A5 Catholic

I.—THE DOGMA OF HELL.

The dogma of hell is the most terrible truth of our faith.

There is a hell.

We are as sure of it as of the existence of God, the existence of the sun. Nothing, in fact, is more clearly revealed than the dogma of hell, and Jesus Christ proclaims it as many as fifteen times in the Gospel.

Reason comes to the support of revelation; the existence of a hell is in harmony with the immutable notions of justice engraved in the human heart. Revealed to men from the beginning, and conformable to natural reason, this dreadful truth has always been, and is still known, by all nations not plunged by barbarism in complete ignorance.

Hell never has been denied by heretics, Jews or Mahometans. The pagans themselves have retained their belief in it, although the errors of paganism may have impaired in their minds the sound notion.

It has been reserved for modern and contemporaneous atheism, carried to the pitch of delirium, to outdo the impiety of all ages by denying the existence of hell.

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CHAPTER I

A TIMELY THEME

The well-known Jesuit Father Abel once gave a mission in Pressburg. People came in crowds to hear the famous speaker; even the liberal press praised him till he spoke of hell.

"The reverend Father could have chosen a theme more appropriate" they said. Of course to the tardy debtor the bill is never welcome, nor the hangman to the criminal.

Either there is a hell or there is not. If there is no hell, why fear the mere name? But if there is a hell, then the preaching on hell is appropriate, and especially appropriate for those who do not consider it so.

To speak on hell is as appropriate as to speak on death. Do away with death and you may be silent about hell. But as long as every day finds more than 90,000 souls winging their flight into eternity, the theme on the dark beyond must be appropriate; and so long as you and I may this very day stand at the gate of hell, a little information on the place where we may dwell not only a short time but for all eternity, is desperately appropriate.

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CHAPTER I

THE VOCATION TO THE PRIESTHOOD

How lovely are thy tabernacles, O Lord God of hosts! My soul longeth and fainteth for thy courts.

How blessed and delightful it is to immolate the Sacred Host to thee in thy tabernacle, to sing and to make music to thee!

How good it is to declare thy justices, to preach penance for the remission of sins!

How good it is to teach and baptize the nations, to cast out devils, to cure the sick, to increase the number of thy servants, to sanctify and to perfect them!

Who shall give to me, my God, that I should be thus able to subject the whole world to thee, to make every land adore thee and sing thy praises, that all flesh might bless thy holy name and every creature serve thee?

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True it is, my son, that thou desirest the priesthood, that thou desirest a good work. Sublime is the dignity to which thou aspirest; but take care, for great also is the ruin to which this lofty dignity exposes thee. Wherefore, no matter how vehemently thou mayest be attracted towards this holy state, do not presume to take to thyself the honor unless thou be called by me as Aaron was.

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I. The House of the Dying.

Mary was living at Limerick, a large town in Ireland. She had been for a month at the sea, and had just come back home. It was only a few minutes after her return when a message came to the house. The message was from her aunt, to say that her cousin Jane, who had long been poorly, had become much worse, and Mary was desired to go over to her aunt's house to see her cousin. Mary put on her bonnet, and was soon at her aunt's house. She went up stairs into the room where her poor cousin was lying on a bed, from which she was never to rise again alive. The priest had already come and given to her the last sacraments. She found several persons standing round the sickbed. They did not speak, but they looked, sometimes at Jane and sometimes at one another, as if they were afraid to say what they thought.

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I. WHERE IS HELL?

Ps. lxii.—"They shall go into the lower parts of the earth."
Every little child knows that God will reward the good in Heaven and punish the wicked in Hell. Where, then, is Hell? Is Hell above or below? Is it on the earth, or in the earth, or below the earth?
It seems likely that Hell is in the middle of the earth. Almighty God has said that "He will turn the wicked into the bowels of the earth."—Ecclus. xvii

THE EARTH OPENING.

In the days of the Jews, there were three very wicked men. Their names were Core, Dathan, and Abiron. They were very disobedient to the priests. God had made Moses master over all the people. He told Moses that He was going to punish the wicked men. Moses went and told the people to come away from the wicked men. The people came away. Then Moses said to them: "By this you shall know that God has sent me. If these wicked men die like other men, then do not believe me. But if the earth opens and swallows them, and they go down alive into hell, then you shall know that they are wicked."

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... It happened to be the night of the children's consecration to Our Blessed Lady. I was not allowed to mingle with them, but by arriving very early managed to get amongst the adults in a corner where I could see and hear everything. I was indeed wonderfully impressed. A beautiful altar of Our Blessed Lady, one mass of flowers and lights; a venerable white-haired priest on the platform talking in simple, child-like, but tenderest accents to the little ones; the church packed to overflowing with eager delighted children, whose eyes never strayed from preacher or altar, whose ears drank in every word, whose faces glowed while they listened spell-bound, sometimes smiling, sometimes shedding sweet tears, as the story-teller played on the chords of their little hearts. I think Father Furniss might have gone on for ever without tiring them. The adults, amongst whom I was, seemed no less impressed than the children, and smiled and wept with them. The climax was the Consecration, when the children fell on their knees with the old man, sobbing as he spoke for them, and then at his invitation raising their own little voices so sweetly and so lovingly, I had to cry myself. It was a never-to-be-forgotten scene. ...