Hell, therefore, consists entirely in that first word of the condemnation, "Depart from me, ye cursed." Jesus Christ will say to them, " Go, I do not wish you to see My face any more." S. Chrysostom says, "If one conceives of a thousand hells, nothing is expressed that, is comparable to being deprived of Christ." When David condemned Absalom never again to appear before him, this punishment was so great to Absalom that he answered, " Now, therefore, let me see the king's face; and if there be any iniquity in me, let him kill me." (2 Sam. xiv. 32.) Philip the Second said to a nobleman whom he observed to be irreverent in Church, "Never again appear before me." The punishment was so great to the nobleman, that he is reported to have died of grief. What will it be when God shall intimate to the sinner at the time of death, Depart, for I never wish to see thee more? " I will hide My face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them." (Deut. xxxi. 17.) Jesus Christ will say to the lost in that Last Day, " You are no longer Mine, I am no longer yours." " Call his name Lo-ammi, for ye are not My people, and I will not be your God." (Hosea i. 9.)
What a trouble it is to a son when his father dies, or to a wife when her husband dies, to say, My father, or my husband, I shall never see thee again. Ah, if we could now hear a lost soul weeping, and if we were to ask, Wherefore, soul, dost thou weep so much? this would be the only answer it would make, I weep because I have lost God, and I shall never more behold Him. Were the miserable soul at least able to love its God in hell, and to resign itself to His will but no, if it could do that, hell would not be hell. The unhappy one is unable to become resigned to the will of God, because he is become an enemy to the Divine will. Neither can he love his" God any longer, but he hates Him, and will hate Him for ever; and this will be his hell to know that God is a Sovereign Good, and to feel obliged to hate God at the same time that he knows God is worthy of infinite love. The lost one will hate and will curse God, and cursing God, he will curse even the benefits which God has bestowed upon him creation, redemption, the Sacraments, especially that of baptism, repentance, and above all,
