against hell believe in it more than we do. At the moment of death the mask falls off, and then you see what was covered. Those reasons inspired by interest and dictated by fear are no longer heard.

Second, it is the corruption of the heart that denies the existence of hell. When you don't want to leave the bad life that leads to hell, you start saying that it doesn't exist, even though you feel the opposite.

Hell consists, secondly, in the horrible pain of fire. Let us imagine a man whose heart, fancy, senses, and everyday habits are regulated and absorbed by a guilty love. He surrenders completely to his passions, sacrifices himself entirely for them. So go tell him about hell! You will speak to a deaf man.

And if sometimes, in the midst of the cries of passion, he hears the voice of conscience and faith, he immediately imposes silence on him, not wanting to hear the truth, which cries out in his heart and enters his ears.

Go talk about hell to those libertine men who populate high schools, workshops, factories and barracks. They will answer you with angry phrases and diabolical laughter, more powerful for them than the arguments of faith and common sense. They don't want hell to exist.

One day I saw one, who walked towards me, taken away by a remnant. Hell consists, secondly, in the horrible penalty of the fire of faith. I urged him as much as possible not to dishonor himself with his behavior, to live as a Christian, as a man and not as a brute. "All this is beautiful and good, he replied, and perhaps it is true; but what I do know is that when addiction assails me, I look like a fool; I neither hear nor see anything, and I think there is no God or hell . If there's hell, I'll go there; I don't care."

And I never saw him again.

What about misers, usurers and thieves?

What irresistible arguments they find in their iron coffers against the existence of hell! Return what they stole, abandon the money, the pounds?! Before a thousand deaths, before hell, if it exists.

There was an old Norman usurer who, even at the moment of death, did not want to resolve to leave everything he had acquired unfairly. He consented, who knows how, to refund huge sums, and only a little more than 15,500 réis was needed. The priest was unable to obtain a refund of this amount from him. The bastard died without sacraments. For his miser's heart, that small amount was enough to make him forget about hell.

All of these, when confused by one of the great reasons of common sense, which we have already explained, appeal to the dead, hoping thus to escape the reproaches of the living. They even figured themselves out and said that they would believe in hell if someone who had died were raised in front of them and told them that hell existed. Pure illusions, which even Jesus Christ deigned to dispel, as we shall see.

Though the dead were resurrected many times, the wicked would not believe in hell.

One day Our Lord was passing through Jerusalem, near a house whose foundations still exist, and which had belonged to a young Pharisee named Nicencius. This one had died some time ago. Without naming him, Jesus took the occasion of what had happened to instruct his disciples, as well as the crowd that followed him.

"There was a rich man, said Jesus, who dressed in purple and linen, and who feasted splendidly every day. At his door lay a poor beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to eat the crumbs that had fallen from the table of the rich man, but no one gave them. Now the poor man died, and was carried by the Angels into Abraham's bosom, that is, into heaven. The rich man also died, and was buried in hell. and he saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

Then with loud cries he exclaimed, "Abraham, my father, have mercy on me; send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in the water, and to come and refresh my tongue, for I am suffering horrible torments in these flames.—My son , Abraham replied, remember that during your life you enjoyed pleasure, whereas Lazarus suffered. Now he is comforted and you are suffering. of my father, for I have five brothers, and let him tell them the torments they suffer here, lest they, like me, fall into this place.” “There are Moses and the Prophets,” replied Abraham; the condemned man; that is not enough. But if any dead man goes to inform them, then they will do penance." And Abraham told him, "If they don't listen to Moses and the Prophets,although he raises the dead, they will not believe his word."

This grave parable of the Son of God is the anticipated response to the illusions of those who, in order to believe in hell and be converted, demand resurrections and miracles. If around them miracles of all nature abounded, they would still not believe.

They would be like the Jews, who, in view of the Saviour's miracles, and particularly of the resurrection of Lazarus at Bethany, drew only this conclusion: "What must we do? Behold, all the people are running after him. Let us kill him." And later, in view of the daily, public and absolutely indisputable miracles of St. Peter and the other Apostles, they also said: "These men work miracles we cannot deny. Let us have them arrested and let us forbid them from now on to preach the name of Jesus." This is what miracles and resurrections of the dead ordinarily produce in the presence of those whose minds and hearts are corrupt.

How many times has the truly insane phrase spoken by Diderot, one of the greatest impious of the last century, been repeated: "Even if all of Paris, he said one day, came to me to say that he had seen the dead resurrected, I would rather believe that Paris was mad , than admit a miracle."

Even the greatest sinners wish to see miracles; but they are entirely dominated by the same tendencies, have taken the same resolutions; and if a remnant of common sense prevents them from uttering such absurdities, in practice they do neither more nor less.

WHAT IS HELL

From false and superstitious ideas about hell

First of all, we must carefully distance ourselves from all popular and superstitious fictions, which alter in so many minds the true Catholic notion of hell. Many forge a fantastic and ridiculous hell, and then say: "I don't believe in hell, because it is absurd and impossible. No, I neither believe nor can believe in hell."

Indeed, if hell were what many women, who are actually good, say, you would have a hundred times, a thousand times reason for not believing in him. All these inventions are worthy of appearing alongside the tales that are manufactured to entertain the imagination of the common people. This is not what the Church teaches; and if sometimes, in order to move hearts more vividly, some authors and preachers thought they might employ fantasy, their good intention did not prevent them from doing wrong, since no one is permitted to disfigure the truth and expose it to the derision of men sensible ones, under the pretext of frightening the ignorant, so as to make them more easily leave the path of perdition. I am well aware that there is often a great embarrassment in making the people understand the terrible punishments of hell;and since most people need material representations to conceive of the highest things, it is almost necessary to speak of hell and the torment of the damned in a figurative way. But it's very difficult to do it in moderation; and often, I repeat, with the most excellent intentions one falls into the impossible, or rather into ridicule.

No, hell is not that, In a very different way it is great and terrible. Let's see him.

Hell consists, first of all, in the great penalty of damnation

Condemnation is total separation from God. The condemned is a creature totally and definitively separated from his God.

It was Jesus Christ who showed us condemnation as the primary and dominant penalty for the reprobate. You must remember the terms of the sentence that He will pronounce against the reprobates in the Last Judgment, and of which we spoke before: "Depart from me, ye cursed ones, and go unto everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels ".

Note well: the first word of the sentence of the Sovereign Judge makes us understand the first penalty of hell, which is separation from God, deprivation from God, the curse of God; in other words, it is condemnation or reproach.

Now, picture to you the state of that man who, in a moment, absolutely and totally, lost his life, light, happiness, love and, finally, what for him was everything. Imagine this sudden and absolute vacuum in which a being created to love and possess the One of which he is deprived is abysmal.

A member of the Society of Jesus, Fr. Surin, who became famous in the seventeenth century for his virtues, science and misfortunes, felt for nearly twenty years the pangs of this terrible state.

To free a poor religious saint from the obsession of the devil, who had resisted more than three months of exorcisms, prayers and austerities, the charitable priest took his heroism to offer himself as a victim, if divine mercy would deign to hear his pleas and free that unfortunate creature. It was answered; and Our Lord allowed, for the sanctification of his servant, that the devil immediately took possession of his body and tormented him for long years. There is nothing more authentic than the admirable public facts that gave rise to the possession of poor Fr. Surin, and which it would take too long to mention here. After his deliverance, he collected in a writing, which is still preserved, all that he suffered in that supernatural state, in which the devil, materially taking possession, as it were, of his faculties and senses,it made him feel a part of his impressions and his reproachful despair.

"It seemed to me, he says, that my whole being and all the powers of my soul and body were impelled with an inexpressible vehemence toward the Lord God; I saw that He was my supreme happiness, my infinite good, the the only object of my existence, and at the same time I felt an irresistible force that pulled me away from God and kept me away from Him; so that, created to live, I saw and felt deprived of the One who is life; for truth and light, I knew myself absolutely repelled from light and truth, created to love, lived without love, entirely deprived of love, created for good, was buried in the abyss of evil.

"I cannot, he continues, compare the anguishes and despairs of this inexpressible affliction, but to the state of an arrow vigorously hurled at a target from which an invincible force incessantly repels it; urged irresistibly forward, it is always and invincibly repelled backward."

This is just a pale symbol of that awful reality, which is called doom.

Condemnation is necessarily accompanied by despair. It is to this despair that Our Lord calls in the Gospel "the worm" that gnaws at the damned. "All this is worth more, said Jesus, than going to that fiery prison where the worm of the reprobate never dies (ubi vermis corum non moritur)."

The worm of the damned, O remorse, is despair. It has the name of worm, because in the sinful and condemned soul it is born from the corruption of sin, as in corpses the worms are born from the corruption of the flesh. As long as we live, we cannot imagine exactly what the remorse and despair of the damned are, since in this world, where nothing is perfect, evil is always accompanied by good, and good is mixed with some evil. As violent as despair and remorse may be in this life, they are always relieved by certain hopes, and also by the impossibility of bearing suffering when it exceeds a certain measure. But in eternity everything is perfect, allow me the expression; evil then is perfect like good, that is, there is no relief, no hope, no possibility of mitigation, as we will explain later.The remorse and despair of the damned will be complete, irrevocable, without remedy, without a shadow of relief, without the possibility of being alleviated: they are absolute as it is possible, because absolute evil does not exist.

"In the sight of the blessed, says Sacred Scripture, the damned will be possessed with formidable terror, and the afflicted will cry out, wailing: "Alas! that we deceive ourselves (ergo ervravimus), and stray from the true path! We tread the paths of iniquity and perdition, we despise the way of the Lord. What were the riches and pleasures of us? Everything passed like a shadow, and here we are now lost and stunned in our perversity.” And the sacred writer adds, “Thus say in hell the damned sinners.”

To despair will be added hatred, also fruit of the curse: "Depart from me, damn you!"

And what hate! The hatred of God, the perfect hatred of the infinite Good, the Truth itself, the eternal Love, the Goodness of Beauty, Peace, Wisdom, the infinite and eternal Perfection! Implacable, supernatural hatred that absorbs all the powers of the spirit and heart of the condemned.

The reprobate could not hate his God if he were allowed, as the blessed, to behold him face to face, with all his perfections and unspeakable splendors,

But that's not how you see God in hell. The reprobate feel it only in the terrible effects of their justice, that is, in their torments; that's why they hate God, as they hate the punishments they suffer, as they hate the condemnation and the curse.

In the last century a virtuous priest, when exorcising a possessed man in Messina, asked the devil; "Who are you?—I am the being who does not love God," replied the evil spirit. And in Paris, in another exorcism, the minister of God asking the devil: "Where are you?", the devil replied with fury. "In hell forever.—And would you want to be annihilated?—No, that you might always hate God." The same could be said for each of the condemned: they eternally hate the One they should eternally love.

"But, many people say, God is the same Goodness. How then do you want Him to condemn us?"

It is not God who condemns; it is the sinner who condemns himself. The terrible fact of damnation is due, not to the Goodness of God, but only to His Holiness and Justice. God, just as He is Good, is Holy, and His Justice is as infinite in hell, as His Goodness and Mercy are infinite in Heaven. Do not offend the Holiness of God and be assured that you will not be condemned. The reprobate possesses what he freely chose, despising all the graces of his God. He chose the evil, he has the evil; now, in eternity, evil is called hell. If he had chosen the good, he would have the good, and he would possess it forever. This is perfectly logical, and at this point, as always, faith admirably agrees with right reason and equity. Therefore, the first penalty of the reprobate, the first element of this horrible reality, which is called hell, is damnation,accompanied by the divine curse, despair and hatred of God.

Hell consists, secondly, in the horrible penalty of fire

There is fire in hell: this is revealed faith.

Remember the plain, formal words of the Son of God: "Depart from me, ye cursed ones, into fire (in ingnem), into the prison of fire; and the fire shall never go out. The Son of man he will send his Angels, who will separate those who have done evil, to cast them into the fiery furnace (in caminum ignis)." Divine and infallible words, which were repeated—by the Apostles, and which are the basis of the Church's teaching. In hell, the damned suffer the penalty of fire.

It is read in ecclesiastical history that two men, who in the third century followed the courses of the famous school of Alexandria, Egypt, having one day entered a church where the priest preached on the fire of hell, one of them mocked what he heard, while the other, possessed of fear and repentance, was converted and became religious, in order to better ensure his salvation. After a while the first one died suddenly. God allowed him to appear to his former companion, to whom he said, "The Church teaches the truth when she preaches the eternal fire of hell. The priests still do not say the hundredth part of what it is."

Hellfire is supernatural and incomprehensible.

— Ah! who in this world can express or even conceive of the great eternal realities? It is impossible for priests to say everything, because their spirit and their word bend under this weight. If it is said from heaven: "Eyes have not seen, nor ears have heard, nor can the human spirit understand what God has prepared for those who love Him", one can equally, with regard to infinite Justice, say of hell: "Man's eyes have not seen, nor ears heard, neither can his spirit, nor can it ever conceive what the Justice of God has prepared for impenitent sinners."

"I am cruelly tormented in this flame!" cried the evil rich man of the Gospel from the depths of hell. To understand the scope of this first word of the reprobate: "I am tormented! (Crucior!)", it would be necessary to be able to understand the scope of the second: "in this flame (in hac flamma)."

The fire of this world is imperfect, like everything in it, and the material flames are, despite their horrible power, no more than a faint symbol of the eternal flames of which the Gospel speaks.

Could it be possible to express exactly the horror of the torments that a man would feel, thrown for a few minutes into a burning furnace, on the assumption that he could live there? Tell me: would it be possible? No, certainly. What then can be said of the supernatural fire of hell, of this eternal fire, whose horrors are beyond compare?

However, as we are in time, not eternity, we need to make use of the small realities of this world, however weak and imperfect, to elevate ourselves a little to the invisible and immense realities of the Hereafter. that causes earthly fire, to fear the fire of hell, so that we do not fall into the depths of this avenging fire.

Fr. Bussy and the libertine man

— A holy missionary, who lived at the beginning of this century; Famous throughout France for his apostolic zeal, for his eloquence and virtues, and also for his originality, one day I wanted a certain libertine man to touch the fire with his finger.

Fr. Bussy carried out an important mission in a large city in the south of France, which shook the entire population. It was in the force of winter; Christmas was approaching and it was very cold. In the room, where the priest received the men, there was a stove with a good fire.

One day the priest saw a man arrive who had been particularly recommended to him because of his debauches and impious sayings. Fr. Bussy knew right away that he couldn't do anything with him.

Nevertheless, he said joyfully to him: "Come here, my good friend, do not be afraid, for I do not confess but those who want to confess. Come closer, take your seat in this chair, and as we warm up, let's talk a little." He opened the stove and, seeing that the embers were almost reduced to ashes, said to the man, "Before you sit down, please bring me from there a log or two." Admired the young man, however, he did what the priest asked him to do. "Now you'll put them on the stove, at the very bottom." And as he put the logs by the stove door, Fr Bussy grabbed his arm and led him to the bottom. The young man screamed and jumped back. "Alas! he cried; is your reverend maddened? You want to burn me!" "What have you, my dear friend?" replied the priest calmly.Do you not need to get used to it? In hell, where will you go, if you continue to live as you have done until now, it will not only be your fingertips that will burn you in the fire, but your whole body. This little fire is nothing compared to the other. Come on, come on, my good friend, courage; you must get used to it." And he wanted to put his arm back in. The man resisted, as was to be expected.

Unhappy! then Fr Bussy said, changing his tone; reflect on what I'm going to say to you: do you want to burn eternally in hell? Are the sacrifices that the good God requires so that you can avoid such a horrible ordeal, are they difficult things?” The libertine man went out thoughtful. his faults and got back on track.

I am sure that, of a thousand or ten thousand men who lived far from God, and therefore treading the path of hell, there would perhaps not be one who could withstand the "trial by fire." No one, no matter how silly, would accept the following adjustment: "For a year you can abandon yourself with impunity to all pleasures, enjoy all voluptuousness, satisfy your whims, with the only condition that you spend a day or even an hour burning in the fire." I repeat: no one would accept the adjustment.

Do you want proof of this? Observe.

The three sons of an old usurer

— A family man, who had become rich at the expense of grave injustices, fell dangerously ill. He knew that gangrene was already in the wounds, and yet he could not make up his mind to restore what he had stolen, "If I restore, he said, what shall I leave to my children?" The parish priest, a smart man, resorted to the following expedient to save this poor soul: I told him that, if he wanted to get well, he would indicate an extremely simple but very expensive remedy. What does it matter! It costs him a thousand, two thousand, even ten thousand francs... the old man replied briskly. What does it consist of? — It consists in pouring, over the gangrenous places, fat from a living person. It doesn't take much to do this: just find someone who, for ten thousand francs, will consent to having one of his hands burn for a quarter of an hour.

— Ah! said the poor man sighing; I'm afraid I can't find anyone to accept the contract. — You have a means, said the parish priest calmly: call your eldest son, for he loves you and must be your heir. Say to him: "My dear son: you can save your old father's life, if you consent to let one of your hands burn, just for a scant quarter of an hour." If he refuses, make the same proposal to the second, promising him that he will be your only heir. If you refuse, the third party will not fail to accept."

You were right, and so did your three children. To let one of your hands burn for a quarter of an hour, even to save your father's life, is a sacrifice superior to human strength.

My children, avoid hell!

— In 1844 I met at the seminary of St. Sulpicius, at Issy, near Paris, a very distinguished professor of natural sciences, and whose humility and mortification everyone admired. It was Fr. Pinault, who, before becoming ordained, had been one of the most eminent professors at the Polytechnic School. Then, elevated to the priesthood, he taught physics and chemistry in seminary.

One day, while doing an experiment, the fire was ignited, who knows how, in the match he was handling, and in an instant his hand was engulfed in flames. Aided by his disciples, the poor teacher endeavored, but in vain, to put out the fire that devoured his flesh. In a few minutes the hand was a shapeless, glowing mass: the nails were gone. Overcome by the excess of pain, the unfortunate lost consciousness.

His hand and arm were dipped in a bucket of cold water, to moderate the violence of this martyrdom. During the day and night he always cried out, tortured by the irresistible and excruciating pain, and when at some interval he could articulate a few words, he would say and repeat to the three or four seminarians who attended him: "My children, avoid hell!" — The same cry of pain and priestly charity escaped in 1867 from the lips, or rather from the heart of another priest in a similar circumstance. Near Pontivy, Diocese of Vannes, a still young curate, named Lorenzo, had thrown himself into the flames of a fire to save an unhappy mother and two little children.

Two or three times he hurled himself with heroic courage and charity towards the place from which the cries came, and he had the good fortune of bringing the two little ones safe and sound.

But the mother was still there, and no one dared face the violence of the flames, which grew more and more. Docile to his charity, Fr. Lourenço threw himself into the fire again, grabbed his unfortunate mother, already in terror, and put her out of reach of the fire.

But immediately the roof collapsed, and the good father fell into the flames.

He cried out for help, and with great difficulty was dragged from imminent death.

But oh! it was too late! The good father was mortally burnt: he had breathed flames, the fire had begun to burn within him, and unspeakable sufferings devoured him. In vain did his parishioners seek to help him; everything was useless. The inner flames continued to burn him, and within a few hours the martyr of charity went to heaven to receive the reward of his heroic dedication.

He too, during his painful agony, said to those around him: "My friends... my children... do not want to go to hell!... It is terrible!... And this is how one must burn in hell !"

Hell fire is bodily fire.

— It is often asked what hell fire is and what its nature is: if it is a material fire, or if it is purely spiritual. Many lean towards this opinion, as it terrifies them the least. However, neither St. Thomas nor Catholic theology agrees with them.

As we have already said, faith teaches that the fire of hell is a real and true fire, an unquenchable and eternal fire, which burns without consuming, and penetrates spirits and bodies.

This has been revealed by God, and has been taught as an article of faith by the Catholic Church. To deny it would not only be a mistake, but an impiety and heresy proper.

Do you want to know what is the nature of the fire that torments the damned in hell?

If it is bodily fire, does it belong to the same species as terrestrial fire? It is the prince of theology, St. Thomas Aquinas, who will answer you, with the clarity and profound erudition that are peculiar to him.

First observe that the heathen philosophers, not believing in the resurrection of the flesh and admitting however an avenging fire in the hereafter, should teach, and indeed did teach, that this fire is spiritual and of the same nature as souls.

Modern rationalism, which seeks to invade all intelligences, and which diminishes the truths of the faith as much as it can, makes a great number of minds, poorly instructed in Catholic teachings, incline to this feeling.

Mas o grande Doutor, depois de ter exposto este sentimento, declara formalmente que "o fogo do inferno é corporal." E a razão em que se funda é peremptória: "Porque depois da ressurreição os réprobos serão precipitados no inferno, e como a alma vai acompanhada do corpo, e o corpo não pode sofrer senão uma pena corporal, segue-se que o fogo do inferno deve ser corporal. Ao corpo não se pode aplicar outra pena além da corporal." S. Tomás apoia o seu ensino no de S. Gregorio Magno e de S. Agostinho, que, em termos idênticos, dizem o mesmo.

"However, it can be said, continues the great Doctor, that this bodily fire has something spiritual, not in its substance, but in its effects, because, by punishing bodies, it does not consume or destroy or reduce them to ashes. Moreover, it exerts its avenging action in souls as well." In this way, hell fire is distinguished from material fire, which burns and consumes bodies.

Hell fire, even though it is corporeal, torments souls.

— Someone will ask, perhaps, how is it that the fire of hell can torment the souls that until the day of the resurrection and of the Judgment end are separated from the bodies?

It must be answered, first of all, that in the terrible mystery of the pains of hell it is one thing to know clearly the truth of what it is, and another thing to understand it. We know in a positive and absolute way, through the infallible teaching of the Church, that—immediately after their death, the damned fall into hell, into the fire of hell. Now this can only happen — to their souls, since, until the resurrection, the bodies are entrusted to the earth, where they were buried.

Barely separated from the body, the reprobate's soul finds itself in the condition of demons, relative to the mysterious action of hellfire. Indeed, although demons have no bodies, they suffer the torments of fire, into which the bodies of the damned will one day be cast, as the sentence of the Son of God against the reprobate clearly indicates; "Depart from me, ye cursed ones! Go into eternal fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels." Now this fire is corporeal, because otherwise it would not torment the bodies of the damned. Therefore, the reprobate's soul, though separated from the body, is tormented by a bodily fire, Here is what we know and what is right.

What we don't know is how. But in order to believe, we don't need to know it, because the truths revealed by God are intended to clarify our spirit and keep it in dependence and submission. By faith we are certain of the reality of the fact, and it is enough for us to see that it is not impossible.

The Captain Adjutant Major of Saint-Cyr

— In this regard, dear reader, allow me to tell you a very curious fact which, in the last years of the Restoration, took place at the Military School of Saint-Cyr.

The School Chaplain was then a very witty and talented ecclesiastical named Rigolot. He gave a spiritual retreat to the young people of the School, who every night met in the chapel before going to bed.

One night, when the worthy chaplain spoke admirably of hell, after the conference was over, he retired, candlestick in hand, to his room, which was situated in a corridor reserved for officers. Just as he opened the door, someone called him up the stairs towards him. He was an old captain, with a gray moustache, and somewhat thin in appearance.

"Wait, Mr. Chaplain," he said, in a rather ironic voice. You gave a good sermon on hell. You just forgot to say whether in hellfire the damned is roasted, burned, or boiled. Can you tell me?" The chaplain, understanding his intention, looked at him intently, and, holding the candlestick to the old officer's face, calmly replied, "You shall see him, Captain!" And he closed the door, unable to help laughing at the confusion and disturbance in which he left the poor captain, out of his mind.

He didn't think about it again; but since then he noticed that the captain was moving away from him as far as he could.

The July revolution came. The military chaplaincies were suppressed, and so that of Saint-Cyr ended. Fr. Rigolot was appointed by the Archbishop of Paris to another place no less honorable.

Twenty years had passed when the good father, finding himself one afternoon in a hall where many people were gathered, saw an old man with a white mustache approaching him, who asked him if he was the rev. Fr. Rigolot, formerly chaplain of Saint-Cyr. Having received the affirmative answer, the old soldier said to him, moved: "Mr. Chaplain, allow me to shake your hand to express my gratitude to you: you saved me!"—Me?! How?—Oh! do you not know me? Do you remember a certain captain instructor of the School, who one night, when you had finished preaching a sermon on hell, asked you a ridiculous question, to which you replied by holding the candlestick close to his face; Captain!?" For this captain is me. Know that since then I have always had the answer you gave me, as well as the thought that I would burn in hell.I struggled for ten years against this thought that was annoying to me; finally I surrendered. I confessed myself, and I became a Christian, a Christian in the military, that is, complete. It is to you that I owe this happiness, and it was with great pleasure that I found you today to be able to say this to you."

Dear reader, if you see someone who, wanting to make fun of you, asks you ridiculous questions about hell and hellfire, answer him like Fr. Rigolot: "You will see him, my good friend; you will see him." I promise you will not be tempted to go see him.

Foligno's burnt hand

— It is true that almost every time that, by God's permission, some reprobate soul or (since we are talking about the fire of the afterlife) some soul from Purgatory comes to this world and leaves some visible sign, it is that of fire . Surely you have not forgotten what we said about the dreadful apparition from London—the bracelet lady's wrist and the burnt rug.

In April of the year in which I wrote this, I saw and touched it in Foligno, near Assisi (Italy), in one of those amazing fire signs, which attest to the truth of what we said, namely: that the fire of the other life is a real fire .

On November 4, 1359, a good nun named Tereza Margarida Gesta, who for many years had been mistress of novices, and at the same time was in charge of the humble dresser of the monastery, died in the convent of the Third Franciscans of Foligno. . He was born in Corsica, in Bastia, in 1797, and entered the convent in February 1826. It goes without saying that he had prepared himself with dignity for his death.

Twelve days later, on the 17th of November, a Sister named Felicia, who had helped her in the position, and who after his death stayed with him, went up to the dressing room and was about to go in, when she heard moans that seemed to come from inside the room. Admired, she hurried to open the door; no one was there.

After a while she heard new moans, so piercing that, despite her courage, she felt slashed with fear. "Jesus, Mary! she exclaimed; what is this?" She had not finished saying these words when she heard a voice that moaned, accompanied by this painful sigh: "Oh my God! I am suffering! (Oh Dio! che peno so much!)" The Sister, stunned, immediately recognized the voice of poor Soror Tereza. He plucked up courage and asked her, "Why?"—Because of poverty," replied Soror Tereza. "How! replied the Sister. , but because I gave the nuns a lot of freedom in this matter. And you should be careful." At the same moment the room filled with thick smoke, and the shadow of Soror Tereza appeared,going to the door and passing the distance that separated it.

As soon as he reached the door, he shouted loudly, "Here is a testimony to the mercy of God!" Saying this, he touched the highest frame of the door, leaving the perfect sign of his right hand engraved on the burnt stick. Then it disappeared.

Poor Sister Ana Felícia was terrified. Agitated, she began to scream and call for help. One of her companions came, then another, and then the whole community. They all came to him, and they were surprised to smell the smell of burning wood. They examined, watched, until they saw above the door the terrible sign.

They immediately recognized the shape of Soror Tereza's hand, which was very small. Amazed, they left, went to the choir, began to pray and, forgetting the needs of their bodies, spent the night praying, sobbing and doing penance for the poor deceased, and the next day they took communion for her soul.

The news spread outside the convent.

The Friars Minor, the priests friends of the monastery and all the communities in the city added their prayers and supplications to those of the Franciscan Sisters. This charitable impulse had something supernatural and unusual about it.

However, Sister Ana Felícia, still agitated by so many commotions, was formally ordered to go to rest. She obeyed, determined to eradicate at all costs, the following day, the charred signal that had set Foligno astonishing. But Soror Tereza Margarida appeared to her again. "I know what you want to do, she said to him in a severe tone: you want to remove the sign I left behind. You know that you have no power to make it disappear, since this miracle was ordained by God for the teaching and correction of all. and terrible judgment I was condemned to suffer for forty years the horrible flames of Purgatory, because of my tolerances with some nuns. I thank you and your companions, so many satisfactory works, that in His goodness the Lord deigned to apply exclusively to the my poor soul."

She woke with a start, and remained in the same posture, unable to articulate a word.

Even this time, he recognized Soror Tereza's voice perfectly. At the same moment, a blazing globe of light appeared before her, beside her bed, and lit up the room like the noonday sun. He heard Soror Tereza, who, in a joyful and triumphant voice, uttered these words: "I died on a Friday, the day of the Passion, and this Friday I will enter into glory. Be strong in carrying the cross, be courageous in suffering." And adding, with love: "Farewell!... farewell!... farewell!...", he disappeared.

The Bishop of Foligno and the city's magistrates immediately wanted to carry out a canonical inquiry. On November 23, in the presence of a large number of witnesses, the tomb of Soror Tereza Margarida was opened, and it was recognized that the charred sign on the door was in accordance with the hand of the deceased. The result of the investigation was an official report, which established the perfect certainty and authenticity of what we have just mentioned.

The door with the sign is preserved in the convent with veneration. Mother Abbess, witness of the fact, deigned to show it to me, and, I repeat, my traveling companions and I saw and touched the burnt wood, which attests in a very clear way that the souls who, temporarily or eternally, suffer in the other life the penalty of fire, are penetrated and burned by this burning fire. When, for reasons known only to God, they are allowed to appear in this world, what they touch remains with the vestige of the fire that torments them. Fire and they look like they're the same thing, like coal when it's scorched by fire.

Therefore, although we cannot penetrate this mystery, we undoubtedly know that the fire of hell, although bodily, exerts its avenging action on souls as well.

Through his omnipotence, God causes the fire of hell to produce all the effects that his infinite Justice demands. In this way he penetrates and torments spirits as well as bodies; he does not consume the bodies of the reprobate, but preserves them, in these terrible words of the Sovereign Judge: "In the prison of the unquenchable fire, all the reprobate shall be salted by fire (igne salictur)." As salt penetrates and preserves the flesh of animals, so, by a supernatural effect, the bodily fire of hell penetrates the reprobate and demons without consuming them.

The fire of hell is tenebrous (Santa Teresa's vision)

— With the divine and infallible authority of his word, Jesus Christ revealed not only that hell is in fire, but also that he is in darkness.

In the twenty-second chapter of the book of St. Matthew, Jesus calls hell outer darkness. "Cast him, he said, speaking of the man who presented himself without the wedding garment, that is, in a state of sin, cast him into outer darkness (in outer tenebras)." In various places in the Gospel and in the Epistles of the Apostles, demons are called "princes of darkness, power of darkness". St. Paul said to the faithful: "You are all children of light, for none of us is a child of darkness".

The darkness of hell is bodily like fire. These two truths do not imply contradiction. Fire, or rather the caloric, which is like the soul and life of fire, is an element quite distinct from light.

There is, therefore, bodily darkness in hell, but with a certain brightness that allows the condemned to see the objects that torment them.

The scandalous will see in fire and shadow, in the faint glow of the flames of hell, says St. Gregory the Great, those who were dragged by them to doom, and this sight will be the complement of their torment. The horror of darkness, which we know from experience on earth, is not comparable to that which afflicts the damned. Black is the color of death, evil and sadness.

Santa Tereza says that, having one day an ecstasy, Our Lord deigned to assure him of eternal salvation, if he continued to serve and love him as he did then; and to increase in her faithful servant the fear of sin and the terrible punishments she deserves, I wanted to let her glimpse the place she would occupy in hell if she followed her inclinations towards the world, towards vanity and pleasure.

"I was in prayer one day, she says, when I found myself in an instant, not knowing how, transported to hell in body and soul. I understood that God wanted to make me see the place that the demons had prepared for me, and that, having- what was deserved for my sins, I would fall into it, if I did not change my life. This lasted a short time, but although I lived for many years, I would not forget such horrible ordeals.

"The entrance to this place of torment seemed to me like an extremely low oven, dark and cramped. The floor was a horrible filth, which gave off a foul smell, and was full of poisonous worms. At the end a wall was raised, in the which there was a stronghold, where I found myself shut up. I cannot give an idea of ​​the torments I suffered there, because they are incomprehensible. I felt in my soul a fire whose nature, for lack of terms, I cannot describe, and at the same time my body he revolved in the midst of intolerable pain.

I have been tormented in my life by sufferings so cruel, which doctors confess to be the greatest suffering in this world. I have seen my nerves twitch in an astonishing way when I lost the use of my limbs; but all this is nothing compared to the pains I then felt, and what afflicted me even more was the reminder that they would be eternal and unrelieved. The torments of the body were nothing compared to the agony of the soul. I was so afflicted, so anguished, with pain so vivid and sadness so bitter and desperate, that I cannot describe it. If I say that the soul suffers the anguish of death at all times, that is not much. No, it is not possible for me to express, not even to give an idea of ​​this inner fire and despair, which are the height of so much pain and torment."

"In that terrible abode there is no hope of consolation; it breathes a pestilential smell. Such was my torture in the narrow redoubt opened in the wall, where I had been enclosed. Even the walls of this dungeon, terror of sight, oppressed me with theirs There everything is dark: there is no light, but darkness of the darkest darkness. And yet, O mystery!, no light shining, all the torments that may afflict the sight are seen."

"It's been six years since this vision, adds Santa Tereza, and as I write this I'm so terrified that my blood freezes in my veins. Amidst the afflictions and pains, I remember hell and immediately it seems like nothing. what can be suffered in this world, and I even think we regret without reason."

"Since then, everything seems easy to bear, compared to a single moment that I have to go through the ordeal I suffered then. I'm not surprised that, having read so many books dealing with hell, I was far from making a fair idea of ​​it. and to fear him as I ought. What did I think then, O my God! And how could I be at rest in a kind of life that dragged me into such a horrible abyss! O my adorable Master, be eternally blessed! Show me in the way a clearer that your love for me infinitely exceeds that with which I love myself. How many times have you freed me from this dark prison, and how many times have I wanted to enter it against your will!"

"This sight produced in me an unspeakable pain for the souls that were lost. It also gave me the most ardent desire to work for their salvation; to wrest a soul from such horrible torments, I would be ready to sacrifice my life a thousandfold."

Faith must supply the vision in each of us; and the thought of "outer darkness" where the reprobate are cast as the filth and dross of creation, should strengthen us in temptations and make us true children of light!

Other very large feathers that accompany the dark fire of hell

In addition to fire and darkness, there are other punishments and other kinds of suffering in hell. So requires divine justice.

Since the reprobates have committed evil in many ways, and each sense having taken part more or less in their sins, and hence in their condemnation, it is fair that, where they sinned the most, they should be punished more severely, according to these words of Scripture: (Each one will be punished for where he has sinned. It is mainly fire, this terrible and supernatural fire we have just spoken of, which serves as an instrument for these multiple punishments: it will punish by a special action that sense which it has specially served to iniquity, the condemned cast into outward fire and darkness will weep bitterly and gnash his teeth, according to the vices and sins he has committed. "There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth (fletus et stridor dentium)." These are divine words.

These cries of the reprobate, says St. Thomas, are more spiritual than bodily; even after the resurrection, the bodies of the reprobate, being true human bodies with all their essential senses, organs, and properties, will not be susceptible to certain acts or functions. Tears in particular presuppose a physical principle of secretion, which will not then exist.

His ears, open to shameless speeches, lies, slanders, the laughter of impiety! The tongue, the lips, the mouth, instruments of so many sensuality, so many impious and obscene words, and so many curses and so many sweet things!

His hands, which searched, wrote and spread so many detestable things, and which performed such evil deeds! Your brain, organ of so many millions of sinful thoughts of every kind!

The heart, seat of your depraved will and all those evil affections that have disappeared forever!

All his body and his flesh, for which he lived, and which satisfied all his desires, passions, and lusts!

Everything in the condemned has special punishment and torment, in addition to the general penalty of damnation, divine curse and avenging fire. How horrible!

But it's not enough. St. Thomas, basing himself on the Holy Fathers, says: "In the final purification of the world there will be a radical separation in the elements. Everything pure and noble will subsist in heaven to the glory of the blessed, and everything that is ignoble and impure will be cast into hell for the torment of the damned. Thus, while the righteous will feel joy in the sight of all creatures, the damned will find in all creatures occasion new torments. This will be the fulfillment of the oracle of the Holy Books: "O the entire universe will fight with the Lord against the foolish, that is, against the reprobate."

Finally, and to complete the exposition of the foregoing dismal state of the soul, let us also observe what Our Lord declared in the formula of the sentence to be pronounced at the Last Judgment, namely: that the damned, the damned, will burn in hell, "in fire that was prepared for the devil and his angels." In the fiery depths of hell the reprobate still have the torment of the execrable company of Satan and all demons. In this world there is sometimes a kind of relief when you see a friend in suffering; but in eternity the association of the condemned with all the evil angels and with the other reprobates will aggravate even more despair, hatred, anger, the sufferings of the soul and the pains of the body.

Here is what little we know, from divine revelation and the teachings of the Church, about the multiplicity of torments, which in the Hereafter are the punishment of the wicked, the blasphemers, the lechers, the proud, the hypocrites, and in general everyone the stubborn and unrepentant sinners.

But what makes these pains even more terrible is eternity.

From the eternity of the pains of hell

The Eternity of Hell's Penalties is a Truth of Faith Revealed

God revealed to his creatures the eternity of pains that would await them in hell, if they were so foolish, perverse, ungrateful and so inimical to themselves that they would rebel against the laws of his holiness and his love.

Through the Prophet Isaiah repeats the same doctrine to us, and you will still remember the terrible apostrophe he addresses to sinners: "Who among you can dwell in the devouring fire, in the eternal flames (cum ardoribus sempiternis?)" Here again the superlative sempiternus .

In the New Testament the eternity of hellfire and the pains of hell was formally declared by the lips of the Savior and the pen of the Apostles. Remember, dear reader, some of the texts already cited. I will only repeat a few words of the Son of God, because they solemnly summarize all the others: it is the sentence that will preside over our eternity:

"Come, ye blessed of my Father, and take possession of the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world! Depart from me, ye cursed, and go unto everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels." And the adorable Judge adds: "and these will go into eternal punishment, and those will enter into eternal life (in supplicium acternum, in vitam aeternam)." These words of the Son of God need no comment.

For nineteen centuries the Church has rested on its luminous clarity its divine, sovereign and infallible teaching concerning the eternity proper of the beatitude of the chosen in heaven and the punishment of the damned in hell.

Therefore, the eternity of hell and its terrible pains is a revealed truth, a truth of Catholic faith as certain as the existence of God and the other great mysteries of the Christian religion.

Hell is necessarily eternal, mindful of the nature of eternity

The natural weakness of the human spirit has long sought to lighten the weight of this terrible mystery of the reprobate's pains. Already in the time of Job and Moses, seventeen or eighteen centuries before the Christian era, some light spirits and certain very remorseful consciences spoke of mitigation and even the end of the punishments of hell. "They imagine, says the book of Job, that hell diminishes and grows old."

Today, as in all times, this tendency to mitigate and shorten the penalties of hell finds lawyers more or less directly interested in the cause. They are wrong. In addition to its assumption that it is based on fantasy and is directly contrary to the divine teaching of Jesus Christ and his Church, it starts from an absolutely false conception of the nature of eternity. Not only will there be no end or mitigation in the sentences of the convicts, but it is even completely impossible to have them.

The nature of eternity is absolutely opposed to this.

Indeed, eternity is not like time, which is made up of a succession of instants added to one another, and whose meeting forms the minutes, hours, days, years and centuries. In time you can change, because time is changeable.

But if man had not before him neither day, nor hour, nor minute, nor second, it is clear that he could not pass from one state to another.

Now this is exactly what happens in eternity. In eternity there are no instants that succeed other instants and that are distinct from each other. Eternity is a mode of duration and existence that has nothing in common with time; we may know it but not understand it.

It is the mystery of the other life, it is a true and mysterious participation in the very eternity of God.

There are no centuries accumulated over centuries, nor millions of centuries added to millions of centuries. These are earthly and perfectly false ways of conceiving eternity.

I repeat: the nature of eternity, being nothing like the successions of time, cannot admit any change either in good or in evil. That is why in the pains of hell any change is impossible; and as the cessation, or even the simple mitigation of these punishments would necessarily constitute a change, we must conclude with firm certainty that the punishments of hell are absolutely eternal, immutable, and that the mitigation system is a weakness of the spirit or a whim of the imagination and of feeling.

What we have just summarized about eternity, dear reader, is perhaps a little abstract; but the more you reflect, the better you will recognize how true what we left said is. In any case, let us rest on the formal and clear statement of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and say with all simplicity and certainty of faith: "I believe in eternal life (credo vitam arternum)", that is, that the other life will be for all immortal and eternal: for the good, immortal and eternal in the bliss of paradise; for the wicked, immortal and eternal in the torments of hell.

One day St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, tried to scrutinize, with his powerful intelligence, the nature of this eternity, in which the Goodness and Justice of God await all creatures. Investigated and probed; now he understood, now he felt trapped by the mystery. Suddenly there appeared to him, surrounded by a radiant light, an old man with a venerable face and resplendent with glory. It was St. Jerome who, at the age of almost a hundred years, had just died far away from there, in Bethlehem. And as St. Augustine was astonished and amazed at the heavenly vision that offered his sight, the old saint said to him: "Man's eyes have never seen, nor ears have heard, nor can the human spirit ever know what you seek to understand." And disappeared.

Such is the mystery of the eternity of heaven and hell. Let us humbly believe and take advantage of life, so that, when time runs out for us, we may be admitted to happy eternity, avoiding, by the mercy of God, the unhappy one.

Second reason for the eternity of punishment: lack of grace

Even if the condemned man had time to change, be converted and obtain mercy, this time would not avail him.

And why? Because the cause of the punishments he suffers is always the same. This cause is sin, it is the evil that the reprobate chose on earth for his sharing. The damned is an unrepentant and inconvertible sinner.

In fact, the time is not enough to carry out the conversion. Ah! do we not experience it in this world? We live among many men, whom the good God has been waiting for ten, twenty, thirty, forty years and sometimes longer. Therefore, for man to be converted, grace is also needed.

Conversion is not possible without the essentially free gift of grace of Jesus Christ, which is the fundamental remedy for sin and the first principle of the resurrection of the poor souls who are separated from God by sin and buried in spiritual death. The Lord said, "I am the resurrection and the life"; it is by the gift of grace that He raises souls dead from sin, and that He sustains them afterwards in the spiritual life.

Now, in his infinite Wisdom, this Sovereign Lord determined that only in this life, which is the time of trial, his grace should be given to us so that we can avoid the death of sin and advance along the path of the children of God. In the other world it is no longer a time of grace or trial: it is the time of eternal reward for those who responded to grace by living Christianly, and it is the time of eternal punishment for those who despised grace, living and dying in sin. This is Providence's economy, and nothing will change it.

Therefore, in eternity there is no longer grace for condemned sinners; and as without grace it is absolutely impossible for man to repent effectively, as it is necessary to obtain pardon, it follows that pardon is not possible, and therefore if the cause of punishment always subsists, the punishment must also subsist. of sin.

Without grace there can be no repentance, without repentance there can be no conversion, without conversion there can be no forgiveness, without forgiveness there can be no cessation or mitigation of pain. Is this not reasonable?

The bad rich man of the Gospel does not repent in the fires of hell. He does not say, "I repent!" or even "I have sinned," but he says, "I suffer horribly in this flame." It is the cry of pain and despair, but not the cry of regret. He doesn't know how to beg forgiveness, because he thinks only of himself and his relief.

The selfish person in vain asks for the last straw that could refresh him. This drop of water is the touch of grace that would save him, but he was told that it is impossible to give it. He hates punishment but not guilt. Such is the terrible story of all the damned.

On earth, the city of God and the city of Satan are united and mingled. It can be passed on and passed on from one to the other, the good man being able to become bad and the bad man becoming good. But all this ends at the moment of death.

Then the two cities are irrevocably separated, as the Gospel says; it is no longer possible to pass from one to the other, from the city of God to the city of Satan, from paradise to hell, nor from hell to paradise.

In this life, everything is imperfect, both good and evil, Nothing is definitive, and since no one is refused the grace of God, one can always flee from evil, the devil's empire and the death of sin, while in this life world.

But, as already said, this is the sharing of the present life. Only a poor man in a state of mortal sin breathes his last breath, everything changes: eternity follows time, moments of grace and trial have passed, the resurrection of the soul is no longer possible, and the fallen tree to the left is forever on the left.

Therefore, the fate of the reprobate has been fixed forever, and so there can be no change, mitigation, suspension, or cessation in the torments they suffer. They lack not only the time, but also the grace.

Third reason for the eternity of sentences: the perversity of the will of the condemned

But after death there is no longer freedom or grace. This is over, and over for good. So it is not a question of choosing, but of staying in the place that has been chosen. You have chosen the good and the life, you will forever possess the good and the life; you madly chose evil and death, you will be eternally in death, in that death that you so freely chose.

This is the eternity of penalties.

In the Palace of Versailles you can still see the room where Louis XIV died, on September 1, 1715, with the same furniture and particularly with the same clock.

Out of a feeling of respect for the great deceased king, they stopped the clock only for him to breathe his last breath, at 4 hours and 31 minutes. Since then no one has touched it, and the motionless hand still reads 4 hours and 31 minutes. It is a vivid image of the immobility that man's will enters and remains when he leaves this world.

The will of the condemned sinner remains, therefore, the same as it was at the moment of death. Since then it has been immobilized and — allow me the expression — eternalized. The convict always and necessarily wants the wrong he has done, says S. Bernardo.

Evil and it are inseparable; it is like a living sin, permanent and unchanging.

As the blessed, seeing God in their love, love Him necessarily, so the reprobate, seeing God only in the punishments of His Justice, necessarily hate Him. I ask you: is it not strictly fair that an immutable punishment should be opposed to an immutable perversity, and that an eternal punishment, and always the same, punishes an eternally fixed will in evil, eternally separated from God by revolt and hatred, a will determined to sin forever?

From what has just been said, it clearly follows that in hell the damned, having no time, no grace, no will to repent, cannot be forgiven, and therefore must necessarily suffer an immutable and eternal punishment; finally, and as a strict consequence, that the pains of hell will have no end, nor are they susceptible to lessening or mitigation, as some believe.

If it is true that God is unjust punishing with eternal penalties the faults of a moment

This is an old objection, torn by fear from consciences tortured by remorse. As early as the fourth century the illustrious Archbishop of Constantinople, St. John Chrysostom, dissolved it in these terms: There are some who say: 'I took a few moments in killing a man, in committing adultery, and for this sin of a moment I shall suffer punishment eternal?' Yes indeed, for God judges your sin, not by the time you spent in committing it, but by the will with which you committed it."

What we have already said is enough to resolve this difficulty. Conversion and change, being absolutely impossible in hell for want of time, for want of grace, and for want of freedom, it follows that the cause of punishment must endure eternally and wholly, and always produce its effect.

Needless to say, this is strictly fair.

Observe what goes on every day in human society. Murderers, parricides, arsonists, etc., who committed their crime in an instant are punishable by death. Is society unjust? Who would dare say it? Now what is the death penalty in human society? Is it not a life sentence, with no setback or possible mitigation? The death penalty forever deprives the criminal of the society of men, just as hell eternally deprives him of the society of God. Why should crimes of divine majesty be punished in any other way, that is, mortal sins?

Time has nothing to do with the moral burden of sin. As St. John Chrysostom used to say, in hell you are punished with eternal punishment, not the duration of the guilty act, but the malice of the sinner's will, which death has come to immobilize, its perversity, the punishment, which eternally lasts forever. it is applied, far from being unfair, it is most fair, and necessary.

Must not God's infinite holiness eternally repel a being who lies in the eternal state of sin? Now such is the reprobate in hell.

On serious reflection, there will be seen in all mortal sin a double character: the first, essentially finite, is the free act of the will which transgresses the law of God and sins; the second, infinite, is the outrage done to the holiness and infinite majesty of God.

Thus, sin somehow contains an infinite malice (quamdam in finitatem), says St. Thomas.

Now the eternal penalty corresponds in exact measure to the finite and infinite character of sin.

It is both finite and infinite: finite in intensity, infinite and eternal in duration.

Finite as to the duration of the act and the malice of the will of the one who sins, sin is punished by a penalty more or less considerable, but always finite in intensity; infinite in relation to the holiness of the one who offends is punished by a penalty infinite in duration, that is, eternal.

Therefore, it is extremely logical and just that the punishments which in hell punish sin and the sinner should be eternal; however, it would not be fair for the reprobates to all suffer the same penalty.

Indeed, it is clear that the guilt of some is less than that of others.

All are in mortal sin, and for this they all equally deserve eternal punishment.

Mus as the degree of guilt is not equal at all. it follows that the intensity of this eternal punishment must be exactly proportioned to the number and severity of each one's faults. So the perfect and infinite Justice of God demands it.

Finally, let us note that, if the penalties of the unrepentant sinner, condemned to hell, ended, it would be he, and not the Lord, who would put an end to the punishment he had deserved for his revolt against God. I could say to God: "I govern in me, and for this you must only care for yourselves. I don't care much if the time you have ordered for my torment is long or short, because I will despise it and take control of the situation.

One day, whether you like it or not, I will share in your glory and eternal happiness in heaven."

I ask you: is this possible? Therefore, from this point of view, and regardless of the peremptory reasons that we have already explained, divine Justice and holiness require that the punishments of the damned must be necessarily eternal.

The Goodness of God has nothing to do with it; in hell his Justice reigns, as infinite as Goodness.

The Goodness of God is exercised on earth, where he forgives everything, always and immediately only man repents. But in eternity the Goodness of God has no place; there he manifests himself only crowning with the joys of heaven his work completed on earth by forgiveness.

Would you, perhaps, that in eternity God would exercise his Goodness on behalf of those in the world who abused it unworthily, who came to despise it at the moment of death, and who now neither want nor can want it? It would be just absurd.

God cannot exercise His Goodness at the expense of Justice.

Therefore, punishing transient faults with eternal penalties, God, far from being unjust, is just and most just.

It is the same with the sins of frailty

Without pretending to excuse beyond just limits the sins of frailty, of which even good Christians are sometimes guilty, it must be recognized that there is a gulf between those who commit them and those whom Sacred Scripture generally calls "sinners". These are the wicked souls, the unrepentant hearts, who do evil by custom, without remorse and as a very simple thing, who live without God and in permanent revolt against Jesus Christ. It is the sinners themselves, sinners those by profession, "They sin while they live, said St. Gregory of them; they would always sin, if they could live always, and would always want to live so that they can always sin. They only die, of course the Justice of the Sovereign Judge demands that they don't go unpunished, because they didn't want to live without sin."

These are not the dispositions of others. There are many souls who fall into mortal sin and are neither evil nor corrupt, much less ungodly. They do evil occasionally; it is weakness that makes them fall, not love of the evil they fall into. They resemble a child who, torn from his mother's arms by violence or seduction, lets himself be separated and pulled away from her, but with regret, giving her a look and extending his arms to her, and that only the seducer lets her , she returns and runs to throw herself repentant and joyful in her mother's arms.

Such are these poor sinners who fall occasionally and from frailty, who do not love the evil they do, and whose will is not gangrenous, at least inwardly. They fall into sin, but do not seek it, and repent of it, but commit it. Are these sins no longer excusable? The adorable mercy of the Lord will not easily grant, especially at the decisive moment of death, great graces of contrition and forgiveness to these prodigal sons, who, having offended him, did not turn their backs on him, and let themselves be dragged away from him, continued to love and desire him?

It can be said that what God said: "I will not forsake what comes to me", will always find in his divine Heart secrets of graces and mercies sufficient to drag these poor souls from eternal damnation.

But let us say it out loud: this is a secret of the Heart of Jesus, a secret impenetrable to creatures, and on which we must not count, because it allows this terrible doctrine, which is of faith, to fully subsist, namely: that all that who dies in a state of mortal sin, is eternally condemned and cast into hell to suffer the punishment his guilt deserves.

Everyone who goes to hell will have deserved to go to it forever. However terrible their penalties may be, they will be absolutely proportionate to the faults they have committed.

The same thing does not happen there as in the courts, laws and judges of the land, who can make mistakes, make mistakes and punish more or less: the eternal and sovereign Judge, Our Lord Jesus Christ, knows everything, sees everything and can do anything. It's more than fair; it is the same Justice, and in eternity, as He Himself declared it to us, "He will give to every man according to his works", neither too much nor too little.

Therefore, however horrible and incomprehensible they are to the human spirit, the eternal punishments of hell are and will be sovereign and eternally just.

Who are the ones who walk the path of hell?

In the first place, who are those who walk the path of hell? or those who abuse their authority in any position to drag their subordinates into evil, either by violence or by seduction.

Awaits "a very strict judgment". True demons of the earth, they are addressed, in the person of their father—Satan—those wonderful words of Scripture: "O Lucifer! how art thou fallen from the heights of heaven?"

They are those who abuse the gifts of the spirit to drive ignorant people from the service of God and to wrest their faith from them. These public corrupters are the heirs of the Pharisees of the Gospel, and they fall under the curse of the Son of God: "Wretched you, hypocritical scribes and Pharisees, for you shut up the kingdom of heaven to men! As ye shall not enter into it, hinder others from there. come in. Woe to you, hypocritical scribes and Pharisees, for you roam the land and the sea to make a proselyte, and when you win, you make him a child of hell, twice as bad as you!"

To this category belong the ungodly publicists, the atheist teachers and heretics, and that multitude of writers without faith or conscience, who every day lie, slander, blaspheme knowingly, and who use the devil, father of lies, to lose many souls and insult Jesus Christ.

They are the proud, who, puffed up with themselves, despise others and insult them mercilessly. Hard and heartless men will find a severe Judge if they are not converted at the moment of death.

They are the selfish and the bad rich, who, engulfed in luxury and sensuality, think only of themselves and forget the poor.

The same thing happens to them as to the bad rich man in the Gospel, of which Jesus said, "He was buried in hell."

It's the misers. who think only of hoarding money, and who forget Jesus Christ and eternity. It is these rich people who, through usurious contracts, many injustices, fraudulent deals and the purchase of Church goods, make or have made their fortune, large or small, on grounds that the law of God reproves.

It is written of them: "they shall not possess the kingdom of heaven."

They are the lustful, who live peacefully and without remorse with their shameless habits, who abandon themselves to all passions, have no other god but their belly, and come to know no other happiness than animal pleasures and the gross pleasures of the senses .

It is the worldly and frivolous souls, who think only of having fun and extravagantly passing their time, and those whom the world calls honest, and who forget prayer, God's service, and the sacraments, which lead to salvation. They don't care to live Christianly, they don't think about their soul: they live in a state of mortal sin, and the lamp of their conscience has been extinguished regardless of it.

If the Lord should come suddenly, as He foretold, they will hear the terrible answer, which He in the Gospel gives to the foolish virgins: "I do not know you." Disgrace is the man who is not dressed in the bridal garment! The Sovereign Judge will order his Angels to arrest, at the moment of death, the 'useless servant', to cast him, with his feet and hands bound, into the abyss of outer darkness, that is, into hell.

Go to hell those who are of a false and stubborn conscience, who tread under their feet, through null confessions and sacrilegious communions, the Body and Blood of the Lord, "eating and drinking their condemnation," according to the tremendous words of S Paul, Go those who, abusing the graces of God, do not want to leave the wrong path, encouraged by some devotions they have, and by which they hope to be saved; and go those with a hateful heart, who refuse to forgive.

Finally, go to hell for the sectarians of Freemasonry and the senseless victims of secret societies, who offer themselves, as it were, to the devil, swearing to live and die outside the Church, without sacraments, without Jesus Christ, and therefore against Him .

I don't say that all these poor souls will go to hell. I only say that they walk the path of hell.

Fortunately, they haven't arrived there yet, and I hope that, before they finish their journey, they will want to convert with humility, so as not to burn forever.

Ah! how wide and comfortable is the path that leads to hell! It is always descending, and it is enough for a man to put himself in it.

The Savior Himself said, "The path that leads to perdition is wide, and many are walking in it."

Examine your conscience, dear reader, and if unfortunately you walk in the wrong way, don't hesitate: get off the road quickly, while there is still time.

If we can be sure that someone we saw die badly was condemned

No. It's a secret of God.

There are many who think that everyone is going to hell, just as there are many who believe that everyone is going to heaven. The first want to be fair, the second merciful. Both are wrong, it is their first mistake to want to judge things that man in this world cannot know.

Seeing someone die badly, one should doubtless tremble, but not hide the frightening probability of eternal reprobation.

In Paris, years ago, an unhappy mother, hearing of her son's sudden death in horrible circumstances, spent two days on her knees, crawling from one place to another, letting out despairing cries and repeating over and over: "My son! My poor son! ... on fire!... burning, burning forever!" Everyone was horrified to see and hear her.

While the eternal loss of someone may be probable and even certain, there must nevertheless be some hope, the mystery of what passed in the supreme moment between the soul and God being impenetrable.

Who can tell what goes on in the depths of souls, even the most guilty, at that decisive moment when the God of goodness, who created all souls for love, who redeemed them with his blood and who desires the salvation of all , employs all the resources of grace and mercy to save each one of them?

It only takes a short time for the will to turn to its God!

The Church does not tolerate that someone's condemnation is taken for granted. In effect, it is usurping God's place.

With the exception of Judas and a few others, whose condemnation has been more or less explicitly revealed by God in Holy Scripture, the condemnation of no one is absolutely certain.

The Holy See gave this curious proof not so long ago, on the occasion of the beatification process of a great servant of God, Fr Palotta, who lived and died in Rome with sentiments of admirable holiness during the Pontificate of Gregory XVI.

One day the priest accompanied a very evil murderer to the scaffold, who stubbornly refused to repent if he mocked God, blasphemed and laughed even at the place of execution. Fr Palotta exhausted all means of conversion. It was on the scaffold, next to this wretch; He flung himself at her feet, his face streaked with tears, and begged her to accept the pardon of his crimes, showing him the burning abyss of hell, into which he was going to fall. To all this the monster responded with an insult and the last blasphemy, and immediately its head fell under the fatal cleaver. In the exaltation of his faith, out of an excess of pain and indignation, and so that this horrible scandal could be changed for those who were present in a salutary lesson, the good father got up, grabbed the bloodied head of the tortured by the hair, and , showing it to the crowd, exclaimed in a loud voice:"Silence! behold! here is the head of a reprobate!"

Everyone understood this movement of faith, and in a way it is quite admirable. But because of this, they say, it was necessary to stop the process of beatification of the venerable Fr. Palotta; how well it can be seen that the Church is Mother of mercy and that she waits, even if there is no hope, when it comes to the eternal salvation of a soul!

In this way, true Christians must not despair or grieve at the sight of certain horrible, sudden and unforeseen, or even positively bad, deaths. Judging by their appearance, these poor souls are almost certainly lost. This old man had lived far from the sacraments for so many years, mocked religion, and boasted that he was an unbeliever! This unfortunate young man, who died without being able to confess, lived so badly and his customs were so deplorable! This man, this woman, who were surprised by death on such a disgraceful occasion, it seems certain that they had no time to think of you! Never mind: we must not and cannot absolutely say that they doomed themselves. Without undermining the rights of God's Holiness and Justice, let us never lose sight of those of His mercy.

In this regard, I recall an extraordinary and, at the same time, very consoling fact. The source from which I learned it is for me a sure guarantee of its perfect authenticity.

Her mother was a true Jew, followed her religion in good faith, and also practiced all the virtues of a good family mother. He loved his daughter with great affection.

When he learned that his daughter had been converted, he went into an indescribable frenzy, and since then he has not failed to employ threats and cunning of every kind to lead the "apostate," as she called her, to her parents' religion. At the same time, the young Christian, full of faith and fervor, prayed incessantly and did everything to obtain her mother's conversion.

Seeing the absolute sterility of her efforts, and thinking that a great sacrifice would obtain, more than all the prayers, the grace that she requested, she resolved to give herself entirely to Jesus by becoming a religious, which she courageously carried out. He was then about twenty-five years old.

The unhappy mother became even more irritated against her daughter and against the Christian religion, which increased the ardor of the new nun, in order to win over to God such a dear soul.

It went on like this for twenty years. Her mother came to see her from time to time; maternal affection had increased, but her soul, at least apparently, did not improve.

One day the poor nun received a letter informing her that her mother had died suddenly: they found her dead in her bed.

It is impossible to describe the nun's despair. At the height of her pain, and not knowing what she was doing or what she was saying, she went with the letter in her hand to prostrate herself before the Blessed Sacrament, and when her sobs let her think and speak, she said, or rather exclaimed, to Our Lord : "My God! Is that how you answered my pleas, my tears and everything I practiced for twenty years?" And enumerating to her, as it were, his many sacrifices, he added, with inexpressible grief: "To think that, notwithstanding all this, my mother, my poor mother has condemned herself!"

It wasn't over yet, when a voice, coming out of the Tabernacle, said in a stern tone: "How do you know that?" Amazed, poor Sister could not respond. "For you know, the Savior continued, you know, to confuse you and at the same time to console you, that because of you I gave your mother at the moment of death such a powerful grace of light and repentance that his last words were : "I repent and die in my daughter's religion." Your mother was saved, and she is in Purgatory. Don't stop praying for her."

I have heard another similar fact told, the authenticity of which is as certain as that of the first. Both testify to this great and consoling truth, namely, that in this world the mercy of God is exceedingly abundant; who in the final moment makes a supreme effort to pluck sinners from hell; and, finally, that only those who resist to the end the impulses of divine Mercy fall into the hands of eternal Justice.

practical conclusions

Exit immediately and at all costs from the state of mortal sin

It is certainly good, and very good, to have unlimited trust in the Mercy of God; but, in the light of true faith, hope must not be separated from fear, and if hope must always dominate fear, it is on the condition that fear persists, like the foundations of a house, which give to every building its strength and solidity. So the fear of the Righteousness of God, the fear of sin and hell, must remove any vain presumption from the spiritual edifice of our salvation. God said, "I will not forsake what comes to me."

But he also said, "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling." It is holy to fear, to have the right to holy hope.

In view of the fiery and eternal pits of hell, examine your conscience, dear reader, but examine it well and seriously.

How are you? Do you live in a state of grace? Or does your conscience accuse you of some grave sin, which, if you died suddenly, would bury you in unhappy eternity?

In this case, I ask that, taking care of your soul, do not hesitate to repent with all your heart, and to confess today, or at least on the first occasion you have. Is it necessary to tell you that, in order to avoid hell, you must despise any interest, and above all, take good care, first of all to ensure your salvation? "What good will it be for a man to possess the whole world, if afterwards he should lose his soul? the Sovereign Judge tells us all; and what can he give in exchange for his soul?"

Do not leave for tomorrow what you can do today. Are you sure that you will reach tomorrow?

In a small village in Normandy I met a poor man who, since his marriage, that is, more than thirty years ago, had allowed himself to be dragged along by occupations, and by his small trade, and even more, it must be said, by the attractiveness of the tavern and the cider pantry, which came to forget totally about the service of God. It wasn't a bad temper, and it was far from being. Two or three half-robberies had frightened him, but unfortunately they weren't enough to lead him to the fulfillment of his duties.

The feast of Easter was approaching.

One afternoon he met the abbot, who urged him to fulfill the Lenten precept. "Lord Abbot, replied the poor man, I thank you for your kindness.

I promise you, my word of honor, that I'll think about what you've just told me, If this doesn't cause you any trouble, I'll come and talk to you in a few days."

The next day this man's body was found in a nearby stream. As he crossed it on horseback, he was stricken with apoplexy and fell into the water.

Two years ago, in the Latin Quarter, a twenty-three-year-old student, who since his arrival in Paris four years ago, had given himself over to lust with all the vigor of youth, one day received a visit from one of his companions. , as good and as pure, as he was on the contrary. He was a compatriot who was going to tell him about the country. After a few minutes of conversation, he withdrew; but, seeing that he had left a book at his companion's house, he went back and knocked on the door.

It had been a quarter of an hour since his companion had left him. The second later he saw himself, an aneurysm broke his heart.

His litter bin was found full of abominable letters, and the few books that made up his little library were the most obscene,

Examples of this kind could be multiplied, not to mention the thousands of accidents that daily, so to speak, make people suddenly go from life to death; for example: railway and carriage accidents, horse falls, hunting and sea accidents, shipwrecks, etc.

They show, more eloquently than all reasoning, that man must always be prepared to appear before God, and therefore must not endanger his eternity; and that he, who lives in a state of mortal sin and does not think of reconciling himself to God through confession and repentance, is a madman who dances on the brink of the abyss, is thrice mad.

"I don't understand, said St. Thomas, how a man in a state of mortal sin can laugh and play." With joy in his heart, he sets out to experience, despite himself, the height of these tremendous words of the Apostle St. Paul: "It is horrible to fall alive into the hands of God!"

Carefully avoid dangerous occasions and illusions

Man must not only withdraw from the state of mortal sin when he has the misfortune to fall into it, but he must also be filled with zeal for his eternal salvation and take more serious precautions. In addition to rushing off the road to hell, you must make an effort not to take it again. He must, at all costs, avoid occasions for sin, especially those whose danger is manifest to him.

A Christian, a man of common sense, sacrifices everything, affronts everything, and endures everything to escape the fires of hell. God said, "If your right hand, if your foot, if your eye, if that which you hold most dear in the world is an occasion for you to sin, pluck it out and cast it away from you without hesitation ; it is better to enter, under any condition, into the kingdom of God and into eternal life, than to be cast into the abyss of fire, into the eternal fire, where remorse does not end nor fire extinguishes."

Let us not be deluded about this. Illusions are the "detour movement" by which the enemy of our poor soul tries to surprise it, when an attack from the front does not offer sufficient guarantees. How perfidious, subtle, multiple and frequent are these illusions!

They are formed from everything, but particularly from selfishness, with its cold calculations and refinements; of all sorts of rebellions of the spirit against the faith, against complete submission due to the authority of the Holy See and the Church; of the intended needs of health or custom, which make you slip insensibly in the mud of impurity; of the uses and conveniences of the world in which one lives, and which drags so easily into the vortex of pleasure, vanity, oblivion of God, and neglect of the Christian life; finally, from the blindness of greed, which drives so many people to steal under the pretext of necessities of commerce, of general custom in business, of wise foresight for the future of their own, etc.

Religious life is not enough to preserve us from illusions. It is known that in hell there are religious people, I hope they are few, but there are them. And how did they get there? Through the fatal path of illusions. Illusions in obedience, illusions in piety, illusions in poverty, in chastity, in mortification, illusions in the use of science; what do i say? The path of illusions is so wide!

— I will cite just one example in this regard, taken from the life of St. Francis of Assisi.

Among the Provincials of the nascent Order of Friars Minor there was one by the name of Fr. John of Strachia, whose passion for science threatened to drive his religious away from the simplicity and sanctity of their vocation. St. Francis warned him several times, but always in vain. Precisely fearing the disastrous influence exerted by this Provincial, St. Francis deposed him in the middle of the Capitol, declaring that Our Lord had revealed to him that it was necessary to treat him rigorously, because this man's pride had brought on him the divine curse.

Very quickly the future showed it. The bastard died in the midst of the most horrible despair and screaming, "I am doomed and cursed forever!" Terrible circumstances, which accompanied his death, confirmed this sentence.

Ensure Your Eternal Salvation With A Seriously Christian Life

Do you want to be even more sure of avoiding hell, my dear reader? Do not be content with avoiding mortal sin, fighting vices and the faults that lead you to it: you must also live a good and holy life, truly Christian and occupied in Jesus Christ.

You must do as the prudent people who have to pass through difficult paths or cross precipices: afraid of falling, beware of walking along the edge, where a false step would be fatal; they walk on the other side of the road, and get as far away from the precipice as possible.

Do the same. Generously embrace this beautiful and noble life, which is called the Christian life, the life of godliness.

Guided by the advice of some zealous priest, subject yourselves to a rule of life, which you will enter according to the needs of your soul and the external circumstances in which you find yourselves, and always determine to make some good and solid exercises of piety, among the which I recommend to you the following, which are within everyone's reach:

Always start and end the day with some well-placed and cordial prayer. In addition, read carefully in the morning and evening a page or two of some good book, and after this little reading you should have a few minutes of recollection and do some good purpose, from morning to day, at the end of the day to the night, with the thought of death and eternity always before you.

If the duties of your state allow you, go to Mass every morning, to receive the blessing par excellence and to render to Our Lord the homage that each one of us owes him for his great Sacrament. If you cannot, at least daily worship the Blessed Sacrament, either entering the church, or being at home, but that it starts from the depths of your heart.

Every day I also paid the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God and of Christians, some homage of piety, love and veneration, with truly filial affection. Love for the Blessed Virgin, together with love for the Blessed Sacrament, is an almost infallible pledge of salvation; and experience has shown in all the centuries that Our Lord Jesus Christ grants extraordinary graces, during life and at the moment of death, to those who invoke and love his Mother. Always carry with you a scapular, a medal or a rosary.

Take and do not abandon the excellent custom of confessing and taking communion many times. Confession and communion are the two great means offered by the Mercy of Jesus Christ to those who want to save and sanctify their souls, avoid serious faults and grow in the love of good and in the practice of Christian virtues. a general rule, but what can be said is that the good of good will, that is, those who sincerely want to avoid evil, serve the Good God and love Him with all their hearts, are all the better, as they communicate more often . When in this mood, the most is always preferred, and although he took communion several times a week, and even every day, he would still not be satisfied.

It would be very good if virtuous Christians could sanctify with a good communion every Sunday and holy days, without failing it through their fault. The famous Catechism of the Council of Trent seems to say that the Christian, who has some care for his soul, should approach the Sacraments at least every month.

Finally, propose in your rule of life to fight incessantly two or three defects that you notice in yourself, or that others have noticed in you.

It is the weak side of the square, and it is through it that the enemy, at one time or another, will try to surprise you and attack you. Avoid, like fire, bad company and sinful reading.

Therefore, do not fail to take from these counsels those that you may follow, live as best you can, and for the love of your soul and of the Saviour, who shed all his Blood for her, do not shrink from your duty, and be a fervent Christian.

Think often and seriously of hell, its eternal pains, the devouring fire, and I promise you that you will go to heaven. The great missionary from heaven is hell.

A virtuous priest, who for over forty years has preached throughout France with apostolic zeal, carrying out numerous missions, was in Rome and one day went to prostrate himself at the feet of the immortal Pontiff Pius IX, who conversed familiarly with him about his beauty Ministry. "Preach often the great truths of salvation, the Pope told him; preach hell above all. No moderation; speak clearly and aloud the whole truth about hell. There is nothing better to make the poor reflect and lead the poor to God sinners."

It was remembering these very true words of the Vicar of Jesus Christ that I undertook this little work on hell. Then, meditating on the eternal pains and misfortune of the damned, I remembered these words of St. Jerome, when he excited a Christian virgin to the fear of God's judgments: "Territus terreo (grounded landfill)." I have endeavored to do this work well, and Our Lord bears witness that I have hidden nothing of what I know about this terrible mystery.

It belongs to you, dear reader, whoever you are, to take advantage of it. How many souls are in heaven who went there in fear of hell!

So I offer you this modest book, asking the Good God to make the great truths it contains penetrate deep within your soul, so that fear may excite you to love, and love lead you straight to paradise.

I ask you to pray for me, that the Good God will use mercy with me and deign to admit me in the number of his chosen ones.