Ac 17, 31

31

28

to

justice, and shall reprove world in equity, by the
with equity for the meek of Man Whom He hath ap-
the earth and He shall pointed, giving faith
strike the earth with the all, by raising Him up from
rod of His mouth, and with the dead.

the breath of His lips He Behold, I come quickly, Ap 22, 12
shall slay the wicked.
and My reward is with Me,

He hath appointed a Day to render to every man ac-
wherein He will judge the cording to his works.

5. THE JUDGMENT DAY; IT WILL COME SUddenly. Ac 17, 30- God now declareth unto scattered among the nations, men that all should every- and have parted My Land. where do penance.-Because His Feet shall stand in Za 14, 4 He hath appointed a Day that Day upon the Mount of when He will judge the Olives, which is over-against world in equity. Jerusalem, toward the east: Mt24, 27- As the lightning cometh and the Mount of Olives out of the east, and appear-shall be divided in the midst eth even into the west so thereof to the east, and to shall also the Coming of the the west with a very great Son of man be.-But of opening, and half of the that day and hour no one Mountain shall be separated knoweth, no, not the Angels to the north, and half thereof of Heaven, but the Father to the south. alone. And you shall flee to the Za 14, 5 Yourselves know perfectly, Valley of those Mountains, that the Day of the Lord for the Valley of the Mounshall so come as a thief in tains shall be joined even to the night. the next, and you shall flee

1 T5,2

2 Pt 3, 10

Ma 4, 5

J13, 2

The Day of the Lord shall as you fled from the face of
come as a thief, in which the earthquake in the days
the heavens shall pass away of Ozias, king of Juda: and
with great violence, and the the Lord my God shall come,
elements shall be melted and all the saints with Him.
with heat, and the earth (See 2 P 20, 27; Ez 39, 11.)
and the works which are in
it shall be burnt up.

Break forth, and come, all 3,11-12
ye nations, from round about,
Behold I will send you and gather yourselves to-
Elias the Prophet, before the gether: there will the Lord
coming of the Great and cause all thy strong ones
Dreadful Day of the Lord. to fall down.-Let them
THE PLACE OF JUDGMENT. arise, and let the nations
I will gather together all come up into the Valley of
nations, and will bring them Josaphat: for there I will
down into the Valley of sit to judge all nations round
Josaphat and I will plead about.
with them there for My Put ye in the sickles, for 13,13-14
people, and for My inherit- the harvest is ripe: come
ance Israel, whom they have and go down, for the press is

full, the fats run over: for thereof shall be heavy upon
their wickedness is multi- it, and it shall fall, and not
plied.-Nations, nations in rise again.

the Valley of Destruction: for All the host of the heavens
the day of the Lord is near shall pine away, and the
in the Valley of Destruction, heavens shall be folded to-
J3, 15-16 The sun and the moon are gether as a book: and all
darkened, and the stars have their host shall fall down as
withdrawn their shining.
the leaf falleth from the

J13, 17

Is 24, 19

20

Is 34, 4

And the Lord shall roar out vine, and from the fig-tree.
of Sion, and utter His Voice I will show wonders in JI 2,30-31
from Jerusalem: and the heaven: and in earth, blood,
heavens and the earth shall and fire, and vapour of
be moved, and the Lord shall smoke.-The sun shall be
be the hope of His people, turned into darkness, and
and the strength of the chil- the moon into blood: before
dren of Israel.
the Great and Dreadful Day
of the Lord doth come.

14

And you shall know that I am the Lord your God, dwell- I saw, when he had opened Ap 6, 12ing in Sion My Holy Moun- the sixth seal, and behold tain and Jerusalem shall be there was a great earthquake, holy, and strangers shall pass and the sun became black as through it no more. sackcloth of hair: and the ALLUSIONS TO THE JUDGMENT. whole moon became as blood: With breaking shall the -And the stars from heaven earth be broken, with crush- fell upon the earth, as the ing shall the earth be crushed, fig-tree casteth its green figs with trembling shall the when it is shaken by a great earth be moved.-With shak- wind: and the heaven deing shall the earth be shaken parted as a book folded up: as a drunken man, and shall and every mountain, and be removed as the tent of the islands were moved out one night: and the iniquity of their places.

PART VI.

ON HELL.

To those that are found wanting in that tremendous Judgment the Almighty will say: Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire." In the words of this sentence are indicated the two pains of Hell—the pain of loss and the pain of sense. The pain of the loss of God, of eternal exclusion from the society of God,

*Matthew 25, 41.

is by far the most terrible pain of Hell. In the present life we may learn by experience that no created thing can satisfy our hearts, that if we look to creatures for our peace we shall be "seeking rest and finding none." Nevertheless, we cannot realise the pressing, absolute need we have of God. But, when the distractions of earth have died away, and the soul is alone with itself, it finds in itself a void which God alone can fill. It craves for God; it would fly to God. But if the guilt of grievous sin be upon it, it is dashed to the earth. Again and again, with infinite yearnings, it rises towards God; but only to be as incessantly beaten back to the ground. And this through all eternity. "Depart from Me, ye cursed."

The secondary pain of Hell is the pain of sense. The cause producing this pain is fire. 'Depart into everlasting fire." The Church has never pronounced definition or decree concerning the nature of this fire; nevertheless, "it is," says Suarez,* "the certain and catholic opinion that the fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels, is a true and proper corporeal fire." Material fire, as such, can have no influence upon separated spirits. But the fire of Hell is an

instrument in the hands of God.

Whether the fire of Hell tortures the demons and separated souls by burning them—that is, by inflicting pain of the kind experienced by the soul, in the present life, when the body which it informs is burned-is uncertain. S. Thomas, apparently, thinks that it does not. He never speaks of burning in this connection, and he distinctly states that the separated soul experiences no sensible pain. When explaining the action of the fire he describes it as confining and imprisoning the demons and lost souls.† Thus, then, the pain of sense

* De Angelis, lib. 8, c. 12.

Sum. Theol., supp. q. 70, a. 3.

is so called, "not because the soul is afflicted by the
fire in such a manner as to experience sensible pain
therefrom,' " but because the instrument producing
the suffering is a sensible thing.

Ps 9, 18

Mk 9, 4243

Mk9, 44

45

Mk 9, 46

47

Ap 20, 15

Is 5, 14

1.—HELL, THE Abode of the WICKED.

The wicked shall be turned Let death come upon them, Ps 54, 16
into Hell, all the nations and let them go down alive
that forget God.
into Hell. For there is
If thy hand scandalise wickedness in their dwell-
thee, cut it off: it is better ings: in the midst of them.
for thee to enter into Life Fear ye not them that kill Mt 10, 28
maimed than having two the body, and are not able
hands to go into Hell, into to kill the soul: but rather
Unquenchable Fire :-Where fear Him that can destroy
their worm dieth not, and both soul and body into Hell.
the fire is not extinguished. And thou, Capharnaum, Lu 10, 15
And if thy foot scandalise which art exalted unto Hea-
thee, cut it off. It is better ven, thou shalt be thrust
for thee to enter lame into down to Hell.

Life Everlasting, than hav- I shook the nation with Ez 31, 16
ing two feet, to be cast into the sound of his fall, when I
the Hell of Unquenchable brought him down to Hell
Fire: Where their worm with them that descend into
dieth not, and the fire is not the Pit.
extinguished.

Wide is the gate, and Mt 7, 13
And if thy eye scandalise broad is the way that leadeth
thee, pluck it out. It is to destruction, and many
better for thee with one eye there are who go in thereat.
to enter into the Kingdom For they also shall go Ez 31, 17
of God, than having two down with him to Hell to
eyes, to be cast into the Hell them that are slain by the
of fire :-Where their worm sword: and the arm of every
dieth not, and the fire is not one shall sit down under his
extinguished.
shadow in the midst of the
nations.

Whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life, To whom art thou like, O Ez 31, 18 was cast into the Pool of thou that art famous and Fire. lofty among the trees of

Therefore hath Hell en- pleasure? Behold, thou art larged her soul, and opened brought down with the trees her mouth without any of pleasure to the lowest bounds, and their strong parts of the earth: thou ones, and their people, shalt sleep in the midst of and their high and glorious the uncircumcised, with ones shall go down into it. them that are slain by the

* S.Thomas, q. De Anima, a. 21.

2 Pt2,9

Ps 20, 10

Ez 32, 21, 27

Jb25, 5-6

Jb 21,33

Ps 57, 10

Ps 85, 13

sword: this is Pharao, and
all his multitude, saith the
Lord God.

Her house is the way to Pv 7, 27 Hell, reaching even to the inner chambers of death.

He did not know that Pv 9, 18

The Lord knoweth how to
deliver the godly from temp-giants are there, and that
tation, but to reserve the her guests are in the depths
unjust unto the Day of of Hell.
Judgment to be tormented. The path of life is Above Pv15, 24
Thou shalt make them as for the wise, that he may
an Oven of Fire, in the time decline from the lowest Hell.
of Thy anger: the Lord shall If thy hand or thy foot Mt 18,8
trouble them in His wrath, scandalise thee, cut it off,
and fire shall devour them. and cast it from thee. It
The most mighty among is better for thee to go into
the strong ones shall speak Life maimed or lame, than
to him from the midst of having two hands or two
Hell, they that went down feet, to be cast into Everlast-
with his helpers, and slept ing Fire.

uncircumcised, slain by the If God spared not the 2 Pt2, 4
sword. And they shall not angels that sinned: but de-
sleep with the brave, and livered them, drawn down
with them that fell uncir- by infernal ropes to the lower
cumcised, that went down Hell unto torments to be
to Hell with their weapons, reserved unto judgment.
and laid their swords under
their heads, and their ini-
quities were in their bones,
because they were the terror
of the mighty in the Land of
the living.

FIGURES OF HELL PUNISH

MENT.
I.

II.

For the hand of the Lord Is 25, 10 shall rest in this Mountain : and Moab [i.e. the reprobate] Behold the giants groan shall be trodden down under under the waters, and they Him. as straw is broken in that dwell with them.-Hell pieces with the wain. is naked before him, and there is no covering for destruction. The wicked man hath been that swimmeth stretcheth acceptable to the gravel of forth his hands to swim : Cocytus, and he shall draw and He shall bring down his every man after him, and glory with the dashing of his there are innumerable before hands.

And He shall stretch forth Is 25, 11 His hands under him, as he

III.

And the bulwarks of thy Is 25, 12 high walls shall fall, and be brought low, and shall be pulled down to the ground, even to the dust.

THE KEYS OF HELL.

When I had seen Him, I Ap 1, 17fell at His feet as dead. 18