Page:SermonsFromTheLatins.djvu/145

 hell for  them,  for  the  hope  of  redemption  would console and  sustain  them  through  it  all. But as  it is,  there  is  no  such  hope. " Forever,  never,"  the demons cry,  and  the  dismal  echo  answers  back  from the lowest  pit:  "  Never,  forever." Oh, eternity! I tremble at  thy  very  name,  but  at  the  bare  mention of an  eternity  of  hell,  I  seem  to  myself  to  fairly shrivel up  and  wither  away  for  very  fear. Oh, eternity, how  shall  I  ever  even  imagine  thy  unlimited immensity! As well  might  I  sit  down  by  the  sea  and attempt to  take  the  ocean  drop  by  drop  and  place  it in  the  hollow  of  my  hand,  as  to  try  to  get  the  idea of eternity  into  the  little  compass  of  my  shallow brain. For eternity  spreads  out  before  me  as  a limitless  sea,  over  which,  if  I  should  travel  forever,  I would  find  in  the  end  the  same  dreary  waste  before me. By what  measure  shall  I  compute  the  vastness of eternity? The sun  is  ninety  millions  of  miles  from me. Light travels  twelve  millions  of  miles  a  minute, and yet  the  light  from  the  nearest  fixed  star  takes three and  a  half  years  to  reach  me. There are actually stars  in  the  firmament  whose  light,  travelling twelve  millions  of  miles  a  minute  since  the  creation, has  not  reached  the  earth  yet  and  will  not  until the end  of  time. And to  all  these  millions  and  billions of  years  add  every  atom  of  which  this  earth  is composed,  every  drop  of  water  in  the  ocean,  every particle of  the  air,  every  leaf  of  the  forest,  and  every blade of  the  field,  and  let  each  atom  and  drop  and particle and  leaf  and  blade  represent  a  million  years, and taken  all  together  do  they  equal  eternity? Alas,