Page:SermonsFromTheLatins.djvu/144

His son, and promised me a throne in heaven if I would keep His commandments — bear a burden that was light and a yoke that was sweet. God who, when I disobeyed, came down from heaven and wiped out my sin with His precious heart's blood. God who, like a tender father, followed me to the gate of hell itself and all but forced me back — that God is now lost to me and I to Him. I have heard the sentence: " Depart from Me, ye cursed," and oh, was there ever exile so bitter and desolate? Exiled from my rightful home — heaven; from the one near and dear to me — God; into a wild and blazing desert — hell; to be tortured by the savage inhabitants, the devils. And all this through my own fault, when I might have gained heaven by one-half the labor and anxiety I expended to purchase hell — through my own fault, through my most grievous fault. O God, what a maddening thought that is! If I were innocent like Job — if some one else were solely responsible for my misfortune I would, like Job, be patient in the midst of my afflictions, but no, I am lost through my fault, through my most grievous fault. My fate is sealed and sealed forever. Forever, never; never, forever, are the words that resound continually through hell and add the last drop of bitterness to the misery of the damned For in the thought of eternity consists the real sting of hell. Desire without hope, torture without respite or end. If the damned could only feel that their sufferings would cease even after millions and billions of years, hell from that moment would be no longer