Page:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 13.djvu/464

 when you fall into that river of fire which will be flowing before the terrible judgment?”

(a) They will eternally weep and gnash their teeth.

“What will be,” says another holy father, “the condition of the body which is subjected to these unending and unbearable torments where there is the inextinguishable fire, the immortally tormenting worm, the dark and terrible pit of hell, bitter sobbing, unusual groans, weeping and gnashing of teeth, and where there is no end to sufferings? From all that there is no liberation after death, and there are no means and no chance to be freed from those terrible torments.” (p. 654.)

Such is the condition of the sinner; but what will be the condition of the good God who will eternally look upon it?

270. (6) Degrees of the torments of hell. “However, although all sinners will be subjected to torments in hell, they will not be in the same degree, but each in conformity with his sins.” (p. 654.)

All that is proved by Holy Scripture.

271. The eternity of the torments of hell. “But differing from each other in degree, the torments of the sinners in hell will by no means differ in respect to duration, for they will be equally eternal and unending for all.” (p. 656.)

All that is confirmed by Holy Scripture, and there is a refutal of the opinion that the teaching about the eternity of torments is contrary to common sense (not to common sense, but to some low conception of God).

According to the teaching of the Theology torments that are not eternal are contrary to sound reason.

272. Retribution for the righteous: (a) wherein will their happiness consist? “As much as, on the one hand, the Word of God depicts in gloomy colours the fate of the sinners after the general judgment, so, on the other, it depicts in bright and joyous colours the fate of the