Page:SermonsFromTheLatins.djvu/137

 majesty and,  hence,  that  an  offence  against  Him is an  infinite  offence  calling  for  an  infinite  punishment. And since  I  am  a  finite  being,  incapable  of  sustaining torments  of  infinite  intensity  and  still  bound to undergo  an  infinite  punishment,  therefore  will my torments  be  infinite  not  in  intensity  but  in duration. For my  God  is  a  just  God,  bound by His  very  nature  to  fit  the  punishment  to the  crime. He has  promised  explicitly  to  reward every man  according  to  his  works. Now, where  is this  promise  fulfilled? On this  earth? No, no,  for I see  around  me  a  world  of  saints  and  sinners — the saints in  poverty  and  misery  all  their  lives,  the  sinners in  affluence  and  happiness. In the  next  life? Therefore I  say  there  must  be  a  heaven  of  delights for the  good  and  a  hell  of  torments  for  the  wicked! Or is  it  not  fulfilled  at  all? Therefore my  God  is  an unjust  God  and  His  promise  of  reward  and  punishment is  a  lie;  and  since  a  God  who  is  unjust  and untrue is  no  God  at  all,  therefore,  either  hell  exists or God  is  not. If I  deny  the  existence  of  hell  I  must, to be  consistent,  deny  the  existence  of  God  Himself. But I  know  that  I  have  a  God,  just  and  true,  and, therefore, reason  and  faith  bid  me  receive  His  words as infallible  when  He  says :  "  In  the  last  day  the wicked  shall  go  into  everlasting  punishment,  but  the just  into  life  everlasting."

Brethren, now  that  we  feel  sure  there  is  a  hell, let us  try  to  realize  what  hell  is. Let us  go  down in spirit  to  that  gloomy  cavern,  that  city  of  pain  and woe, the  abode  of  the  damned;  and  let  us  pause  a