HELL FOR CHILDREN1
The Catholic priest John Furniss (1809–65) stands alone in the history of Hell as the only author to have published a treatise on infernal punishment written specifically for “children and young persons.” Furniss organized Christian camps for children in England and wrote religious tracts in simple language directed at young readers to motivate them to cultivate good behavior. His pamphlet The Sight of Hell embraced the premodern Catholic tradition of depicting the sufferings of Hell in the most lurid and visceral terms. Though it was praised by William Meagher, the vicar general in Dublin, as a work boasting “a great deal to charm, instruct, and edify our youthful classes, for whose benefit it has been written,” modern readers can draw their own conclusions about the merits of a religious tract for young people that depicts the souls of children trapped in burning ovens and forced to stand on red-hot floors.
1. WHERE IS HELL?
Every little child knows that God will reward the good in Heaven and punish the wicked in Hell. Where, then, is Hell? Is Hell above or below? Is it on the earth, or in the earth, or below the earth?
It seems likely that Hell is in the middle of the earth. Almighty God has said that “He will turn the wicked into the bowels of the earth.”2
3. HOW FAR IT IS TO HELL
We know how far it is to the middle of the Earth. It is just four thousand miles. So, if Hell is in the middle of the Earth, it is four thousand miles to the horrible prison of Hell.
It is time now to do what St. Augustine bids us. He says—“Let us go down to Hell while we live, that we may not have to go down to Hell when we die.”3 If we go and look at that Terrible Prison, where those who commit mortal sin are punished, we shall be afraid to commit mortal sin. If we do not commit mortal sin, we shall not go to Hell.
4. THE GATES OF HELL
St. Frances of Rome lived a very holy life.4 Many times, she saw with her eyes her Angel Guardian at her side. It pleased the Almighty God to let her see many other wonderful things. One afternoon the Angel Gabriel came to take her to see Hell. She went with him and saw that terrible place. Let us follow in her footsteps, that we may see in spirit the wonderful things that she saw. Our journey is through the deep dark places under the earth. Now we will set off. We pass through hundreds and hundreds of miles of darkness. Now we are coming near the terrible place. See, there are the gates of Hell! When St. Frances came to the gates of Hell, she read on them these words written in letters of fire—“This is Hell, where there is neither rest, nor consolation, nor hope.” Look, then, at those tremendous gates in front of you. How large they are. Measure, if you can, the length and breadth, the height and depth of the terrible gates. “Therefore hath Hell opened her mouth without any bound. Their strong ones, and their people, and their glorious ones go down into it.”5
See also the vast thickness, the tremendous strength of those gates. In a prison on earth, there are not, perhaps, more than two or three hundred prisoners; still the gates of a prison are made most strong with iron and with bars and with bolts and with locks, for fear the prisoners should break down the gates and get away. Do not wonder, then, at the immense strength of the Gates of Hell. In Hell, there are not two or three hundred prisoners only. Millions upon millions are shut up there. They are tormented with the most frightful pains. These dreadful pains make them furious. Their fury gives them strength, such as we never saw. We read of a man who had the fury of Hell in him. He was so strong that he could easily break in pieces great chains of iron.6 The vast multitudes in Hell, strong in their fury and despair, rush forward like the waves of the sea. They dash themselves up against the gates of Hell to break them into pieces. This is the reason why those gates are so strong. No hand of man could make such gates. Jesus Christ said that the Gates of Hell should not prevail against His Church, because in Hell there is nothing stronger than its gates.
Do you hear that growling thunder rolling from one end of Hell to the other? The Gates of Hell are opening.
5. THE FIRST LOOK INTO HELL
When the Gates of Hell had been opened, St. Frances with her angel went forward. She stood on the edge of the abyss. She saw a sight so terrible that it cannot be told. She saw that the size of Hell was immense. Neither in height, nor in depth, nor in length, could she see any end of it. “None shall ever pass through it.”7 She saw that Hell was divided into three immense places. These three places were at a great distance from one another. There was an upper Hell, and a middle Hell, and a lower Hell. “Night came upon them from the lowest and deepest Hell.”8 She saw that in the upper Hell the torments were very grievous. In the middle Hell, they were still more terrible. In the lowest Hell, the torments were above all understanding. When she had looked into this terrible place, her blood froze with fright!
6. FIRE
Now look into Hell and see what she saw. Look at the floor of Hell. It is red-hot like red-hot iron. Streams of burning pitch and sulfur run through it. The floor blazes up to the roof. Look at the walls, the enormous stones are red-hot; sparks of fire are always falling down from them. Lift up your eyes to the roof of Hell; it is like a sheet of blazing fire. Sometimes when you get up on a winter’s morning, you see the country filled with a great thick fog. Hell is filled with a fog of fire. In some parts of the world, torrents of rain come down which sweep away trees and houses. In Hell torrents, not of rain, but of fire and brimstone, are rained down: “The Lord shall rain down on sinners fire and brimstone.”9 Storms of hailstones come down on the earth and break the windows in pieces. But in Hell the hailstones are thunderbolts, red-hot balls of fire: “God shall send thunderbolts against him.”10 See that great whirlwind of fire sweeping across Hell: “Storms of winds shall be the portion of their cup.”11 Look how floods of fire roll themselves through Hell like the waves of the sea. The wicked are sunk down and buried in the fiery sea of destruction and perdition. You may have seen a house on fire. But you never saw a house made of fire. Hell is a house made of fire. The fire of Hell burns the devils who are spirits, for it was prepared for them. So it will burn the soul as well as the body. Take a spark out of the kitchen fire, throw it into the sea, and it will go out. Take a little spark out of Hell less than a pin-head, throw it into the ocean, it will not go out. In one moment, it would dry up all the waters of the ocean and set the whole world in a blaze: “The fire, above its power, burned in the midst of the water.”12 Set a house or town on fire. Perhaps the fire may burn for a week, or a month, but it will go out at last. But the fire of Hell will never go out; it will burn forever. It is unquenchable fire. St. Teresa says that the fire on the earth is only a picture of the fire of Hell.13 Fire on earth gives light. But it is not so in hell. In Hell, the fire is dark.
7. DARKNESS
“Watchman, what of the night? The watchman said: The night comes.”14
The watchman did not say that nights are coming, but only the night. He said so, because in Hell there is only one night, one eternal night, one everlasting night. The fire of Hell burns, but gives no light. No stray sunbeam, no wandering ray of starlight ever creeps into the darkness of Hell. All is darkness—thick, black, heavy, pitchy, aching darkness. It is not darkness like ours, which is only an image of the darkness to come. This darkness is thicker than the darkness of the land of Egypt, which could be touched with the hand. “So, the wicked in Hell will never see light.”15 This darkness is made worse by the smoke of Hell.
8. SMOKE
“The smoke of their torments shall go up forever and ever.”16
Stop up that chimney where the fire is burning. In half an hour, the room will be full of smoke, so that you cannot stay there. The great fires of Hell have been smoking now for nearly six thousand years. They will go on smoking forever. There is no chimney to take this smoke off; there is no wind to blow it away. See those great, black, heavy sulfurous clouds rising up every moment from the dark fires. They rise up till the roof of Hell stops them. The roof drives them back again. Slowly they go down into the abyss of Hell. There they are joined by more dark clouds of smoke leaving the fires. So, Hell is filled with sulfur and smoke, in which no one on earth could breathe or live. How then do they live in Hell? In Hell they must live, but they are stifled and choked each moment, as if they were dying. Now listen!
9. TERRIFIC NOISE
“There shall be a great cry such as has not been heard before.”17
You have heard, perhaps, a horrible scream in the dead of night. You may have heard the last shriek of a drowning man, before he went down to his watery grave. You may have been shocked in passing a madhouse, to hear the wild shout of a madman. Your heart may have trembled when you heard the roar of a lion in the desert or the hissing of a deadly serpent in the bushes.
But listen now—listen to the tremendous, the horrible uproar of millions and millions and millions of tormented creatures mad with the fury of Hell. Oh, the screams of fear, the groanings of horror, the yells of rage, the cries of pain, the shouts of agony, the shrieks of despair from millions on millions. There you hear them roaring like lions, hissing like serpents, howling like dogs, and wailing like dragons. There you hear the gnashing of teeth and the fearful blasphemies of the devils. Above all, you hear the roaring of the thunders of God’s anger, which shakes Hell to its foundations. But there is another sound!
10. A RIVER
“It is the day of slaughter and of treading down, and of weeping to the Lord, the God of hosts.”18
There is in Hell a sound like that of many waters. It is as if all the rivers and oceans of the world were pouring themselves with a great splash down on the floor of Hell. Is it really the sound of waters? It is. Are the rivers and oceans of the earth pouring themselves into Hell? No. What is it then? It is the sound of oceans of tears running down from countless millions of eyes. They cry night and day. They cry forever and ever. They cry because the sulfurous smoke torments their eyes. They cry because they are in darkness. They cry because they have lost the beautiful heaven. They cry because the sharp fire burns them.
Little child, it is better to cry one tear of repentance now than to cry millions of tears in Hell. But what is that dreadful sickening smell?
11. THE SMELL OF DEATH
“His stench shall ascend, and his rottenness shall go up.”19
There are some diseases so bad, such as cancers and ulcers, that people cannot bear to breathe the air in the house where they are. There is something worse. It is the smell of death coming from a dead body lying in the grave. The dead body of Lazarus had been in the grave only four days. Yet Martha his sister could not bear that it should be taken out again.20 But what is the smell of death in Hell? St. Bonaventure says that if one single body was taken out of Hell and laid on the earth, in that same moment every living creature on the earth would sicken and die.21 Such is the smell of death from one body in Hell. What then will be the smell of death from countless millions and millions of bodies laid in Hell like sheep?—Ps. How will the horrible smell of all these bodies be, after it has been getting worse and worse every moment for ten thousand years? “They shall go out and see the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against Me. They shall be a loathsome sight to all flesh.”22
Now let us enter into Hell and see the tremendous torments prepared for the wicked.
12. THE DEVIL
“An angel laid hold on the old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, and bound him, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up.”23
Our journey lies across that great sea of fire. We must go on till we come to the middle of Hell. There we shall see the most horrible sight that ever was or will be—the great devil chained down in the middle of Hell. We will set off on our journey. Now we are coming near the dwelling-place of Satan. The darkness gets thicker. You see a great number of devils moving about in the thick darkness. They come to get the orders of their great chief. Already you hear the rattling of the tremendous chains of the great monster! See! There he is: the most horrible and abominable of all monsters, the devil.
His size is immense! “He shall fill the length of the land.”24 St. Frances saw him. He was sitting on a long beam which passed through the middle of Hell. His feet went down into the lowest depths of Hell. They rested on the floor of Hell. They were fastened with great, heavy iron chains. These chains were fixed to an immense ring in the floor. His hands were chained up to the roof. One of his hands was turned up against Heaven to blaspheme God and the saints who dwell there. His other hand was stretched out, pointing to the lowest Hell! His tremendous and horrible head was raised up on high, and touched the roof. From his head came two immense horns. “I saw another beast having two horns.”25 From each horn smaller horns without number branched out, which like chimneys sent out fire and smoke. His enormous mouth was wide open. Out of it there was running a river of fire, which gave no light, but an abominable smell: “Flame cometh out of his mouth.”26 Round his neck was a collar of red-hot iron. A burning chain tied him round the middle. The ugliness of his face was such that no man or devil could bear it. It was the most deformed, horrible, frightful thing that ever was or will be. His great fierce eyes were filled with pride and anger and rage and spite and blood and fire and savage cruelty. There was something else in those eyes for which there is no name, but it made those on whom the devil’s eyes were fixed tremble and shake as if they were dying. One of the Saints who saw the devil said she would rather be burned for a thousand years than look at the devil for one moment!27
16. THE SOUL BEFORE SATAN
The devils carry away the soul which has just come into Hell. They bear it through the flames. Now they have set it down in front of the great chained monster, to be judged by him who has no mercy. Oh, that terrible face of the devil! Oh, the fright, the shivering, the freezing, the deadly horror of that soul at the first sight of the great devil. Now the devil opens his mouth. He gives out the tremendous sentence on the soul. All hear the sentence, and Hell rings with shouts of spiteful joy and mockeries at the unfortunate soul.
17. THE EVERLASTING DWELLING-PLACE OF THE SOUL
As soon as the sentence is given, the soul is snatched away and hurried to that place which is to be its home forever and ever! Crowds of hideous devils have met together. With cries of spiteful joy, they receive the soul. “Demons and monsters shall meet. The hairy ones shall cry out to one another.”28 See how these devils receive the soul in this time of destruction. “In the time of destruction, they shall pour out their force. The teeth of serpents, and beasts, and scorpions, the sword taking vengeance on the ungodly unto destruction.”29
Immediately the soul is thrust by the devils into that prison which is to be its dwelling-place forever more. The prison of each soul is different according to its sins.
St. Teresa found herself squeezed into a hole or chest in the wall. Here the walls, which were most terrible, seemed to close upon her and strangle her. She found her soul burning in a most horrible fire. It seemed as if someone was always tearing her soul to pieces, or rather as if the soul was always tearing itself in pieces. It was impossible to sit or lie down, for there was no room. As soon as the soul is fixed in its place, it finds two devils, one on each side of it. There are spirits created for vengeance, and in their fury, they lay on grievous torments. St. Frances saw them. One of them is called the striking devil, the other the mocking devil.
18. THE STRIKING DEVIL
“Striking hammers are prepared for the bodies of sinners.”30
If you want to know what sort of a stroke the devil can give, hear how he struck Job: “Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord, and struck Job with a grievous ulcer from the sole of his foot to the top of his head. Then Job took a tile and scraped off the corrupt matter, sitting on a dung-hill. Now when Job’s friends heard all the evil that had come upon him, they came to him. For they had made an appointment to come together and visit and comfort him. And when they had lifted up their eyes afar off they did not know him. And crying, they wept and sprinkled dust on their heads. And they sat down with him on the ground for seven days and seven nights. And no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great.”31
The devil gave Job one stroke, only one stroke. That one stroke was so terrible that it covered all his body with sores and ulcers. That one stroke made Job look so frightful that his friends did not know him again. That one stroke was so terrible that for seven days and seven nights his friends did not know him again. That one stroke was so terrible that for seven days and seven nights his friends did not speak a word, but sat crying, and wondering, and thinking what a terrible stroke the devil can give.
Little child, if you go to Hell, there will be a devil at your side to strike you. He will go on striking you every minute forever and ever, without ever stopping. The first stroke will make your body as bad as the body of Job, covered from head to foot with sores and ulcers. The second stroke will make your body twice as bad as the body of Job. The third stroke will make your body three times as bad as the body of Job. The fourth stroke will make your body four times as bad as the body of Job. How then will your body be, after the devil has been striking it every moment for a hundred million years without stopping?
But there was one good thing for Job. When the devil struck Job, his friends came to visit and comfort him, and when they saw him, they cried. But when the devil is striking you in Hell, there will be no one to come and visit and comfort you and cry with you. Neither father, nor mother, nor brother, nor sister, nor friend will ever come to cry with you. “Weeping she has wept in the night, and the tears are on her cheeks, because there is none to comfort her amongst all them that were dear to her.”32 Little child, it is a bad bargain to make with the devil, to commit a mortal sin, and then to be beaten forever for it.
19. THE MOCKING DEVIL
“Shall they not take up a parable against him, a dark speech concerning him?”33
St. Frances saw that on the other side of the soul there was another devil to mock at and reproach it. Hear what mockeries he said to it: “Remember,” he said, “remember where you are and where you will be forever; how short the sin was, how long the punishment. It is your own fault; when you committed that mortal sin, you knew how you would be punished. What a good bargain you made to take the pains of eternity in exchange for the sin of a day, an hour, a moment. You cry now for your sin, but your crying comes too late. You liked bad company; you will find bad company enough here. Your father was a drunkard and showed you the way to the public-house; he is still a drunkard. Look at him over there drinking red-hot fire! You were too idle to go to Mass on Sundays. Be as idle as you like now, for there is no Mass to go to. You disobeyed your father, but you dare not disobey him who is your father in Hell. Look at him, that great chained monster; disobey him if you dare!”
St. Frances saw that these mockeries put the soul into such dreadful despair that it burst out into the most frightful howlings and blasphemies.
But it is time for us now to see where the sinner has been put—his everlasting dwelling-place.
20. A BED OF FIRE
The sinner lies, chained down on a bed of red-hot blazing fire! When a man, sick of fever, is lying on even a soft bed, it is pleasant sometimes to turn round. If the sick man lies on the same side for a long time, the skin comes off, the flesh gets raw. How will it be when the body has been lying on the same side on the scorching, broiling fire for a hundred millions of years! Now look at that body, lying on the bed of fire. All the body is salted with fire. The fire burns through every bone and every muscle. Every nerve is trembling and quivering with the sharp fire. The fire rages inside the skull, it shoots out through the eyes, it drops out through the ears, it roars in the throat as it roars up a chimney. So will mortal sin be punished. Yet there are people in their senses who commit mortal sin!
21. WORMS
“The worm that dies not. He will give fire and worms into their flesh that they may burn and feel forever.”34 St. Basil says that in Hell there will be worms without number eating the flesh and their bites will be unbearable. St. Teresa says that she found the entrance into Hell filled with these venomous insects. If you cannot bear the sight of ugly vermin and creeping things on the earth, will you be content with the sight of venomous things in Hell, which are a million times worse? The bite or the pricking of one insect on the earth sometimes keeps you awake, and torments you for hours. How will you feel in Hell, when millions of them make their dwelling-place in your mouth and ears and eyes, and creep all over you, and sting you with their deadly stings through all eternity? You will not then be able to help yourself or send them away because you cannot stir hand or foot. One of the most painful things in the world is to be much frightened.
22. FRIGHT
“When they thought to lie hid in their obscure sins, they were horribly afraid and troubled. For neither did the den which held them keep them from fear. For noises coming down troubled them, and sad visions appearing to them, affrighted them.”35
Do you know what is meant by being frightened out of one’s senses? A boy wanted to frighten two other little boys. In the daytime, he took some phosphorus and marked with it the form of a skeleton on the wall of the room where the little boys always slept. In the daytime, the mark of phosphorus is not seen; in the dark, it shines like fire. The two little boys went to bed, knowing nothing about it. Next morning, they opened the door of the room where the two little boys had been sleeping. They found one boy sitting on his bed, staring at the wall, out of his senses. The other little boy was lying dead! This was fright.
You will be lying helpless in the lonesome darkness of Hell. The devils come in the most frightful shapes on purpose to frighten you. Serpents come and hiss at you. Wild beasts come and roar at you. Death comes and stares at you. How would you feel, if at the dark hour of midnight, one that was dead should come to your bedside and stand over you and mock at you? You hear the most horrible shrieks and dismal sounds which you cannot understand. The sinner, frightened out of his senses at those terrible sights in the darkness of Hell, roars out for help—but there is nobody to come and help him in his fright: “Being scared with the passing of beasts and the hissing of serpents, they died of fear.”36
Now look to those little doors all round the walls of Hell. They are little rooms or dungeons where sinners are shut up. We will go and look at some of them.
24. THE DUNGEONS OF HELL
(a) The First Dungeon: A Dress of Fire
“Are not your garments hot?”37 Come into this room. You see it is very small. But see in the midst of it there is a girl, perhaps about eighteen years old. What a terrible dress she has on—her dress is made of fire. On her head, she wears a bonnet of fire. It is pressed down close all over her head; it burns her head; it burns into the skin; it scorches the bone of the skull and makes it smoke. The red-hot fiery heat burns into the brain and melts it: “I will burn you in the fire of my wrath, you shall be melted in the midst thereof as silver is melted in the fire.”38 You do not, perhaps, like a headache. Think what a headache that girl must have. But see more. She is wrapped up in flames, for her frock is fire. If she were on the earth she would be burned to a cinder in a moment. But she is in Hell, where fire burns everything, but burns nothing away. There she stands burning and scorched! She counts with her fingers the moments as they pass away slowly, for each moment seems to her like a hundred years. As she counts the moments, she remembers that she will have to count them forever and ever.
When that girl was alive she never thought about God or her soul. She cared only for one thing, and that was dress! Instead of going to Mass on Sundays, she went about the town and the parks to show off her dress. She disobeyed her father and mother by going to dancing houses and all kinds of bad places, to show off her dress. And now her dress is her punishment: “For by what things a man sins, by the same also he is tormented.”39
(b) The Second Dungeon: The Deep Pit
“It came to pass that the rich man also died, and he was buried in the fire of Hell.”40 Think of a coffin not made of wood, but of fire, solid fire! And now come into this other room. You see a pit, a deep, almost bottomless, pit. Look down it and you will see something red-hot and burning. It is a coffin, a red-hot coffin of fire. A certain man is lying fastened in the inside of that coffin of fire. You might burst open a coffin made of iron, but that coffin made of solid fire never can be burst open. There that man lies and will live forever in the fiery coffin. It burns him from beneath. The sides of it scorch him. The heavy burning lid on the top presses down close upon him. The horrible heat in the inside chokes him; he pants for breath; he cannot breathe; he cannot bear it; he gets furious. He gathers up his knees and pushes out his hands against the top of the coffin to burst it open. His knees and hands are fearfully burned by the red-hot lid. No matter, to be choked is worse. He tries with all his strength to burst open the coffin. He cannot do it. He has no strength remaining. He gives it up and sinks down again. Again, the horrible choking. Again, he tries; again, he sinks down; so he will go on forever and ever! This man was very rich. Instead of worshipping God, he worshipped his money. Morning, noon, and night, he thought about nothing but his money. He was clothed in purple and fine linen. He feasted sumptuously every day. He was hard-hearted to the poor. He let a poor man die at his door, and would not even give him the crumbs that fell from his table. When he came into Hell, the devil mocked him saying, “What did pride profit you, or what advantage did the boasting of riches bring you? All those things have passed away like a shadow.” Then the devil’s sentence was that since he was so rich in the world, he should be very poor in Hell, and have nothing but a narrow, burning coffin.
(c) The Third Dungeon: The Red-Hot Floor
Look into this room. What a dreadful place it is! The roof is red-hot; the walls are red-hot; the floor is a thick sheet of red-hot iron. See, on the middle of that red-hot floor stands a girl. She looks about sixteen years old. Her feet are bare, she has neither shoes nor stockings on her feet; her bare feet stand on the red-hot burning floor. The door of this room has never been opened since she first set her foot on the red-hot floor. Now she sees that the door is opening. She rushes forward. She has gone down on her knees on the red-hot floor. Listen! She speaks. She says, “I have been standing with my bare feet on this red-hot floor for years. Day and night my only standing-place has been this red-hot floor. Sleep never came on me for a moment, that I may forget this horrible burning floor. Look,” she says, “at my burned and bleeding feet. Let me go off this burning floor for one moment, only for a single, short moment. Oh, that in this endless eternity of years, I might forget the pain only for a single moment.” The devil answers her question, “Do you ask,” he says, “for a moment, for one moment to forget your pain? No, not for one single moment during the never-ending eternity of years shall you ever leave this red-hot floor!” “Is it so?” the girl says with a sigh that seems to break her heart, “then at least, let somebody go to my little brothers and sisters who are alive, and tell them not to do the bad things which I did, so they will never have to come and stand on the red-hot floor.” The devil answers her again, “Your little brothers and sisters have the priests tell them these things. If they will not listen to the priests, neither would they listen, even if somebody should go to them from the dead.”
Oh, that you could hear the horrible, the fearful scream of that girl when she saw the door shutting, never to be opened anymore. The history of this girl is short. Her feet first led her into sin, so it is her feet which most of all are tormented. While yet a very little child, she began to go into bad company. The more she grew up, the more she went into bad company against the bidding of her parents. She used to walk about the streets at night and do very wicked things. She died early. Her death was brought on by the bad life she led.
(d) The Fourth Dungeon: The Boiling Kettle
“The days shall come when they shall lift you up on pikes and what remains of you in boiling pots.”41 Look into this little prison. In the middle of it there is a boy, a young man. He is silent; despair is on him. He stands straight up. His eyes are burning like two burning coals. Two long flames come out of his ears. His breathing is difficult. Sometimes he opens his mouth, and breath of blazing fire rolls out of it. But listen! There is a sound just like that of a kettle boiling. Is it really a kettle that is boiling? No; then what is it? Hear what it is. The blood is boiling in the scalded veins of that boy. The brain is boiling and bubbling in his head. The marrow is boiling in his bones! Ask him, put the question to him, why is he thus tormented? His answer is, that when he was alive, his blood boiled to do very wicked things, and he did them, and it was for that he went to dancing-houses, public-houses, and theaters. Ask him, does he think the punishment greater than he deserves? “No,” he says, “my punishment is not greater than I deserve; it is just. I knew it not so well on earth, but I know now that it is just. There is a just and a terrible God. He is terrible to sinners in Hell—but He is just!”
(e) The Fifth Dungeon: The Red-Hot Oven
“You shalt make him as an oven of fire in the time of Thy anger.”42 You are going to see again the child about which you read in the Terrible Judgment, that it was condemned to Hell.43 See! It is a pitiful sight. The little child is in this red-hot oven. Hear how it screams to come out. See how it turns and twists itself about in the fire. It beats its head against the roof of the oven. It stamps its little feet on the floor of the oven. You can see on the face of this little child what you see on the faces of all in Hell—despair, desperate and horrible!
The same law which is for others is also for children. If children knowingly and willingly break God’s commandments, they also must be punished like others. This child committed very bad mortal sins, knowing well the harm of what it was doing and knowing that Hell would be the punishment. God was very good to this child. Very likely God saw that this child would get worse and worse, and would never repent, and so it would have to be punished much more in Hell. So, God in His mercy called it out of the world in its early childhood.
(f) The Sixth Dungeon: A Voice
Listen at this door. Hear that voice; how sad and sorrowful it sounds? It says, “Oh, I am lost, I am lost. I am lost when I might have been saved. I am in Hell, and I might have been in Heaven. How short my sin, how long the punishment! Besides, I might have repented; I might have told that sin, but I was ashamed to confess it. Oh, the day on which I was born, I wish it had never been. Accursed be that day; but I am lost—lost—lost forever—forever—forever.” The voice dies away and you hear it no more!
30. NO PEACE
(b) A Picture of Hell
There was a glass that made things look three million times larger than they really are. A drop of dirty water was looked at through this glass. Millions of frightful little insects were seen in the water. These insects seemed to be always fighting and beating and trying to kill each other. They gave themselves no rest. It was always fighting, beating—beating, fighting. Sometimes thousands would throw themselves on other thousands and swallow them up alive. Sometimes they tore away pieces from each other’s bodies, which still remained alive, only more frightful than before. Such is Hell!
31. ETERNITY
“These shall go into everlasting punishment.”44
There is one thing which could change Hell into Heaven. An angel of God comes to the gates of Hell and says, “Listen to me, all ye people in Hell, for I bring you good news. You will still burn in Hell for almost countless millions of years. But a day will come, and on that day the pains of Hell will be no more! You will go out of Hell.” If such a message came, Hell would no longer be Hell. Hell would no longer be a house of blasphemy, but a house of prayer and thanksgiving and joy. But such a message will never come to Hell, because God has said that the punishment of Hell shall be everlasting.
(a) The Question
You say what is meant by everlasting. It is both easy and difficult to answer this question. It is easy to say that the pains of Hell will last forever, and never have an end. It is difficult to answer the question, because our understandings are too little to understand what is meant by the word ever. We know ever well what is meant by a year, a million of years, a hundred million of years. But forever—Eternity—What is that?
(b) A Measure—A Bird
We can measure almost anything. We can measure a field or a road. We can measure the earth. We can measure how far it is from the earth to the sun. Only one thing there is which never has been and never will be measured, and that is Eternity—forever!
Think of a great solid iron ball, larger than the Heavens and the earth. A bird comes once in a hundred millions of years and just touches the great iron ball with a feather of its wing. Think that you have to burn in a fire till the bird has worn the great iron ball away with its feather. Is this Eternity? No.
(c) Tears—Sand—Dots
Think that a man in Hell cries only one single tear in ten hundred million years. Tell me how many millions of years must pass before he fills a little basin with his tears? How many millions of years must pass before he cries as many tears as there were drops of water at the deluge? How many years must pass before he has drowned the heavens and earth with his tears? Is this Eternity? No.
Turn all the earth into little grains of sand and fill all the skies and the heavens with little grains of sand. After each hundred millions of years, one grain of sand is taken away; oh, what a long, long time it would be before the last grain of sand was taken away. Is this Eternity? No.
Cover all the earth and all the skies with little dots like these: . . . Let every dot stand for a hundred thousand millions of years. Is this Eternity? No.
After such a long, long time, will God still punish sinners? Yes. “After all this His anger is not turned away, His hand is still stretched out.”45 How long, then, will the punishment of sinners go on? Forever, and ever, and ever!
33. WHAT ARE THEY DOING?
Perhaps at this moment, seven o’clock in the evening, a child is just going into Hell. Tomorrow evening at seven o’clock, go and knock at the gates of Hell and ask what the child is doing. The devils will go and look. Then they will come back again and say, the child is burning! Go in a week and ask what the child is doing; you will get the same answer—it is burning! Go in a year and ask; the same answer comes—it is burning! Go in a million of years and ask the same question; the answer is just the same—it is burning! So, if you go forever and ever, you will always get the same answer—it is burning in the fire!
What O’Clock—The Dismal Sound
Look at that deep pool of fire and brimstone. See, a man has just lifted his head up out of it. He wants to ask a question. He speaks to a devil who is standing near him. He says, “What a long, long time it seems since I first came into Hell; I have been sunk down in this deep pool of burning fire. Years and years have passed away. I kept no count of time. Tell me, then, what o’clock is it?” “You fool,” the devil answers, “why do you ask what o’clock it is? There is no clock in Hell; a clock is to tell the time with. But in Hell, time is no more. It is Eternity!”
Perhaps on a dark, lonesome night, you may have seen something waving backward and forward in the air. The sound of it was sad and mournful. It frightened you, although it was but the branch of a tree.
Such a sound there is in Hell. It passes on without stopping from one end of Hell to the other. As it comes sweeping past, you hear it. What then is this dismal sound? It is the sound of Eternity—ever!—never!