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!
A PLACE AT ODDS WITH MERCY1
For many critics, Furniss’s depiction of Hell for children embodied the least desirable aspects of the Christian tradition. Shortly after the publication of The Sight of Hell, G. Standring condemned the pamphlet for promoting “the religion of terror.” Recognizing that “fear is the priest’s best weapon, especially when applied to children,” Standring dismissed with disdain “the whole rigmarole of nonsense which makes up this wretched little book.” This review of Furniss’s pamphlet was a drop in the torrent of criticism against traditional views of Hell that flooded the public in the later nineteenth century. Typical of them was Austin Holyoake’s Heaven & Hell: Where Situated? A Search After the Objects of Man’s Fervent Hope & Abiding Terror, in which the author deployed the ambiguity of biblical proof texts to poke fun at what he considered to be the absurd deductions of Catholic thinkers about the location and nature of the punitive afterlife.
Heaven is the hope of the Christian—Hell is his dread, his fear, his abiding terror. What would Christianity be—that is, the modern faith of Europe—without these two ideas, or sentiments, or beliefs, or whatever they may be called? Simply a mild kind of superstition. The hope of an eternal reward for doing right appeals with much force, there can be no doubt, to the selfish; and the fear of eternal, never-ending torments, will keep many a wretch in awe. But all who are swayed by such motives must be inferior morally to those who do good because it is right to do so, and because it will benefit men individually, and society generally, regardless of all consideration as to whether the doers of good will receive advantage themselves. Man’s clear duty is to do right, to speak the truth, not only without reward, but even at his own cost if need be.
* * *
What shall we say about that other place of abode for departed spirits, the climate of which is so warm that the natives of central Africa will find it uncomfortable? Where is it situated? Oh, down below, of course; all Christians say so, and they alone know. Did not Christ descend into Hell? And yet it cannot be far from Heaven, for did not Dives and Lazarus hold a conversation together from their respective abodes? We are not quite sure that Hell is not in Heaven itself, for in Revelation xiv. 9 and 10, it says, “If any man worships the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.” We are not to suppose that a little Hell is kept among the holy angels for special use, or that they often go where Lucifer alone is King; and yet we cannot tell how men are to be tortured in their presence unless Hell is in Heaven. How ever that may be, we are assured that God himself is in Hell. If you doubt it, you need do no more than go to that royal prophet, that inspired writer, that man after God’s own heart, who, in one of those sacred oracles which the Holy Spirit itself has dictated to him, acknowledges and owns it. “Whither shall I go,” says David, “from thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into Heaven, thou art there; if I make my bed in Hell, behold thou art there.” We have Psalm 139 as our authority, and no one dare dispute that.
There seems to be no doubt in the minds of Christians, that the brimstone pit is somewhere within the interior of this planet, but that the Abode of Bliss is up in the clouds, or beyond them. Now if the other planetary bodies are inhabited by human beings—and scientific men are not aware of any reason why they should not be—if the Maker of all things punishes his children with burning torments who do not believe in Christ and Him crucified, where are the inhabitants of other planets to be sent when their hour comes? Are they sent here, or has each of the other vast worlds in space a nice little Hell of its own in which to put its erring subjects? If they come here, an enlargement of the premises must
be constantly taking place. If Heaven is not upon this earth, and is never to be realised here—I prefer believing that Hell also is far up in the clouds, and a very long way too, so that the journey thither may take as much time as possible in its accomplishment.
The warm world beyond the grave is popularly known by many names. Hell is perhaps the most general term used by Christians; though it is sometimes designated by the appellations of Infernal Regions, Perdition, Abode of the Damned, and so on. Most orthodox Christians mean by the term Hell the everlasting lake of brimstone and fire; though there are still some in the Church, and we believe that they are of the best, who do not believe at all in a literal Hell of fire. The Catholics have a place which they call Purgatory, which is a sort of House of Detention, and not the penal settlement our Hell is supposed to be. There sinners can be released on tickets-of-leave after certain regulations have been complied with; our religious convicts are condemned for life (or death, whichever it may be) without the slightest hope of pardon. The Catholics themselves admit that once in Hell, you are in it forever. Michael Angelo, the celebrated painter, executed, by command of Pope Julius II, a splendid picture representing the Day of Judgment. Now Michael Angelo had placed among his other figures in the scene of Hell, several cardinals and prelates.2 They had probably been guilty, like Bishop Colenso and some of the most intelligent men of our Church, of thinking for themselves, and, worst of all, of publishing the results of their thinkings. And this, we know, has been sufficient in all Christian ages to render any man quite unfit for the company of saints. However, some of the dignified and proper churchmen of Julius’s time, who had probably never been guilty of an original thought in their lives, were extremely enraged at the picture, and made complaint of it to his Holiness, and entreated that he would lay his injunctions on the painter to efface them. To whom the Pope replied—“My dear brethren, Heaven has indeed given me the power of recovering as many souls from Purgatory as I think proper; but as to Hell, you know as well as I do, that my power does not extend so far, and those who once go thither, must remain there for ever!”
The Penguin Book of Hell Page 20
