whether one day I shall leave this prison?" and so might be able to deceive themselves with this false hope. No. In hell there will be no hope, either true or false; no " Who knows?" " I will set before thee the things that thou hast done." (Ps. 1. 21.) The lost one will ever see his condemnation written before his eyes, that he must ever remain and weep in that pit of punishment. " Some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." (Dan. xii. 2.) Whence the lost not only suffer what they endure every moment, but they suffer in every moment the pain of eternity, saying, " That which I now suffer I have to suffer for ever;" as Tertullian says, "They bear the burden of eternity." Let us pray, then, to the Lord S. Augustine's prayer, " Here, burn Thou; here, cut Thou; here, spare not, that Thou mayest spare in eternity." The punishments of this life pass away. "Thine arrows went abroad." (Ps. lxxvii. 17.) But the chastisements of the other life never pass away. Let us fear these; let us fear that thunder, " the voice of Thy thunder," (Ps. lxxvii. 18); the thunder of eternal condemnation which will come forth from the mouth of the Judge in His judgment against the reprobate, " Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire." (S. Matt. xxv. 41.) " I, the Lord, have drawn forth My sword out of his sheath: it shall not return anymore." (Ezek. xxi. 5.) The punishment in hell will be great; but that which ought to terrify us the more, is, that it will be irrevocable.
But how, the hapless one will say, what justice is this? to punish a sin which lasts for a moment with an eternal punishment? But how, I reply, can a sinner dare, for a momentary pleasure, to offend a God of infinite majesty? Even according to human justice, says S. Thomas Aquinas, the punishment is not measured according to the duration of the sin, but according to its nature. "It is not because murder is committed in a moment that it is punished with a momentary punishment." For one deadly sin, one hell is little; but one offence against infinite majesty demands an infinite punishment. S. Bernardine of Sienna observes, " In every deadly sin, infinite injury is inflicted upon God, which demands, therefore, an infinite punishment." But as, perhaps, the creature is not capable of infinite
