THE ETERNITY OF HELL.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume V, Issue 215, 8 June 1877, Page 9

THE ETERNITY OF HELL.

fContinued.J It is not true; no, it is not that the culprit experiences already in this life chastisement enough for his faults. Gnawing remorse indeed torments him ; the infirmities produced by his irregularities grow on him, and the disastrous consequences of his perverse conduct weigh him down ; but neither is he wanting in means to blunt the sharp sting of his conscience ; neither is he devoid of artifices to neutralise the evil effects of his revels, nor short of resources to come clean out of the false positions in which his excesses have involved him. And besides, what are these sufferings of the wicked in comparison with what the innocent suffer? Sickness presses them down ; poverty molests them ; malediction and calumny blacken them ; injustice tramples on them ; persecution leases them no rest; tribulation of spirit is added too; and, like their Divine Master, they suffer in this life the torments, the anguish, the opprobrium of the Cross. If his patience be great ; if he knows how to resign himself like a true Christian, the just man renders his sufferings tolerable j but he does not, for all that, cease to feel them, and frequently more severe ones too than have fallen to the lot of the man stained with a thousand crimes. Without the punishments and rewards of the other life, where is justice ? — where Providence? — the stimulus for virtue and the curb for ■vice? You ask me, my esteemed friend, if I comprehend wba.t God's object can be in prolonging for all eternity the pains of the damned; and you answer in anticipation the reasons I might perhaps assign, viz., that thus Divine justice is satisfied, and men are kept from the ways of vice through fear of such terrible chastisement. As regards the first part of that answer, you say you have never been able to conceive the reason of such rigour, and that though we can trace the relation there exists between the eternity of punishment and the speciea of infinity of the offence for which it is imposed, there still remains some obscurity you cannot penetrate. You are far astray, uiy dear friends, if you imagine this is not the case with every one ; for it is well known that the human intellect becomes cloudy as soon as it touches on the portals of infinity. For myself, I will say that I cannot clearly conceive these truths either ; and firm as is the certainty I have of them, I cannot flatter myself with the thought of their appealing to me with that evidence which those belonging to a finite and purely human order are capable of ; but I was never discouraged by this mist, arising from our weakness and from the sublimity of the objects themselves, and considered that if I should refuse assent from this motive, I could not retain many truths of which it was impossible for me to doubt, even though I made an effort. I am certain of the truth of creation, not only from what revealed religion teaches me, but also from what natural reason tells me ; and yet when I meditate on it, and endeavour to form a clear and distinct idea of that sublime act, ■when God says — /et tiiere he light, and light was made, My weak intellect is unable to comprehend the transition from non-existence to existence. lam certain, and so are you, of the existence of God; of His infinity, His eternity, His immensity,m mensity, and His other attributes ; but are we able to form clear ideas of what is expressed by these names ? Certainly not ; and if you read all that has been ■written on the subject by the most renowned theologians and philosophers, you will find they laboured more or less under the same inability as ourselves. If I wished to give greater extension to these reflections, it -would be easy to discover a thousand examples of this weakness of our understanding, even in physical and natural things ; but this would involve me in long discussions about human sciences, and draw me away from my principal object; and, besides, I have no doubt -what I said will be sufficient to prevent this obscurity, in which certain objects are involved, from making an unfavourable impression on a man of your common sense. While we can acquire a sufficient certainty of them through a safe channel, we should not withhold our assent on account of certain difficulties more or less serious and embarrassing. There are not many subjects in which more satisfactory reasons can be assigned in support of a truth, than those indicated above in favour of the justice of the eternity of punishment * * * * It, therefore, only remains for me to remind you that the question is not one of knowing -whether our understanding comprehends or not with all clearness the dogma about hell, but of simply investigating whether this dogma is true, and whether the foundations on which we build it have the characteristics of Divine revelation. What advantage would it be to comprehend it or not, if we had the misfortune of having: to suffer it ? (To be conlinued.J

Honour to the memory of the young Medical Student Joaquim Amor, who lias just been carried off by fever, caught in the discharge of his duties at the Famine Fever Camp on the Flats. There was the generous ardour of the Christian soldier in that youthful breast, and he who was so well loved by all his fellowstudents, because of his cheerful and manly devotion to his profession within the College walls, was just the one to go forth and face danger in the thick of the fray. His companions who mourn for him may also envy liim the glory of his death, and, speaking from our own experience, we are confident there are mvaj of those companions who do envy him, and would gladly go and tread iv his footsteps. li.X.P. — Bombay Catholic Examiner. On the 15th March the Pope gave, according to the old ceremonial, the Cardinal's Hat to the following twenty Cardinals — heir Eminences Chigi, Franchi, Oreglia, Martinelli, AnticiMattei, Giannelli, Leaochowski, Sirueoni, Bartolini, Davanzo, Franzelin, Randi, Pacca, Apuzzo, Howard, Canossa, Serafini, Nina, Sbaretti, and De Falloux-du-Coudray.