Let us ask one of those souls scorched in the flames of hell, to come and kneel before the Cross and see if its sins can be forgiven, and if it may come out of hell. “Poor soul, then burning in the unquenchable fire of hell, come and kneel before the Cross of Christ, and ask him for pardon.” See now that the soul is kneeling before the Cross.
The Prayer of a Lost Soul This lost soul says: “O Christ, I am tormented in this flame. Day and night the tears run down from my eyes, like torrents. O Christ, you were my Creator; you redeemed me; you are a merciful God. I come before you to ask if I may go out of this terrible fire where I am tormented.”
The Answer of Jesus Christ “Unhappy soul!” Jesus says, “I have pity for you too, because, indeed, I was your Creator, and I did not create you for pain but for happiness. I wished you to be in heaven and not in hell. How could I wish you to be in hell, seeing what I did to save you from hell? Remember how I came down from heaven to the very earth to save you from hell.
Do you remember how I was mocked and spit upon, and pierced with thorns; I was nailed to the wood of the cross, and died in shame and cruel agony. What was all this for? It was for you, to save you from hell.
And if this is not enough, I will tell you, that from all eternity I was thinking how to save you, and my heart was thirsting to save you. I cared for your happiness more than for my own, for I left my own happiness in heaven and went down to the earth to be tormented for your sake.
When my Father, who is in heaven, had seen what I had done for you, he said, ‘Surely I will give that soul all the graces it needs, and a thousand times more than it needs, to save itself.’ “Then the days of your life came. You were not made like the beasts of the field. You had sense and understanding to know that it is right to do good, and wrong to do evil. Besides, I said to you: ‘ Do good and you shall be happy forever in heaven; but if you do evil you shall be punished forever in hell.’
I wrote this on your heart. You heard it with your ears thousands of times during your life. You knew, you felt that what I said was right and just. If on earth a man deserves punishment who breaks a law of one who is only a man, how much more does he deserve punishment who breaks the law made by Me, his Creator and his God. “Then you, knowing full well that hell would be the punishment, did evil. You broke my Commandments. Then I might, in justice, have sent you to hell. But I did not. I had pity on you; I warned you to repent and I told you repentance was easy. Instead of repenting you broke my laws again, and again, and again. You went on breaking my law. I went on asking, begging of you to repent.
In the anguish of my heart I asked you to save your soul from everlasting punishment. But you despised all my counsels, you neglected my reprehensions, you treated me most ungratefully, as you would not have done to any man on the earth.
You seemed to be weary of my kindness. But I, who knew what punishment was coming upon you, was not weary with trying to save you from it. “The days fixed for your life were coming to an end. A thousand times I brought to your remembrance that death which was coming swiftly. You did not care.
The last moment of your life came and nothing had been done. You had done everything except the one great thing — to try to save your soul. If you had only taken a little of that trouble to save your soul, which you threw away on a thousand trifling things, your soul would have been saved.
Death came. You stood before my judgment-seat. You were condemned to the eternal punishments of hell. You confessed that my sentence was just. You could not deny it. And now you come and ask me to change the everlasting sentence, and let you go out of hell. I promised eternal happiness to those who do good, punishment in hell to those who do evil. I must keep my promise — I cannot break it.
It was a mercy that the punishment of hell was made everlasting. If so many broke my law, knowing that the punishment would be everlasting, how would it have been if the punishment had not been everlasting? There are millions in heaven who would not have been there but for the everlasting pains of hell. They were wise; they thought on the eternal years of punishment. You could have done the same if you liked, but you would not.
Besides, even now sin is in your heart as it was when you died. You hate the punishment but not the sin; your heart is ready to break my law again, and so it will be forever.
“Unhappy soul! You ask now for mercy; but it is too late. If you had asked for mercy when you were alive, how glad I should have been to be merciful to you. But now it is too late to ask for mercy. You must go back into everlasting punishment.” The sinner knows and feels that a wrong thing would be done if he were set free from eternal punishment. So he goes back into the flames of hell hopeless and desperate.
Total Despair!!
There is no cure for thee. Let us look at hell once more before we leave it. See that man who just asked for mercy and could not get it. He cannot bear the scorching fire which burns his body through and through. But he must bear it. On the earth the hungry man looks for bread, and last he gets it. A sick man looks for his pain to get less, and at last it gets less. The man in hell looks for the burning to stop — but it does not stop. Then he begins to think how long will the horrible burning go on. His thoughts go through millions and millions of years that cannot be counted. Will the burning stop then? His understanding tells him, no — never — never — never!
See, in his agony of despair, he has thrown himself on his knees. He prays, he prays with his eyes and hands lifted up. O how well he prays; no distraction comes to take his thoughts off his prayer. To whom does he pray? Does he pray to God? No prayer ever goes up from hell to God. For there is no tongue that shall confess to thee, 0 God, in hell! Ps. vi. To whom then does he pray? He prays to Death! “O, Death,” he says, “come and put me out of this horrible pain. O death, when I was alive, I feared you; I kept away from you. But now, death, I love you! O death, be kind to me; come and kill me.”
Does death come? No; death flies away from him. In those days men shall seek death and shall not find it. Apoc.ix. He finds that his prayer is not heard. He stoops down; he takes up two great handsfull of fire, he throws the fire down his throat to kill himself. He looks for death and it cometh not.
