j

c/aM. .

THE

DARK BEYOND

BY

REV. JOHN HAW
OF TREVES, GERMANY

TRANSLATED BY

REV. JAMES WALCHER

ST. LOUIS, MO., 1912

Published by B. Herder

17 south Broadway

FREIBURG (BADEN)
Germany

68, GREAT RUSSELL STR.
LONDON, W. C.





THE

DARK BEYOND

BY

REV. JOHN HAW
OF TREVES, GERMANY

TRANSLATED BY

REV. JAMES WALCHER



NIHIL OBSTAT

Sti. Ludoviciy die io Junii, 1912 .

Josephus Wentker
,

Censor Librorum.

IMPRIMATUR

Sti . Ludovici
,

a? Junii ,

f Joannes J. Glennon,

Archiepiscopus

Sti . Ludovici .

Copyrighty 1912,

by

Joseph Gummersbach.



TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE

A Timely Theme i
“ There Is No Hell ” 5

There Is a Hell . 9

Where Is Hell? 28

What Is Hell? 30

The First Hell 43

The Second Hell 57

The Third Hell 66

The Hell of Hells . . 75

Can We Go To Hell? ........ 85
Can We Avoid Hell? ........ 95





PREFACE

Rev. John Haw, the author of “ Etwas aus

dem dunklen Jenseits fuer Jedermann,” has

kindly permitted me to English this popular

treatise on the terror-inspiring doctrine of

eternal punishment.

The writer’s aim in presenting this booklet

to the public was : to inspire the sinner and

the just with the holy “ fear of God which

is the beginning of wisdom” (Ps. 110:10).

This wisdom consists in “ seeking first the

kingdom of God and His justice” (Matth.

6:33), for “it is vanity to mind this life,

and not to look forward into those things

that are to come” (Imitation 1:1). The

terrors of “ The Dark Beyond ” should con-

vince us of the truth of the wise man’s words

:

“ Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity

,

besides

loving God and serving Him alone” (Ibid.).

They will teach us to withdraw our hearts

from the love of visible things, and to turn

to things invisible (Ibid.). The frequent and

v



VI PREFACE

serious thought of hell will help us to answer

the questions of Jesus Christ: “ What doth

it profit a man, if he gain the whole world,

and suffer the loss of his own soul ? Or what

exchange shall a man give for his soul ?
”

(Matth. 16:26).

I followed the original as closely as pos-

sible. But, to chapter 5, I added the vision

of St. Teresa, quoted some scripture texts

more fully* and added a few.

It may be objected that not all the scrip-

ture texts adduced refer to hell in the sense

of the Sacred Text. I readily concede this.

Still these words taken from Holy Scripture

may be used to give us a picture of the in-

fernal regions; for, we may argue that, if in

this life, where His mercy tempers His jus-

tice, God afflicts the sinner with His visita-

tions, He will treat the impenitent sinner with

no less severity in the life to come. Besides

many of these texts are only to be taken figu-

ratively, to give us an idea, as far as human

language can, of the rigors of God’s judgment

towards the impenitent sinner.

In conclusion I wish to express my heartfelt

thanks to my friend, Rev. George Rauch, A.B.,

LL.B., of Fergus Falls, Minn., for the many



PREFACE Vll

kind helps in making this translation. What-

ever good it may possess is due to him, and

the imperfections the indulgent reader must

blame on

The Translator.





THE DARK BEYOND

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



2 THE DARK BEYOND

every day finds more than 90,000 souls wing-

ing 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 appro-

priate.

The less people will hear of hell the more

timely and appropriate is this theme. It is

necessary to call a halt with thundering voice

to the world that is drunk with the lust of

sense, blinded by earthly glory, and thus mad-

dened, rushes on to certain destruction.

Not he is your enemy who tells you the

truth about hell, but he who deceives you and

causes you to forget its terrors only the surer

to cast you into it.

How loudly and frantically we cry “ fire ”

without fear of molesting the sleeper when the

house of a sleeping man is ablaze.

Let us cry aloud and unceasingly the word

“ hell ” into modern society,— it will not be
so painful as to hear the terrible words of

the Judge: “Depart from me, you cursed,

into everlasting iire
,,

(Matth. 25:41).

Of course the warning words of a Cassan



THE DARK BEYOND 3

dra are not heeded in the giddiness and the

intoxication of joy. Once upon a time, the

old story has it, the inhabitants of Troy, un-

mindful of danger, were lost in feasting and

joy whilst the threatening Greek army came

nearer and nearer. Only one warned them,

the prophetess Cassandra. But in vain

!

They considered her insane and undisturbed

their feasting continued; their rejoicing went

on till it was too late, and the wild orgies of

the carousers were drowned in the din of the

murderous arms of the enemy.

The sinful world of our days also cele-

brates feast upon feast. Woe to the priest

who dares to preach of hell to the dancing

world ! At first men laugh at his threats,

then they are irritated; they cry about ex-

travagance, presumption, disturbing con-

sciences, madness, hallucinations, insanity—
till the burning flames of hell consume them.

In the military school of St. Cyr the chap-

lain, Abbe Rigolot, had one evening given

the cadets a stirring address on hell. With

a candle in his hand, he was just on his way

to his room, when he heard someone calling

him. A wild-looking captain, with a white



4 THE DARK BEYOND

mustache and a sarcastic smile, had followed

him.
“
Permit me to say it, reverend Father,

you gave us an excellent sermon on hell, but

you forgot one thing: you forgot to tell us

whether we shall be roasted, boiled or broiled

down there. Could you not tell me ?
”

For a moment the priest looked into the

eyes of the scoffer, then held the candle below

his nose and said: “ You’ll discover that for

yourself, Captain.”

He then left the astonished officer.

The priest did not think much of the inci-

dent; but he thought that he noticed that the

captain tried to avoid him. The July Revolu-

tion came along and the chaplains were dis-'

missed.

Twenty years later there was a select gath-

ering in a salon. An old soldier with a white

mustache approached a venerable priest, Abbe

Rigolot, grasped his hand and said with

trembling voice: “ Reverend Father, I thank

you; you saved me.”

"I? How is that?”
“ You seem not to remember me. I am the

Captain of St. Cyr, whom, in answer to his

foolish question, you held a burning candle

to his nose. Your words: ‘ You’ll discover



THE DARK BEYOND 5

that for yourself, Captain/ haunted me con-

stantly. From that hour the thought of hell

never left me. I fought against it ten years,

but finally I had to surrender. I went to con-

fession and became a good Catholic/’

“ Let us descend into hell while we live, that

we may not have to descend into it when we

die.”

St. Bernard, Ad Fratres in Monte, de Vita Sol.

CHAPTER II

“ THERE IS NO HELL
”

“
Hell is an invention of priests, a nursery

tale, with which you may frighten children,

but cannot disturb sensible men.”

That is the old and the new discovery, not

of the great minds of the world
’— they all

believed in hell— but of beer philosophers and
shallow minds.

Firstly : Tis a pity, dear friend, that in this

matter your opinion is of little importance.

If there is a hell, then your “ conviction
”

will not extinguish its fire. The thief may be



6 THE DARK BEYOND

hanged even if he does not believe in the ex-

istence of the gallows.

Secondly : Are you really firmly convinced

that there is no hell? Who proved that to

you?

An infidel of the 18th century once wrote

to Voltaire, the prince of blasphemers, that he

had found the metaphysical (absolute) proof

that there is no hell. What did the scoffer

of Ferney answer? “ Then you are happier

than I
;
I have not yet found it.”

Let us suppose that no man could prove

the existence of hell; let us suppose that its

existence is only probable— what then?
The Swedish Count Oxenstierna, Jr., tells

the following true story.
1 Two sons of high

nobility became intimate friends at college.

But the course of events soon separated

them. The one threw himself into the arms

of all worldly pleasures, had a splendid career,

was a man of the world, but without faith

and morality. And his friend? When after

many years the freethinker one day crossed

a bridge in Paris he met a poor Capuchin.

He stood still
;

in the monk he recognized

his old friend and fellow student. Pityingly

1 Veith, Charitas, p. 32.



THE DARK BEYOND 7

he looked at the poor habit and rough cloth,

the sandals fastened with straps, and finally

said : “ Poor friend ! What a miserable life

you lead! How you are to be pitied if you

have to bear all this in vain, if there is no

heaven.”

“ Friend,” the monk replied softly, “ as far

as I know, I have not lost much in giving up

the world; but how you are to be pitied— if
there is a hell !

”

“ Christian,” said an atheist, “ how you will

be disappointed if heaven is only a fable.”

—

“ Atheist,” answered the Christian, “ how you

will be disappointed if hell is no fable !
”

Yes, poor, poor atheists, if there is a hell

!

There is a hell! Do not say: “I don’t

believe in hell,” but rather say : “ I do not

like to believe in hell.”

But no one says that you should like to be-

lieve in hell. Who indeed likes to believe in

it? Very few. But only he denies hell who,

on account of his wicked life, has every reason

to fear it.

But of what avail is it? Wish that there

is no hell— hell does not care for that
;
strike

the word hell from all languages— hell will
burn right on. Say with Franz Moor in



8 THE DARK BEYOND

Schiller’s “ Robbers ” :
“
Empty, deserted,

deaf is everything above the stars,— but if
there should be something beyond? No, no,

there is not! I command, there is not!”

Small and insignificant is man when he re-

sists truth.

When King Louis XI. of France became

seriously ill, he struggled against approaching

death with fear and desperation. To die, he,

the king, to die, with his guilty conscience—
that was impossible, that must not be. He

promised the physician who would cure him

10,000 crowns annually; he fell on his knees

before St. Francis of Paul and begged him

to banish death; he had relics placed around

his bed to hinder the approach of death, nay,

he banished the word “ death ” from his pal-

ace; no one was permitted to mention that

terrible word in his presence. When it was

mentioned by a servant, the king crept under

the bed covers. And he had to die.

Is such behavior worthy of a man? We
must be able to look truth straight in the face,

whether it is welcome or not.

The ostrich hides its head in the sand in

order not to see the approaching hunter.



THE DARK BEYOND 9

Close your eyes to hell and you will only the

surer tumble into it.

Laugh and scoff at the belief in hell, cry as

loud as you will “ there is no hell !
”— all

timid children shout and sing in the dark that

they may not lose heart.

But if there is a hell after all

?

CHAPTER III

THERE IS A HELL

I.

Whoever denies the existence of hell op-

poses with his little brain the intelligence of

all mankind. Such a one is less intelligent

than the Jews, the Turks and the very canni-

bals of the South Sea Islands.

“ We find the belief in hell among the

Creeks and Romans, among all nations of the

earth.”— This is conceded by the prince of in-
fidels, Voltaire.

The Englishman Bolingbroke, also an in-

fidel, writes plainly that the doctrine of a

future state of reward and punishment seems



IO THE DARK BEYOND

to be lost in the twilight of antiquity, and

is before all historic knowledge. Wherever,

in ancient times, we are able to unravel some-

what the net of fact and fiction, we find this

belief firmly established among the nations.

Deny hell: From the icy north 1 to the

scorched South Sea Islands
,

2 from the Indian

in the primeval forests
3
to the most forsaken

deserts of interior Africa
,

4
the noblest men as

well as the most abject criminals, the greatest

thinkers and the humblest barbarians, the

grave lawgiver and the laurel-crowned poet
,

5

the eloquent Cicero
,

6
the wise Plato

,

7
the noble

1 The inhabitants of Greenland believe that hell is

a deep underground place without light and warmth,

full of fear and terror.
2 The South Sea Islanders believe that the wicked

will come into a dark land, where the sun never

shines and where there is only foul water.
3 He pictures hell to himself as a deep well in

which fire burns.
4 The Egyptian fable of the judgment of the dead

and the transmigration of the souls of the wicked is

found among many negro tribes.
5 Orpheus, Musseus, Linus, Homer, Hesiod, Pin-

dar, /Eschylus, Euripides, Sophocles, Aristophanes,

Vergil, Ovid, Horace, etc.
6 Orat. 44.
7 “ Those whose condition, on account of the

greatness of their crimes, is considered incurable, are

cast according to their deserts, into Tartarus, which

they never leave/’ (Phaedon, p. 114.) “They are

extraordinary, terrible punishments accompanied by



THE DARK BEYOND II

Socrates
,

1 and the freethinker Lucretius ,
2

in

short men of all tongues, religions, customs

and degrees of civilization agree that there is

a hell.

Balmes writes :
3 “ Vergil was neither a

Capuchin nor a priest nor a Catholic; neither

was he lacking in good taste, and still it is

difficult to imagine a greater combination of

horrors than those he shows us in hell.

“Just in the gate, and in the jaws of hell,

Revengeful Cares and sullen Sorrows dwell

And pale Diseases, and repining Age,

Want, Fear, and Famine’s unresisting rage,

Here Toils, and Death, and Death’s half-brother

Sleep

(Forms terrible to view), their sentry keep;

With anxious Pleasures of the guilty mind;

Deep Frauds before, and open Force behind;

The Furies’ beds; and Strife, that shakes

Her hissing tresses, and unfolds her snakes.”

(Vergil’s iEneis, bk. vi. vv. 384-393. Dryden’s

translation.)

excruciating pain of eternal duration.” Plato con-

fesses that he had given the matter long and serious

thought and had found nothing that is more in agree-

ment with reason and wisdom and truth than the be-
lief in eternal punishment. (Gorgias. Ed. Stall-

baum, c. 81. Cf. also De Republ. X. c. 14. Ed.
Stallbaum.)

1 Plato. Gorgias.
2 De Nat. Rer. I. 108; III. 37.
3 Letters to a Sceptic, p. 51.



12 THE DARK BEYOND

There we see Tantalus, tortured by ever-

lasting thirst, swimming with his lips to the

water, without ever being able to .quaff a

drop
;
there we see Sisyphus forever groaning

in his effort to roll that heavy bowlder
;
we

behold Ixion, tied to a wheel of serpents,

whirled without rest by the storm;. Tityrus

there appears spread out nine acres, exposed

to the fury of a giant vulture that constantly

devours his ever growing liver
;
Pirithous, like

Ixion, is under a terrible bowlder that threat-

ens every moment to crush him.

“ The queen of Furies by their side is set,

And snatches from their mouth the untasted meat

;

Which if they touch, her hissing snakes she rears,

Tossing her torch, and thundering in their ears.”

(Ibid. 820-3.)

Deeply moved the poet concludes:

“ Had I a hundred mouths, a hundred tongues,

And throats of brass, inspired with iron lungs,

I could not half those horrid cries repeat,

Nor half the punishments those crimes have met.”

(Ibid. 851-4.)

Whence this agreement of all nations

?

Did man, perhaps, invent hell for his own

amusement? Surely, men would not invent



THE DARK BEYOND 13

hell for themselves, especially a hell that is

eternal.

Infidels themselves prove that man rebels

against the belief in hell. How man struggles

against the belief in some threatening misfor-

tune ! Against hope he hopes at the death-

bed of a dear relative or friend, and when

there is no more hope, his mind is often upset

and yet in his madness he seeks the dear de-

parted. And then thousands and millions

should believe in their own eternal misery, nay,

the whole world should believe in hell without

the most convincing proofs.

The belief in hell is inborn in us
;

“ It is,”

as Mgr. Segur says in his excellent little book

on hell, “ a light of divine origin, which shines

without our cooperation, like a black diamond

set in our soul, shining with its dark glow.

No one can tear this belief from our hearts,

for God Himselj: has put it there. We may
conceal this diamond and its dusky fire

;
we

can turn away our eyes and forget it for a

while
;
we can deny it in words, still we believe

in it, and conscience never ceases to* cry out

:

There is a hell
l”



14 THE DARK BEYOND

II.

Hell is that terrible something in the next

world which human depravity has called into

being and still brings forth. If there were no

hell, it would instantly arise from the mire of

human degenerateness.

There is a hell as surely as there is a zvorld.

Without hell the world would be unintelli-

gible. “ Take away hell as the end of the

wicked/’ says Hettinger in his “ Apology,”

Vol. 4,
“ and you have lost all understanding

for the beginning, the origin and the essence

of evil; then every difference between good

and evil, God and man, angel and devil must

necessarily disappear; then the’masterpiece of

the divine plan and of divine Providence falls

to the ground, everything is confusion to our

mind, everything crumbles in our hands.”

There is a hell as sure as there are monsters

of iniquity.

Or should the villain who breathes forth his

soul with blasphemy on his lips share the lot

of the innocently murdered child?

In the Reign of Terror of the French Revo-



THE DARK BEYOND 15

lution, the pastor of Ampeluis was summoned

before the tribunal. Scornfully the fanatics

asked him :
“
Do you believe in hell ?

”

“ Yes/’ the brave confessor calmly answered,

“ to believe in hell I have only to consider

you and your conduct; had I ever doubted

it, I would have to believe it now.”

There is a hell as sure as there are good people .

Does not one innocent person deserve more

consideration than a hundred villains? But

what is it after all that can sufficiently shield

the good from the rage of the wicked? What

is there that prevents the world from becom-

ing an arena of wild beasts? Only hell.

If there were no hell, this world would be-

come a hell. Once the archscoffer Voltaire,

when at table a friend of his somewhat loudly

denied hell, said : “ Hush ! If my servants

hear that, I am no longer safe from them, for

they may murder me.” And on another occa-

sion he remarked that if the mighty of this

world would lose this faith, some of them

might have, him ground to powder in a mortar.



i6 THE DARK BEYOND

There is a hell as certainly as there is a God

in heaven .

In this life the wicked man is so often guilty

of blasphemy, and it seems as though there

were no God
;
he mocks at the Almighty and

no thunderbolt strikes him. Shall the crea-

ture forever triumph over the Creator ? Shall

the King of heaven surrender to the worm

of the earth ? Impossible !

Hell is the immovable rock on which the

raging flood of human passion must forever

be broken
;

it is the stronghold behind which

God triumphantly guards His infinite majesty
;

it is the fiery abyss into which the evil-doer,

after having, like Lucifer, stormed the fortress

of heaven, casts himself with the cry of de-

spair: “ There is a hell!”

But it is objected: “ God is merciful and

He can find no joy in torturing helpless crea-

tures.”

Who says that God delights in the tortures

of the damned? What blasphemy! Not

God, but his own wickedness, casts the sinner

into hell. No one goes to hell without his

own fault.



THE DARK BEYOND 17

Yes, God is merciful and hence He comes

from heaven to free you from hell. He dies

on the cross like a malefactor. For a trifle a

God does not die. And if the Heavenly

Father punishes so fearfully our sins in His

innocent and dearly beloved Son, why should

He hesitate to cast us, if we defy him, into

the everlasting abyss? St. Thomas of Vil-

lanova says in this connection : “ I am more

terrified by the redemption in love than by

the punishment of the angels.”

Yes, God is merciful, infinitely, incompre-

hensibly merciful, and just for that reason

there is a hell
;
for he who offends such a

good and merciful God justly deserves hell.

Hell is only the terrible rebound of abused

divine mercy.

Now just God's mercy has created hell:

His mercy towards the good, His favorites,

to free them from the society of the wicked;

his mercy towards the sinner, to convert many

of them and lead them to heaven by the ter-

rors of hell.

And even if mercy had no part in hell, God

is not only merciful, He is also holy. He

loves good and hates evil in an infinite de-

gree, with His whole divine essence, with the



i8 THE DARK BEYOND

whole power of His immensity
;
and He would

rather descend from His throne in heaven

and cease to be God, if that were possible,

than to admit but one sinner among the glo-

rious host of His saints in heaven. As light

hates darkness, so God hates sin. Hence

there is no bridge between heaven and hell,

between God and the reprobate (Cf. Luke

16:26)
;
the flames of hell forever burn be-

cause light remains light forever, darkness

forever darkness, good forever good and evil

forever evil.

Besides God is just. “A fire is kindled in

my wrath
,
and shall burn even to the lowest

hell: and shall devour the earth with her in-

crease
,
and shall burn the foundations of the

mountains

”

(Deut. 32:22). He who lays

violent hands on God, the infinite, the most

beautiful, the infinitely good, the most amiable,

deserves an infinite, that is, eternal punish-

ment.

It is folly to say that there is no proportion

between an eternal hell and a short sinful act.

Since when is the punishment to last only

as long as the sin? A certain Thomas once
blew up the steamer

“
Mosel ” in which 72

people were killed and hundreds wounded.



THE DARK BEYOND 19

It was the deed of a moment. Should he

therefore also suffer only for a moment? No,

the punishment must be in proportion to the

gravity and not to the duration of the offence.

All human justice punishes the murderous

attack on an earthly prince with a certain

eternal punishment by excluding the criminal

finally and forever from human society, nay,

even from life itself. What punishment then

does an attack on God, the infinite majesty,

deserve, that is, a mortal sin? Certainly an

infinite punishment, because the insult is nat-

urally the greater the higher the offended per-

son. But how can a finite creature endure an

infinite punishment ? Only by enduring it

forever, eternally.

Let us beware of all morbid sentimentality.

Reason is above feeling. He who is merciful

to the villain harms the good man. God is no

weak father who only threatens with the rod,

but never strikes and thereby becomes the

laughingstock of the street boys.

God is merciful, but also wise. Only an

eternal hell can hold the world in balance

;

only an eternal hell can guard God's majesty

from the fury of degenerate creatures.

Of what use is the fear of mere temporal



20 THE DARK BEYOND

punishment, when the fire of passion flares up

in the human heart, when temptation with its

artifices benights reason? Man is capable of

an eternal existence and only eternity affects

him. What would men be if there were no

eternal hell, since now, even with the belief

in an eternal punishment, so many are so

wicked ?

If hell were not eternal, the godless villain

could with defiance say to his Creator

:

“ Great God ! to defy you I will satisfy my

passions, will adore myself, will tear down

Thy altars and make Thy name a laughing-

stock among the nations
;
punish me as long as

you will, but there will be a time when you will

no longer do so; then with a curse on my

lips I shall still enter your heaven or with

proud defiance sink back into nothingness.”

Can that be? No, never! “0 the depth

of the riches of the wisdom and of the knowl-

edge of God! How incomprehensible are His

judgments, and how unsearchable His ways!

(Rom. 11:33). Hettinger says in his “ Apol-

ogy ” (IV. 15) :
“ God works in eternal wis-

dom, justice and love; angels fall, souls are

lost
;

but above all these ruins of fallen

spirits and above the lamentations of lost



THE DARK BEYOND 21

souls resound the choirs of the angels and

millions of the saved: Holy, holy, holy is

the Lord God !
”

“Justice the founder of my fabric moved:

To rear me was the task of power divine,

Supremest wisdom, and primeval love.”

(Dante, Hell, III. 4.)

“ No one ever came back from hell, there-

fore I don't believe in it."

Why, are the damned in hell to be sent as

special messengers to you, if the ordinary mes-

sengers, God's priests, are not heard by you?

That is just the terrible thing about hell that

there is no escape from it.

Of what use would it be to have one of the

reprobates appear ? He would not be be-

lieved. Just read what Christ says of the

parable of Dives (Luke 16:19-31). “ If

they hear not Moses and the Prophets, neither

will they believe, if one rise again from the

dead" (Ibid. 31).

The infidel Rousseau writes :
“
If with my

own eyes I were to see a person raised to life,

I do not know what I would do; I believe

I would sooner become insane than believing."

(Lettres ecrites de la montagne.) And the



22 THE DARK BEYOND

wicked Diderot confesses: “If the whole of

Paris would run together and assure me that

a dead person had been restored to life, I

would sooner believe that the whole of Paris

had lost its reason, than admit the possibility

of a miracle.”

That is very simple: You can deny the

existence of the sun in the firmament, for not

to see it you need only close your eyes.

But are you certain that no one ever by

a special permission of God returned from

the other world. It is not impossible. Even

Schopenhauer admits that : “ The a priori

rejection of the possibility of a real appari-

tion of deceased persons can rest only on the

conviction that by death a human being is

totally annihilated. For as long as this is

wanting, there is no reason why a being, that

in some way still exists, should not manifest

itself, or should not act on another, though

the other may be in another state of being.”

The testimony of this fashionable philosopher

is all the stronger as apparitions threaten to

undermine his whole philosophical system.

It has never entered the heads of theolo-

gians to prove the existence of hell from more

or less attested apparitions, for superstition,



THE DARK BEYOND 23

deceit and exaggeration have played a great

part in this delicate matter
;
but certain occur-

rences are worthy of belief, are at times even

vouched for by the courts, that even the most

sceptical must be induced to look deeper into

the matter.
1

He who denies all apparitions should read

1 Kings 28: 13 ff. It is amusing to see how

enlightened men, who ridicule the simple

faith of the common people, in weak moments

will betray a fear of ghosts. If such eminent

specialists of natural science as Wallace, the

astronomer Huggins, the mathematician De

Morgan, a genius like Leibnitz, a neo-heathen

like Machiavelli, poets like Shakespeare, Lord

Byron, Wieland, Lessing, Goethe, E. M.

Arndt, Jean Paul, philosophers like Schopen-

hauer and Schelling believed in apparitions,

and even Kant 2 reluctantly admits them, then

a man of smaller mind need not be ashamed

to confess : “ There may be something in it

after all.”

In his little book on hell, the venerable

prelate Segur relates the following strange

event.
3

1 Cf. Bishof Schneider, Der neuere Geisterglaube.
2 For additional names see Schneider, 1. c.
3 According to the law of the Church this and all



24 THE DARK BEYOND

My grandfather, Count Rostopchine, gov-
ernor of Moscow, was a great friend of Gen-

eral Orloff, who was famous for his bravery,

but was a complete sceptic.

‘ One day after a choice supper, at which

wine had not been partaken of sparingly,

Count Orloff began with one of his friends,

General V., to ridicule religion, especially the

belief in hell.

“ But if perchance/’ said Orloff, “ there

should be something behind the curtain of

this world ?
”

“ Well/’ said the general, “ he of us who

leaves first shall come back and inform the

other how things are behind the curtain.

What do you think of that ?
”

“ A capital idea ! ”

And each, though gray, gave his word of

honor to keep this promise.

A few weeks later one of the great wars
of Napoleon broke out. General V. was or-

dered to an important post on the field of bat-

tle.

Two or three weeks later one early morning

the door of my grandfather’s room, who was

other narratives in this book claim only human au-
thority.



THE DARK BEYOND ^5

just dressing himself, was violently opened

and Count Orloff rushed in clothed in his

dressing gown and slippers, his hair di-

shevelled, his looks confused and his face pale

as death.

“ What Orloff ! Is it you ? At this hour

and in this attire ? What do you want ?

What has happened ?
”

“ Friend/’ Count Orloff stammered, “ I

think I am going insane. I’ve seen General

V.”

“ General V. ? Why, did he come back ?
”

“ No, no ! ” Orloff answered, throwing him-

self on a sofa and resting his head on his

hands; “ no, he is not back; and it is just

that which frightens me.”

My grandfather did not know what it all

meant and tried to calm his friend. “ Tell

me what has happened to you and what all

this means.”

Then Count Orloff tried to subdue his ex-

citement and related the following:

“ My dear Rostopchine ! Some time ago
General V. and I promised each other on our

word that the one who should die first should

tell the other whether there is anything be-

hind the curtain of this world. This morning,



26 THE DARK BEYOND

it can hardly be more than half an hour ago,

I lay quietly in my bed
;
I had been awake for

some time and did not in the least think of

my friend, when suddenly the curtains of my

bed were forcibly torn open and I saw Gen-

eral V. standing two paces away from me;

he was pale and his' right hand was on his

chest
;
he told me : ‘ There is a hell, I am in

it/ and he disappeared. I got up at once

and ran away to look for you. I am losing

my head. It is a strange thing, I don’t know

what to think of it.”

My grandfather tried to quiet him as well

as he could. He spoke of hallucinations, over-

heating of the brain, queer dreams and other

strange and inexplicable things. Finally he

brought the Count back to his hotel in his

coach.

Ten or twelve days later a courier brought

my grandfather from the army among other

news also that of the death of General V. On

the same day and at the same hour when

Count Orloff had seen and heard him, a deadly

bullet struck him as he was reconnoitering.

“ There is a hell I am in it
!”



THE DARK BEYOND 27

III.

But even if no damned person ever re-

turned from hell, there is one who certainly

came from the other world, Jesus Christ, who

created heaven and earth and hell. Does His

word not count for more than if a hundred

denizens of hell would come and relate the

terrors of the infernal regions with glowing

tongues ?

And He speaks plainly: over seventy times

Holy Scripture announces hell to us
;
Christ

Himself speaks of it twenty-five times in the

Gospels, fifteen times especially of hell fire.

“ Depart from me into everlasting fire
”

(Matth. 25:41).

He speaks of the worm that dieth not and

the fire that shall not be extinguished (Mark

9:45), of the exterior darkness where there

will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matth.

25:30).

Thus speaks the good and mild Saviour who

weeps over the misery of His people, who

bleeding, prays for His torturers; thus speaks

the eternal and immense God who could say

to the world : “ Heaven and earth shall pass



28 THE DARK BEYOND

away, but my zuords shall not pass away

(Matth. 24:35).

There is a hell!

CHAPTER IV

WHERE IS HELL ? 1

Without special divine revelation no one can

know this for certain. But most probably

hell is very near us
;
close to our feet flare up

the threatening flames of the infernal prison.

This can hardly be doubted as is clear from

many and plain passages of Holy Scripture, 2

and according to the unanimous conviction of

the Holy Fathers and theologians. 3

“ The earth broke asunder under their

{Core, Dathan and Abiron
) feet: and opening

her mouth, devoured them . . . . And they

1 The essence of hell is its pain. Even if a devil
or damned soul is allowed to leave hell for a time,

the punishment follows them nevertheless. “ It may
be, that while at large, roaming through earth and

air, they (the demons), suffer less than when con-
fined to hell.

,>

(MacEvilly on Matth. 8:29.)
2 Num. 16:31 f; 1 Kings 28:13 f; Eccli. 24:45,

46 : 23 ; Matth. 12 : 40 ; Eph. 4:9; Phil. 2:10; Apoc.

5 :3, 12 :9, etc.

3 For their names see Bautz, Die Holle, § 3.



THE DARK BEYOND 29

went down alive into hell, the ground closing

upon them

”

(Num. 16:31 f).

Who knows perhaps the poison-fuming

abysses of our volcanoes are the admonishing

chimneys 4 of hell
;
perhaps the mysterious

tremblings of the earth, which frighten people

so much, are only caused by the gigantic waves

of the everlasting fiery sea, when threatening

they knock on the wall that separates two

worlds. How meet that earth itself should

wreak vengeance on him who through his

crimes has desecrated it, that is, that he who

sought the end of his existence in the pleasures

of the world, should also be a prisoner in the

earth’s glowing walls.

But if here we do not know where hell is,

may we never find it to our own sorrow here-

after !

“ Let us not ask where hell is, but let us

avoid it,” says St. Chrysostom.
5

4 St. Bernard calls them the little chimneys of the
eternal fire : “ Fumariola qusedam et ignis seterni

missilia.”

5 Horn. 31. in ep. ad Rom. n. 5.



30 THE DARK BEYOND

CHAPTER V

WHAT IS HELL?

I will not paint hell too hot for three rea-

sons :

1. It is more than hot enough.

2. Every exaggeration is a kind of lie, and

all lying is an abomination before God, the

eternal Truth.

3. I also have to tremble before hell, for

“ man knoweth not whether he be worthy of

love or hatred

”

(Eccl. 9:1).

St. Theresa was permitted to cast a look

into hell; she does not consider herself able

to describe even approximately the terrors of

the eternal prison.

Here are her own words:

“ One day as I was in prayer, on a sudden

I found myself in hell. I know not how I

was carried thither; I understood that our

Lord was pleased that I should see the place

which the devils had prepared for me there,

and which I had deserved by my sins. I was

there only a very short time; yet though I

should live many years, I do not believe I



THE DARK BEYOND 31

should ever be able to forget it. The entrance

appeared to resemble that of an oven, very

low, very narrow, and very dark. The ground

seemed like mire, exceedingly filthy, stinking,

insupportable, and full of a multitude of

loathsome vermin. At the end of it there was

a certain hollow place, as if it had been a kind

of a little press in the wall, into which I found

myself thrust and close pent up. Now, though

all this which I have said was far more ter-

rible in itself than I have described it, yet

it might pass for a pleasure in comparison

with that which I felt in this press. This

torment was so dreadful that no words can

express the least part of it. I felt my soul

burn in so dismal a fire that I am not able

to describe it. I have experienced the most

intense physical pain, which, in the judgment

of physicians, can be endured in this world,

as well by the shrinking up of all my sinews,

as by many other kinds of torments. But all

these are nothing, in comparison with what

I suffered there, joined to the horrid thought,

that this was to be without end or intermission

forever, and even this itself is still little, if

compared to the agony the soul is in. It

seems to her that she is stifled; her anguish



32 THE DARK BEYOND

and torture go to a degree of intensity that

cannot be expressed. It is too little to say,

that it seems to her that she is butchered, and

rent to pieces
;
because this would express

some violence from without that tended to her

destruction; whereas, here, it is she herself

that is her own executioner, and tears herself

to pieces. Now as to that interior fire and

unspeakable despair which come to complete

so many horrid torments, I own that I am not

able to describe them. I saw not who it was

that tormented me; but I perceived myself to

burn, and at the same time to be cut as it

were and hacked to pieces. In so frightful a

place there is no room for the least hope of

comfort. There was no such a thing as even

sitting or lying down. I was thrust into a

hole in the wall
;
and those horrible walls close

in upon the poor prisoners, and press and

stifle them. There is nothing but thick dark-

ness, without any mixture of light; and yet

I know not how it is, that though there is no

light there,, yet one sees there all that may be

most mortifying to the sight. Although it is

about six years since that which I here relate

happened, I am even now in writing of it,



THE DARK BEYOND 33

so terrified that my blood chills in my veins

;

so that whatsoever evils o^* pains I now suffer,

if I do but call to remembrance what I then

endured, all that can be suffered here appears

to be just nothing.”

So far the saint, whose relation deserves

to be pondered at leisure; for if such and so

horrible torments had been prepared for her,

whose life, from her cradle, setting aside a few

worldly vanities, which for a short time she

had followed, had been so innocent, what must

sinners expect

!

1

But we need no special revelations, for what

God Himself tells us about hell in Holy Scrip-

ture is so terrible that it cuts one to the quick.

Just open your Bible and read :
2

What says the seer in the Apocalypse ?

“And a mighty angel took up a stone, as it

were a great millstone, and cast it into the

sea, saying: with such violence as this shall

Babylon
,

3
the great city, be thrown down, and

shall be found no more at all” (18:21).

Where to?

1 See Challoner, Think Well On’t, chap. 14, 4.
2 Regarding the applicability of the following texts

to hell, see the preface.
3 The picture of the proud and voluptuous sinner.



34 THE DARK BEYOND

Into destruction (Phil. 3:19)—-into the
eternal punishment of destruction (2 Thess.

1:9)— into a land of misery and darkness,
where the shadow of death, and no order, but

everlasting horror dwelleth (Job 10:22)—
into the exterior darkness : there shall be

weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matth. 8: 12)

— into the place of torments (Luke 16:28)
— into a pit and prison (Is. 24:22; Apoc. 20

:

3)— and shall be imprisoned in darkness
(Wis. 18:4)— into the lower hell, unto tor-
ments (2 Pet. 2:4)— into the bottomless pit
(Apoc. 9:1, 2)— into the devouring deep and
pit (Ps. 68:16)— into an oven of fire (Ps.
20: 10)— into a torrent of brimstone (Is. 30:
33)—unto a great press of the wrath of God
(Apoc. 14:19)— into a pool of fire (Apoc.
20:14)— into a pool burning with fire and
brimstone (Apoc. 21:8)— to the bottom of
the pit (Is. 14:19)— into corruption (Gal.
6:8)— into the gates of death (Job 38:17)
— into the inner chambers of death (Prov. 7:
27)— into the second death (Apoc. 20:14,
21:8) (which is the supernatural death of the

soul, the loss of grace forever)— into the
winepress where God will trample upon them

in His indignation and will tread them down



THE DARK BEYOND 35

in His wrath (Is. 63:3)— to the bottom of
the pit, as a rotten carcass (Is. 14: 19)— into
the pit of destruction (Ps. 54:24).

What a terrible land!

What do we see there ? Firel

As mentioned in Holy Scripture— this fire
is raging (Heb. 10:27), burning and devour-

ing (Deut. 32:22; Ps. 20:10; Is. 33:14),

smoking (Apoc. 9:2), tormenting (Luke 16:

24; Apoc. 14: 10) ; consuming (Heb. 10: 27),

avenging (2 Thess. 1:8), everlasting (Matth.

25:41; Is. 33 : 14) ; this fire is kindled in the

wrath of God and shall burn even to the low-

est hell, and shall devour the earth and her

increase, and shall burn the foundations of

the mountains (Deut. 32:22); it is burning

coals (Ps. 139:11), fire and brimstones and

storms (Ps. 10:7); rottenness and worms are

there (Eccli. 19: 3), fire and worms (Jud. 16:

21
;
Eccl. 7: 19), the worm that shall not die

and the fire that shall not be quenched (Is.

66:24), the smoke of torments (Apoc. 14:

1
1 ) ,

everlasting reproach and perpetual shame

(Jer. 23:40), evils (Deut. 32:23), every sor-

row (Job 20:22), hunger (Ps. 58:7; Is. 65:

13), thirst (Is. 65: 13), straitening and burn-

ing (Job 20:22), a terrible fear (Wis. 5:2),



36 THE DARK BEYOND

fire and trembling (Is. 33: 14), weeping and

gnashing of teeth (Matth. 13
: 42, 25:30;

Luke 13:28; Ps. 111:10), torment and sor-

row (Apoc. 18 :7), death and mourning and

famine and fire (Apoc. 18:8), the food .of

death (Ps. 48 : 15).

There the damned are bound with infernal

ropes and chains (2 Pet. 2:4; Apoc. 20:1

. .
. ) ;

they are reserved in everlasting chains

(Jude 6) ; they are tortured by fire and worms

for all eternity (Jud. 16:21) and with fire

and brimstone (Apoc. 14: 10) ; they shall be

salted with fire (Mark 9:48); the people

shall be as fuel for fire (Is. 9: 19) ; they shall

be smoke and a fire all the day (Is. 65: 5) ;

their worm shall not die and their fire shall

not be quenched (Is. 66:24); they shall be

a loathsome sight to all flesh (Is. 66:24);

neither have they rest day nor night (Apoc.

14: 11) ; they are consumed in their wicked-

ness (Wis. 5:13); they are trampled upon

by God in His indignation and are trodden

down by Him in His wrath (Is. 63: 3) ; God

shall break their heads and their hairy crown

(Ps. 67: 22) ; they shall be utterly laid waste

(Wis. 4:19); they are like tow swept to-

gether, and their end is a flame of fire (Eccli.



THE DARK BEYOND 37

21 : io)
;
they are like chaff that will be burned

with unquenchable fire (Matth. 3:12); they

shall be stubble on fire (Mai. 4:1); they are

like cockle bound in bundles to burn (Matth.

13:30); their nourishment is fire and much

wood: the breath of the Lord as a torrent of

brimstone kindling it (Is. 30:33) ; they drink

of the wine of the wrath of God (Apoc. 14:

10).

0 terrible pictures! It is true, they are

only pictures; but so much the worse. “If

pictures already are so dismal/’ says Father

Tilmann Pesch, S.
J.,

1 “ how awful must be

the reality !
”

“ O fearful land of hell ! ” tremblingly cries
out St. Bernard,

2 “ Land of torment and

misery ! I tremble with my whole body and

thrill with horror, when I think of this land,

and all my bones shake.”

Severe beyond all comprehension are the

torments of the damned.

Reason enlightened by faith tells us that.

Father Segneri says in his Lenten Sermons

(I. 14): “God has, as it were, two hands

with which He rules the world: His mercy

and His justice. These hands must be equal

1 Das religiose Leben. 2 De quinque reg.



38 THE DARK BEYOND

that there be no disturbing inequality between

them. Who does not know how boundless

God is in His mercy ! It is almost past be-

lief what God does to save the sinner, how

He bears with his outrages, endures his

mockery, He comes from heaven, becomes a

child, suffers and dies for him
;
woe, woe unto

him who does not want His mercy—' accord-
ing as His mercy is

,
so His correction judgeth

a man according to his works' (Eccli. 16: 13)

— for him the arm of divine justice seizes:
as great as was mercy, in the same terrible

degree will justice bear down on the head of

the unhappy sinner.”

As heaven is a mystery of divine mercy, so

hell is the unfathomable mystery of God's

avenging justice. As God rewards worthy of

Himself, so He also punishes
“
secundum

plenitudinem Deitatis suae,” as Tertullian

says, “ according to the fullness of His deity,"

and that is infinite. “ Who knoweth the power

of Thy anger?" (Ps. 89:11). Woe unto the

unfortunate sinner who will experience it

!

Truly, “it is a fearful thing to fall into the

hands of the living God
”

(Heb. 10:31) ; for

it is awful to offend a thrice holy, infinitely

good God Who was crucified for love of us.



THE DARK BEYOND 39

So long as it is impossible for a creature to

understand the infinite malice of mortal sin,

so long no one can even divine the awfulness

of hell. If the Apostle, rapt in contemplation

of the wonderful works of God's love, cries

out: “Eye hath not seen
,
nor ear heard

,

neither hath it entered into the heart of man,

what things God has prepared for them that

love him” (i Cor. 2:9), then trembling we

also acknowledge : “ Eye hath not seen, nor

ear heard, neither hath it entered into the

heart of man, what things God hath prepared

for them that despise His mercy."

What terrors has the eye of man not seen,

what fearful things has the ear not heard, and

what have all human hearts not endured up

to this time ! Let us picture to ourselves all

possible tortures, count all pains that have

been suffered, all the cries of distress, the

many tears, consider the terrors of war, let us

think with a shudder of all the holy martyrs

endured at the hands of bloodthirsty and

hell-inspired tyrants— all these sufferings and
afflictions are “ hardly a shadow ” compared

with the flames of hell.
1

St. Augustine says

:

2



40 THE DARK BEYOND

“ Whatever a man endures in this life, in com-

parison with hell, is not only to be considered

a trifle, but is nothing.” On earth the male-

dictions of God fall only like single drops,

but in hell they fall like rain on the damned.

(Cf. Dan. 9:11, and Job 20:23). “I will

heap evils upon them, and will spend my ar-

rows among them
”

(Deut. 32:23).

All tortures here below are still natural;

they do not transcend our human comprehen-

sion
;
they can yet be invented by man

;
but

in the next world our beggarly conceptions

and ideas are at an end; there they measure

with different measures and figure with differ-

ent numbers
;
what we consider here as great,

is often not so beyond, and what seems small

to us here, often assumes gigantic proportions

there.

“ Through me you pass into the city of woe

:

Through me you pass into eternal pain:

Through me among the people lost for aye.”

(Dante, Hell, III. 1.)

The hell of the damned is threefold .
1

The first hell is the torment of fire in the

company of the devils and the damned.

1 That is the punishment of hell. Cf. St. Bona-

venture, Brevil. p. 7, c. 6.



THE DARK BEYOND 41

That is the hell of sense or feeling.

The second hell is, as it were, God Himself,

since the loss of God and His heaven torments

the damned more than fire itself.

That is the hell of loss .

But as the center and focus of these two

opposite hells the damned are to themselves

the third hell .

That is the hell of despair .

But the hell of this threefold hell is its

eternity .

This threefold hell the sinner creates for

himself.

1. Whoever sins grievously separates him-

self from God: as a punishment he remains

forever separate from Him, his last end and

aim.

2. The sinner turns to creatures, in prefer-

ence to God: in punishment he is exposed to

the fury of all creatures, especially to fire,

the most painful.

3. His own self induces the sinner to sin

:

in punishment he becomes his own everlasting

torturer.



42 THE DARK BEYOND

“ What things a man shall sow, those also

shall he reap . For he that soweth in his flesh,

of the flesh also shall reap corruption

”

(Gal.

6 : 8 )..

This threefold hell begins for the sinner here

on earth .

As hell is nothing but the offspring of sin,

so in every sin there is a spark of hell. Al-

ready here on earth sin is often its own

curse. Restless, without God, partly over-

satiated by creatures, partly tormented by

them, at variance with himself, the sinner

confirms the words of the Archangel Raphael

to Tobias : “ They that commit sin and ini-

quity
,
are enemies to their own soul

”

(Tob.

12: 10).

But even the greatest sinner here below is

not entirely forsaken by God. God’s sun still

shines also for him; the sun of grace still

casts his rays on him; he still stands in the

shadow of the Cross of Golgatha
;
the way to

the fatherly heart of God is still open to him

— till the fatal catastrophe overtakes him.



THE DARK BEYOND 43

CHAPTER VI

I. THE FIRST HELL

J. The Fire .

i. History relates that for a long time King

Charles of Navarre suffered from nervous-

ness. A famous physician, who had been

summoned from afar, had the king sewed

into cloths saturated with spiritus. With this

stimulant the physician hoped to warm the

unstrung nerves and excite them to new ac-

tion. But, what happened ! The servant who

had sewed the cloths together, wishing to

burn off the thread with the candle, came too

close to the saturated cloths and in a moment

the whole body of the king was wrapped in

flames. All fled terror-stricken. The king

screamed and writhed in pain
;
he rolled about

in his burning cloths till death freed him from

his torments .
1

What must the king have suffered in that

short time

!

A number of years ago the Abbe Pinault
taught physics and chemistry in the seminary

Diessel, Das Leiden in ewiger Nacht., p. 32.



44 THE DARK BEYOND

of Saint-Sulpice. One day in some inexpli-

cable manner the phosphorus, which he han-

dled, took fire and in a moment his hand was

wrapped in flames
;
in a few minutes his hand

was only a charred formless mass; the nails

had disappeared. From excessive pain the

poor man lost consciousness, but still day and

night he screamed in a heart-rending man-

ner. If now and then he could say anything

it was : “ O my children, my children, don’t

go to hell, by no means go to hell !
”

We shudder when we read the martyrdom

of St. Lawrence. A large gridiron is placed

over a fire till it is red-hot. Rough execu-

tioners grasp the saint and fasten his bare

body on this fearful instrument of torture.

His whole body turns and shudders with pain

at the touch of the glowing iron. Thus the

heroic martyr of Christ lies fastened, whilst

the glowing irons cut deeper and deeper into

his roasting flesh. What torments

!

2. Are those the torments of hell?

No; for “ more furious than the fires of

-earth are the fires of hell,” says St. Alphonse.

Earthly fire is terrible. How fiercely the

flames of the Babylonian furnace flared up



THE DARK BEYOND 45

to kill them that threw in the three young

men. Still all the fires of earth are in reality

merciful, a gift of God, an immense blessing;

their painful effects are only an addition.

But down below rages a fire, kindled by the

wrath of the Almighty, a fire whose essence

is revenge, whose sole and everlasting pur-

pose is to torture; a fire which burns but

produces extreme darkness, which swallows

up its victims but does not consume them,

which tortures them but does not take away

consciousness; a fire that does not produce

mere weeping but howling and gnashing of

teeth; a fire compared to which our fire is,

in the opinion of St. Anselm, only “ a painted

fire/’ nay, as St. Vincent Ferrer says “ It is

coldness itself.”

3. The damned will not only lie on a grid-

iron like St. Lawrence, roasted by a slow

fire. No; that would be saying too little!

Listen to the Saviour. The damned “shall

be salted with fire” (Mark 9:48).

What a picture ! Around the reprobate im-

mense torrents of fire
;
in his entrails seething

fire. (Cf. Ezech. 28:18.) What he sees is

fire, what he speaks is fire, what he breathes



46 THE DARK BEYOND

is fire, what he eats and drinks is fire— fire,
fire, and nothing but fire— for all eternity

!

1

4. How will this fire of wrath “ render to

every man according to his works
!”

(Ps. 61

:

13). Created by God to punish the different

vices and crimes, it fulfills in an extraordinary

degree the purpose that God has in view, by

producing in everyone the torments which

correspond to his sins. “By what things a

man sinneth
,

by the same also he is tor-

mented” (Wis. 11:17).

How will this fire rage in the head of the

proud and infidel; how in the eyes of the

lewd woman, that have looked at sinful things,

that have through their enticements ensnared

so many; how they stare in agonizing pain

and see— never another ray of light (Job 10:
21, 22) ; but in spite of all this darkness of

hell the eye sees the most awful objects: the

horrid prison (Is. 24:22), innumerable, ter-

rible phantoms (Wis. 17:13, 14), the host

of torturing devils, the immeasurable waves

1 Till Judgment Day hell-fire tortures only the soul
of the reprobate. What a humiliation for a spirit, to
be fettered in raging pain to a lifeless being! Cf.

St. Thomas in 4 Dist. 44. qu. 3. a. 2.— Suppl. qu.
70.— 4. c. Gent. c. 90.— After the Resurrection the
fire will also torment the body, as the good will enjoy

heaven with the body.



THE DARK BEYOND 47 *

of the raging ocean of fire (Apoc. 21:8; Is.

14: 19).

The ears that have so often listened with

pleasure to impure language, how they burn

!

They hear the eternal, maddening hiss of the

flames
;
they hear " the weeping and gnashing

of teeth

”

(Matth. 8: 12) ; they hear the mar-

row-piercing shrieks of pain; they hear the

curses of former friends; they hear the scorn,

the taunts and the jeers of the devils

!

1

The nose

;

how it will be punished by fire!

the stench (Is. 34:3) in the infernal pool of

burning brimstone where millions of half-

decayed carcasses of the damned are burning

(Ibid.) !

The tongue of the blasphemer and curser,

the detractor, the calumniator, the lewd talker,

or of him who has sacrilegiously received the

Body of the Lord in Holy Communion, how

it glows in those flames

!

The mouth that has given so much scandal,

how it now breathes the blaze of hell

!

The palate that was addicted to drunken-

ness, how it now suffers infernal thirst, a

1
St. Alphonsus remarks that it would be a great

torture to be compelled to hear always the same piece

of music, no matter how beautiful. How painful
then must be those infernal noises

!



48 THE DARK BEYOND

thirst which grows more parching the longer

the flames rage, which increases from minute

to minute, from hour to hour, from day to

day, from year to year— O that a Lazarus
would come to moisten that parched tongue

and palate of Dives with but one drop of

water! (Luke 16:24). Oh the raging thirst!

Unhappy drunkard, will you keep on drink-

ing?

The hands that have been steeped in blood

and stained with shameful deeds, how they

will suffer for their sins: “According to the

multitude of his devices so also shall he suf-

fer” (Job 20: 18).

The feet that have carried the vain world-

ling to dangerous places, to false friends, into

the proximate occasion of sin
;

that have

moved so often in sinful dancing, how they

will be fettered in fire with glowing chains

!

(2 Pet. 2:4; Jude 6; Apoc. 20:1 f).

2. The Company in Hell.

a) THE DAMNED.

Take the meanest scoundrel from the scum

of the people just as he is, in rags, dirty

and covered with vermin, spreading a pes-



THE DARK BEYOND 49

tilential odor all around him, lead him into

an aristocratic ballroom— and look for a
partner for him! With what terror will the

guests disperse, how insulted they will feel

at such arrogance ! — But now, poor world-
ling, suppose you had to be in his company

forever in hell

!

What company will you meet in the dark

beyond? The scum of humanity, from the

fratricide Cain to the last harlot of the time

of Antichrist.

Sometimes a small defect in the character

of a person, who is otherwise good, will make

his company almost unbearable. Do we not

sometimes find a real hell in some homes

where man and wife hate each other, but

must live together day after day? How ter-

rible then must it be to be packed together

with millions of the damned!

i. They are creatures, terrible in their ugli-

ness, disfigured by sin, distorted by pain,

eaten up by sepulchral decay, burning corpses

(Is. 66:24), giving forth a fearful stench

(Is. 34:3)-

A cruel tyrant, Maxentius, we read in old
books, once took fearful vengeance on one of

his enemies. He had him tied to a decaying



50 THE DARK BEYOND

corpse till he decayed also. What ghastly

torments ! But only a weak picture of the

state of the damned!

An English writer relates the following

:

At Oxford there was a cheerful company at

table. Among other subjects they began to

speak of gruesome things, and a certain girl

said that she was most afraid of a skeleton.

Maxwell, a medical student, whose attentions

the girl had refused, no sooner heard this,

when a mean plan suggested itself to him.

He left unnoticed, took a skull from his room

and smeared a solution of phosphorus into

the eyesockets to make them glow with an

unearthly light, and then laid the skull into

the girl’s bed. Late that evening the girl

came home much elated, wished her parents

good night and went to her bedroom. She

uncovers the bed and suddenly sees the grue-

some grin of the skull. With a piercing cry

she fell backwards to the floor. Her parents

hastened to the room and found her lying like

dead. After several hours the pitiable child

was brought to life
;
but terror had upset her

reason and she remained insane till her

death .
1

1 Diessel, Das Leiden in ewiger Nacht, p. 40.



THE DARK BEYOND 51

If the mere sight of the skull of a man who

had died a natural death can cause such ter-

ror, how horrifying must be the company of

all those who died the supernatural, the ever-

lasting death— the society of all the dead

!

2. They are creatures whose whole nature

is now only wickedness. If there was a good

instinct in them in this life, in the moment

they separated from God, the source of all

good, and entered the terrible realms of

darkness, the last remnant of virtue was

changed into malice.

But are there not even here on earth mon-

sters whose very sight makes one shudder and

whose degradation is disgusting? But what

an ocean of malice must be collected in hell,

when the wickedness of every one has reached

its hellish completion!

3. They are creatures— and that is the
worst— full of infernal hatred . Had God
left some love in the hearts of the damned,

hell would be a little more endurable. But

no, love is a virtue and therefore does not

enter the infernal pool. Like a lot of

wounded, wild beasts, the damned in hell be-

come one another’s fiercest torturers. This

can not be doubted, for, says the learned



52 THE DARK BEYOND

Lessius

:

1 “
If here below God allows even

His saints to be terribly persecuted by the

wicked, why should He protect the frantic

hordes of hell from their mutual rage and

persecution ?
”

“The terrible ones shall go

and come upon him

”

(Job 20:25). St.

Thomas says : 2 “ The great number of the

damned increases the tortures of the indi-

vidual.”

God is Just. Even in this life He has

united in His inscrutable wisdom the destinies

of individuals. As one can be an angel for

hundreds, a guide to heaven, so also one can

lead innumerable souls to hell; thus a man

makes heaven the more beautiful and happy

the more he has led to that blessed abode;

thus hell will be the more terrible for any one,

the more he has sent before or caused to fol-

low him. “ What things a man shall sow
,

those also shall he reap” (Gal. 6:8).

As many reprobates, so many hells

!

4. This society will be the worse the closer

its members were connected with one another

on earth.

“ Accurst father ! ” cries the unhappy son,

1 De perfection, div. lib. 13, c. 29.
2 In 4 Dist. 50. Qu. 2. art. 1.



THE DARK BEYOND 53

“ why did you bring me up so godlessly ?
”

“
Accurst mother ! Had I died before you

bore me, or had you rather crushed me on

the floor as an infant, than that by your foolish

fondness you pampered and spoiled me !
”

“ Accurst child ! Did we carry you on our

arms and cherish you despite a thousand

troubles and cares, to suffer these fearful

pains ?
”

“ Accurst sinful wife, to please whom I

have abused the holy state of matrimony, do

you now come to gloat over my torment ?
”

I
“ Accurst woman ! ” howls the libertine with

gnashing teeth. “ Treacherous snake ! by

your indecent dress, your lustful looks and

your flirtations you led me astray— I’ll pay
you back !

99

“
Miserable seducer ! ” she hisses full of

hatred. “ Away from me, out of my sight !
”

NEVERMORE ! Oh, if they could but flee
from one another! No! Once they would

not separate forever, now that hell fire has

burnt out of their limbs their impure lust, it

is but just that they should be together for-

ever against their will, forever to see and hate

each other. “Every one shall eat the flesh

of his own arm: Manasses Ephraim , and



54 THE DARK BEYOND

Ephraim Manasses, and they together shall

be against Juda” (Is. 9:20).

To these dreadful reproaches and curses

are added the cries of pain, the fury, the

rage, the gnashing of teeth, the howling, the

bawling, the chattering of teeth, the rattling

of chains -— a deafening
,

hellish noise—
without change— day and night— for all
eternity! (Cf. Matth. 13:42, Apoc. 14:11).

b) THE DEVILS.

Many will not believe in the devil till the

eternal Judge will tell them:
u
Depart from

me
,
you cursed into everlasting fire

,
which

was prepared for the devil and his angels

”

(Matth. 25:41). “ There are spirits that are

created for vengeance, and in their fury they

lay on grievous torments . In the time of de-

struction they shall pour out their force: and

they shall appease the wrath of him that made

them
”

(Eccli. 39:33, 34).

St. Catherine of Siena in a vision saw a

devil and the mere sight was so terrible, that

she begged God most earnestly to take away

the vision. She declared that she would

rather walk barefooted on burning coals till



THE DARK BEYOND 55

the end of time than once more to see some-

thing so terrible. We read something similar

in the life of St. Francis of Assisi. He de-

clared to Brother Egidius after such a vision

:

“ If God does not by a miracle keep a man

alive, it is impossible to endure the sight of a

hellish spirit even for a single second ! ” The

sight of but one devil— a single second

!

How agonizing must it then be not only to

see thousands and thousands of devils, but

to be mercilessly exposed to their fury!

The sinner wanted it! God invited him to

His royal service, destined him to be partaker

of His kingdom, as immeasurable reward,

promised him a golden crown of victory and

a heavenly throne— he would not serve,
would not bow his head before the Almighty,

now he bows it with gnashing teeth before

the most detestable of creatures. Future

generations may fall on their knees before

his picture, for centuries his name may be

celebrated, grand monuments may perpetuate

his fame,— but he writhes under Satan’s feet
like a worm that is crushed.

The unhappy Roman emperor, Valerian,

who persecuted the Christians in the third

century, being conquered, had to serve Sapor,



56 THE DARK BEYOND

the Persian king, as a footstool. What deg-

radation for a once mighty ruler! Man, the

king of the visible creation, destined to be

the child of God, a prince of heaven, anointed

as the ruler of the world and hell, has become

the toy of the devil. Is that degradation not a

thousand times greater ?

With what fiendish laugh will Satan receive

the reprobate sinner ! “ Does the fire pain

you ?— But see, that is the thanks I owe you,
that you, to avoid the sweet service of God,

preferred my slavery! It was kind of you

to listen to my promptings ! I did not love

you as your God did, I rather hated you from

the very first moment of your existence
;
I did

not become a poor child for you, did not shed

my blood for you, but like a wild beast hunted

you to destruction. Come now and drink for

your reward of the wine of the wrath of God

(Apoc. 14:10); gladly I share my tortures

with you, come, I shall be your reward for

eternity, since you refused God as your re-

ward.”

Yes, how terribly the devil treated the pos-

sessed in the time of Christ ! He threw them

into the fire, robbed them of speech and hear-

ing, and tortured them in the most fearful



THE DARK BEYOND 57

manner. (Cf. Matth. 17:14 and other pas-

sages.) And still at that time his power was

limited. With what rage will he fall upon

the poor reprobate over whose soul the Blood

of Christ flowed; with what delight will he

drag the image of God from flame to flame;

with what scorn will he point to the character

of the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirma-

tion or even of Holy Orders
;

with what

fiendish joy will he tear the body that has been

sanctified by the Flesh of the Son of God

in Holy Communion !—
From the snares of the devil, deliver us

,

O Lord!

CHAPTER VII

II. THE SECOND HELL

The Hell of Loss.

“ Take a thousand hells with all imaginable

pains, and they are as nothing compared to

the loss of God,” says St. Chrysostom.
1

Only he loses everything who loses God

!

The loss is the greater the greater the good

which is lost: but God is the infinite good .

1 Horn. 24 in cap. 7. Matth.



58 THE DARK BEYOND

Oh, if I could only describe to you what is

meant by the word God! Oh, of what beau-

ties would I have to speak to you, sounds

so sublime as no ear ever heard, sights so

enrapturing that your eyes would shine with

astonishment, your heart would jubilate with

delight ! And if I would continue to tell you

more and more beautiful things, so bewitch-

ingly beautiful that you would forget the

world— and if all the angels of heaven would
come and with their angelic tongues would

describe the beauties of God— more and
more beautiful from minute to minute— from
day to day— till the end of time : what they
all would have said, compared to God would

be nothing!

“Eye hath not seen
,
nor ear heard

,
neither

hath it entered into the heart of man, zvhat

things God hath prepared for them that love

him
”

(i Cor. 2:9).

How beautiful then must GOD HIMSELF
BE!

Let us imagine an innocent child, beautiful

as an angel, gifted with all the ornaments of

mind and heart ! Who would not be attracted

to it?— Now let us imagine a being that pos-
sesses the beauty, the goodness, the power,



THE DARK BEYOND 59

the wisdom, in short all the perfections of all

men, everything beautiful that can be found

in man; let us add all the glory, the power,

the wisdom and goodness of the angels, the

loveliness of all the saints and heavenly

spirits !— Imagine all this beauty and mag-
nificence and loveliness increased to infinity,

let us multiply all this in our mind thousands

and thousands of times a day, a year, nay,

the whole of eternity— all this beauty and
loveliness, which we have thus computed, will

compare with God’s real beauty as a particle

of dust with the whole world, as a ray of

light with the sun.

How the saints rejoiced in the mere thought

of God! Tears of joy and ecstasy filled

their eyes, and their heart beat faster with

the glow of love.

“ My God and my. all!” St. Francis of

Assisi, rapt in love and adoration, repeated

incessantly for whole nights.

“ My God and my all!” Yes, what can
there be beautiful and noble that God does

not possess? For God is the origin and

source of all goodness and beauty. If there

is any noble impulse in the human heart, it

is only there because God has placed it there.



6o THE DARK BEYOND

All earthly beauty and perfection is only a

faint and imperfect reflection of the infinite

beauty and perfection of God, only a lost

ray, as it were, of the immense divine sun of

beauty and love.

If a mortal man would see but the thou-

sandth part of that beauty for a moment, he

would die from excess of joy! St. Francis

of Sales in a vision saw the wound in the

hand of Christ and almost died of joy.— And
this great, beautiful, infinitely perfect God we

shall POSSESS for all eternity, shall find our

heaven in His enrapturing sight! What de-

light to see God in all His loveliness, to be

satiated with the fullness of His joys, to be

inebriated with the torrents of His love, to

rest on His loving heart for all eternity

!

“ Fear not

,

. . . / am thy reward exceeding

great” (Gen. 15:1).

Oh, how our heart yearns for God, how our

whole being thirsts after Him ! St. Augus-

tine rightly says : “ Thou hast created us, O

God, for Thyself, and our heart is restless

till it rests in Thee.” And the Psalmist

yearningly cries out : “ What have I in

heaven and besides Thee zvhat do I desire

upon earth ? For Thee my flesh and heart



THE DARK BEYOND 61

hath fainted away: Thou art the God of my

heart and the God that is my portion for-

ever

”

(Ps. 72:25, 26).

To be sure, creatures flit around us here

below, and our heart which is necessarily

drawn by love, only too often mistakes these

rays of beauty for the real source, the mirror

for the reality, like a madman who plunges

into a lake to reach the stars that are reflected

in it.
1

The sinner turns his back upon God.

Now he is in the throes of death. Yet a

few heavy sighs and his soul is in eternity.

Then will break in upon that soul the disas-

trous catastrophe, which no creature can di-

vine. The step into another world has been

taken. The earth with its pleasures and joys

has vanished
;
the deceiving and bewitching

form of earthly delights has disappeared like

smoke.— All alone the soul stands before the
boundless ocean of eternity. Suddenly an

immensely great knowledge of the infinite per-

fections of God flashes through the soul
;
like

scales falling from her eye, the soul now sees

clearly what formerly, blinded by creatures,

she did not see: There is only one who can

1 Cf. Hettinger, Apologie IV.



62 THE DARK BEYOND

make her happy
,
the ocean of happiness, the

sun of beauty, the great, the eternal, the in-

finite God. He who makes millions unspeak-

ably happy, Who inebriates His children in

heaven with infinite bliss, He is also her end

and aim for all eternity; with a power of

which we have no idea the soul strives after

God *— But—“ Away from me! ”— She wants
to throw herself unto the heart of the all-

lovable God, but without mercy the angered

arm of His justice casts her into the fearful

hell
;
she desires happiness, light, life, but is

cast into exterior darkness, which glows in

fire and still seems ice and coldness,— into
eternal death . “ Depart from me, you cursed,

into everlasting fire
”

(Matth. 25:41).

As iron is attracted by the magnet, so the

condemned soul is attracted by God, but an

invisible power repels her. Like one parched

with thirst, the soul eagerly longs for one drop

of the divine ocean of bliss, but her only

drink is fire. Like a stream that casts itself

from dizzy heights into the sea, the soul

wishes to cast herself into the ocean of the

infinite essence of God, but an indestructible

barrier breaks her power, unmoved by her

sighs and groans. As a child in a dark prison



THE DARK BEYOND 63

moans and cries for its mother and implor-

ingly stretches forth its hands toward her, but

is always repelled, so the condemned soul finds

herself thrown back without mercy by the jus-

tice of God whom she has despised in the time

of mercy.
1

This condition is more terrible

than death : an eternal, awful striving without

hope of success.

God
,
Who is the delight of the saints in

heaven
,

is also the torment of the damned in

hell. What torment ! “ This torture is as

great as God Himself,” says St. Bernard.
2

When Esau thoughtlessly sold his birth-

right, he “ roared out with a great cry ” (Gen.

27:34). Absalom, in punishment, was not

allowed to see the face of his father for sev-

eral years, and the punishment was so great

that he told the messenger to the king : “ I

beseech that I may see the face of the king,

and if he be mindful of my iniquity, let him

kill me” (2 Kings 14:32). King Philip II.

of Spain, in punishment, once banished a

courtier from his presence, and the man died

of grief.

The Jesuit Father Abel, the popular

1 Cf. Wilmer’s Lehrbuch der Religion, IL
2 Lib. 5 de Consid. cap. 12.



64 THE DARK BEYOND

preacher and author, relates the following in-

cident: A number of years ago I visited the
insane asylum at Hall, Tyrol, to learn the

cause of some forms of insanity. I came into

a ward where two ladies sat at a piano, whilst

at a large table were others variously occu-

pied. At the head of the table sat a girl of

rare beauty; she might have been about 19

or 20 years of age, crocheting some fine altar-

lace. Of course I never thought that she

could be insane. I approached her and

asked : “ Young lady, for what church are

you making this beautiful lace? ” No answer.
“ But lady, I see no pattern that you copy.”

Again no answer. I looked at the director

who accompanied me
;
he perceived that I had

mistaken her for one of the attendants, and

by a sign he set me right. This discovery

affected me so that I had to leave the room.
“ How is it possible that this girl is insane ? ”

I asked. “ You see, Father, this girl was en-

gaged to a man of Bozen. Shortly before

they were to be married she went to see her

betrothed. He stood on the stairway of the

first story and cried to her :
i

Away with

you! I will have no more to do with you!
’



THE DARK BEYOND 65

This one sentence robbed her of her rea-

son.”
1

“ Away with you ! I will have no more to

do with you ! ” If this one sentence of a

man can affect a person in such a fearful man-

ner, how terrible must be the thunder of the

eternal Judge in the ears of the damned:

“ Depart from me
,
you cursed

,
into everlasting

fire!” (Matth. 25:41).

“ Depart from ME ! ” Thus cries out the
Almighty, whose mere look casts the whole

horde of reprobates into destruction
;

thus

cries out the most beautiful, “ on whom the

angels desire to look” (1 Pet. 1:12); thus

cries out the all-good God, Who loves all His

other creatures, Who has a kind word even

for the poorest mortal, and a loving look for

the smallest worm.
c(

Depart from me, you cursed
!”

Woe if

God curses! (Cf. Zach. 5:4; Mark 11:21.)

More terrible than lightning does God’s curse

strike its victim, like the weight of a mountain

it crushes him for all eternity

!

“ He loved cursing
,
and it shall come unto

him: and he would not have blessing, and it

1 Zuriick zum praktischen Christentum, p. 29.



66 THE DARK BEYOND

shall be far from him . And he put on cur-

sing
,
like a garment: and it went in like water

into his entrails
,
ana like oil in his bones.

May it be unto him like a garment which

covereth him; and like a girdle with which

he is girded continually
”

(Ps. 108: 18, 19).

CHAPTER VIII

III. THE THIRD HELL

The Hell of Despair.

All around him the fire of hell— above him
the more fearful hell of the loss of God— the
condemned sinner sees a new hell growing out

of himself.

“ Their worm dieth not
”

(Mark 9:47).

It is the worm of the guilty conscience, which

day and night gnaws at and lacerates the heart

of the sinner.

Even the heathen philosophers of ancient

Greece portrayed in a stirring manner the tor-

tures of conscience in the Promethean myth.

Prometheus, in punishment for his criminal

revolt against the deity, is chained to a rock

of the Caucasus. Every morning an immor-



THE DARK BEYOND 67

tal vulture comes and tears open his side and

devours his liver which continually renews it-

self.

Often the criminal suffers terribly from the

pangs of conscience. Cain, the murderer of

his brother, restlessly roams over the earth

with the cry of despair: “My iniquity is

greater than that I may deserve pardon . . . .

I shall be a vagabond and fugitive on the

earth: every one
,
therefore

,
who hndeth me

shall kill me

”

(Gen. 4: 13, 14).

The wicked Herod fears that the victim of

his lust, the innocently killed St. John the

Baptist, has risen from the dead (Matth.

14:2).

Judas hangs himself in his despair (Matth.

27:3 . .
. )•

Oliver Cromwell laughed when he signed

the death warrant of King Charles I. of Eng-

land and joked even at the execution; later,

when he had reached the pinnacle of his

power, he did not dare to sleep in the same

room two successive nights.

In the ’6o’s the papers related that two

brothers had committed a terrible crime.

Years passed by and the crime remained un-

punished. But the furies of conscience pur-



68 THE DARK BEYOND

sued the two criminals in such a manner that

one of them, whilst at work, begged the other

to kill him with a hoe, which he did, and

then gave himself up to justice.

Still, however terribly conscience may tor-

ment the sinner here below, he will try to

flee from it: he casts himself into the tumult

of worldly pleasures to overpower it
;
he takes

to drink to drown it
;
he heaps sin upon sin to

bury it; he laughs at it to master it; he tries

to smother it with doubts of faith— till death
robs him of the last vestige of distraction, and

he carries the conscience, which now awakens

with all its terrors, along into eternity as an

everlasting and terrible accuser and tormentor.

Pope Innocent III. says that the worm of

conscience torments the condemned sinner in

a threefold manner: by the thought of the

past, the present and the future.

The sinner looks to the past.

“If I only had lived differently !
‘

“ Oh,

if I only had listened to the voice of con-

science!”
—

“If I had but avoided that per-

son !
”—

“ Had I but listened more attentively

to the word of God ! ”
—

“ If I had but once

made a good, upright and contrite confes-

sion!
”—

“ If I had prayed in temptation as I



THE DARK BEYOND 69

was instructed!”— Or, " Why did I not join
the Catholic Church which I knew to be the

true church, or could so easily have known ?
”

—
" If I only had !

” “ If I only had! !
”

"If

I only had ! ! ! ” But O miserable sinner, IT

IS NOW TOO LATE!!
Terrified he looks back: his whole black

past rises as a witness against him
;

all the

sins of his life, innumerable as the hairs of

his head, blacker than hell itself, all his mis-

deeds in thought, desire, word and action are

reviewed and appear before him like ghastly

phantoms and cry out to him: "We are

yours ! Monster, who hast brought us

forth!” Terrified he turns away. In vain!

Like millions of poisonous serpents the sins

of impurity surround him. His conscience,

which on earth was asleep, awakens at last;

formerly hard as a rock, since the lightning

of God’s justice has enlightened it, it has be-

come a thousand times more tender than that

of an innocent child that blushes at the mere

shadow of a sin. Now he sees his sins in

their true light, in all their hideousness, in

their full wickedness : SHAME OVER-
POWERS HIM. "O me miserable, if I
only had lived differently

;
it was so easy with



JO THE DARK BEYOND

God’s grace which was never wanting! Too

late ! ETERNALLY TOO LATE ! ! ” Like
a horde of wild beats his sins will cast them-

selves upon him, like the weight of mountains

they will crush his despairing soul.

Besides his many misdeeds he sees, like lost

stars, the innumerable graces, the abuse of

which only increases his guilt. How easy it

would have been to save himself, if he had

only wished to

!

“ Remember ! ” (Luke 16:25), the hellish

worm in his conscience says sarcastically:
“ Remember ! Did not the baptismal waters

once flow over your now fiery brow? How

beautiful you were then, you little angel

!

How dazzling was your soul in heavenly

glory; how your Guardian Angel rejoiced;

how heaven opened above you and the Holy

Ghost lovingly dwelt in your innocent, young

heart— you reprobate ! ”
“ Remember ! How your pure infant eyes

shone when your mother told you about the

kind heavenly Father, about the Infant Jesus

and Elis holy mother Mary, and the holy

angels, and of their great love towards us—
you reprobate !

”

“
Remember ! How nicely and devoutly



THE DARK BEYOND 71

you folded your little hands when for the

first time you pronounced the sweet names of

Jesus and Mary— you reprobate!”
“ Remember ! Did you ever think of such

a thing on the most beautiful day of your

life, the day of your first Holy Communion?

O how happy you were then, how your heart
glowed with devotion and how the sweet

Saviour loved you, beautiful child of God—
you reprobate !

”

“
Remember ! How the Blood of the

Saviour flowed over your soul to wash away

sin when you received absolution
;
how often

was your body sanctified with the Flesh of

the Son of God in Holy Communion— you
reprobate

!

”

“ Remember ! How often you were ad-

monished in all charity, how you were warned

most earnestly! How often your confessor

exhorted and begged you to mend your ways
;

how your Guardian Angel admonished you

through your conscience
;
how your good

mother, perhaps with many tears, conjured

you to change your life— you— lost in an
ocean of graces, beside thousands of altars

and priests ! Were there perhaps more graces

necessary— to be damned! Yon raving



72 THE DARK BEYOND

maniac, why did you cast yourself wantonly

into hell forever
?”

“
Oh, if I only had done differently ! If I

only had!! If I only had!!! Mercy! Only

once more ! ! ” Poor reprobate ! You would

not have it in life, and in hell there is no more

mercy !—
Oh, if the poor condemned sinner could come

back to earth again ! How differently he

would live ! How would he hide himself in

the most lonely wilderness as a hermit; how

gladly he would live on bread and water;

how he would perform the severest penances

till the end of time ! Unhappy wretch— too
late! Eternally too late!!

Howling, the ocean of despair swallows him

up, and like a thousand daggers reproach

pierces his heart— forever .
The wretched sinner tries to escape from

these reproaches, tries to close his eyes on the

past— he looks upon the present . What does
he see? All the terrors of hell are before

him! That is the reward for a brief enjoy-

ment of sin! Trembling he turns away his

eyes
;
he looks heavenward : there in enrap-

turing grandeur he sees the golden portals.

There is the land of the blessed, the heavenly,



THE DARK BEYOND 73

beautiful Jerusalem, the city of bliss, where

there is no sadness, no complaint, no tear,

no pain (Apoc. 21:4), the everlasting home,

where his poor heart yearns ta rest on the

loving heart of God in blissful peace— there
he could be if on earth he had only wished

to be there

!

Gnashing his teeth he looks up. Oh, there

in grand procession go thousands of the

blessed, clothed in white garments, palms in

their hands; in spirit he sees their crowns

of triumph, hears as from afar their charm-

ing melodies, sees them enjoy the bliss “ that

eye hath not seen
,
nor ear heard

,
neither hath

it entered into the heart of man
”

( 1 Cor. 2

:

9)— thousands, perhaps, who were more
strongly tempted than he; he sees the re-

pentant thief who is converted on the cross,

Mary Magdalen who with tears of love washes

away her sins; pale with envy, he sees his

own relatives and friends.

—

“Had I but lived

differently!” he exclaims a thousand times;

he may extend his fiery arms and beg for

mercy
;
he may weep streams of fiery tears—

TOO LATE ! Crackling flames surround
him, and his mad ravings are joined to the

howling of all the damned: “We fools es-



74 THE DARK BEYOND

teemed their life madness
,
and their end with-

out honor . Behold how they are numbered

among the children of God, and their lot is

among the saints . Therefore we have erred

from the way of truth, and the light of jus-

tice hath not shined unto us
,
and the sun of

understanding hath not risen upon us. We

wearied ourselves in the way of iniquity and

destruction
,
and have walked through hard

ways
,
but the way of the Lord we have not

known. What hath pride profited us? or

what advantage hath the boasting of riches

brought us? All these things are passed

away like a shadow
,
and like a post that run-

neth on
”

(Wis. 5 : 4-9).
—

“ Besides in life we

never had a really happy moment, for ' there

is no peace to the wicked
’

(Is. 48:22) ; we

sold heaven for the perishable so-called joys

of sin, and we have made ourselves unspeak-

ably miserable— forever! ”
“ The wicked shall see, and shall be angry,

he shall gnash with his teeth and pine away:

the desire of the wicked shall perish
”

(Ps.

111:10).

But is there a star of hope in the future?

— O misery ! One look into the future
crushes the reprobate.



THE DARK BEYOND 75

In the next chapter we will see what are

his prospects for the future.

CHAPTER IX

THE HELL OF HELLS

Eternity .

Let the terrors of hell be doubled, let its

tortures be increased a thousandfold, but take

away its eternity and hell will be hell no more.

God has said it. Whether we shudder at

the thought, whether our mind becomes con-

fused at the consideration— clear and irrevo-
cable is God’s word : “ Depart from me, you

cursed, into everlasting fire!” (Matth. 25:

41) ; “Their worm dieth not and the fire is

not extinguished
”

( Is. 66:24; Mark 9:45,

47) ;
“ And these ( the wicked) shall go into

everlasting punishment

”

(Matth. 25:46);

“ Who obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus

Christ shall suffer eternal punishment in de-

struction ” (2 Thess. 1:8, 9); “The chaff

He will burn with unquenchable fire” (Luke

3:17); “The smoke of their torments shall

ascend up forever and ever” (Apoc. 14:11)



76 THE DARK BEYOND

The gates of hell are closed forever. Above

the gates the Almighty has written in flaming

words

:

“ Lasciate ogni speranza voi ch’ entrate !
”

‘‘All hope abandon, ye who enter here/’

(Dante, Hell, III. 9.)

What men have believed at all times, what

heathens relate in their myths of the eternally

rolling stone of Sisyphus, of the thirst of

Tantalus, never to be quenched, of the ever

returning vulture of Prometheus, is true

:

“ They shall be tormented day and night for-

ever and ever ” (Apoc. 20:10).

“ Forever and ever!” How long is that?
“
Madame ! On the 24th day of this month

it will be 100,000 hours that I languish in

this dungeon. Another 200,000 hours still re-

main for me to suffer here.” Thus read the

short but eloquent petition of a prisoner to

a lady in waiting at the court of Louis Philippe

of France.

A 100,000 hours the poor prisoner had
counted. And still that is only about iH/s

years. But who counts the hours of eternity?

Let us rather say : Who counts the centuries,

the millenniums ?



THE DARK BEYOND 77

To a sick person a sleepless night seems

endless. He hears the tick of the clock, and

thus every second of these endless hours

seems to tarry in his ear; every one seems

an eternity to him. Will this long, long night

never come to an end ?— How long then will
one night appear on the fiery bed of hell?

Oh, if it were but one night

!

“Forever and ever, for eternity
!”

Does

that mean till there are no more mountains,

till the sun and the moon have disappeared

from the heavens? No, longer

!

Does it

mean million times million and that again

multiplied by million times million years?

No, longer!

How many figures do we need to write a

million? Only seven. You can write them

in less than two seconds. Now write till the

end of the day, write without ceasing till the

end of your life, write, if you can, till the end

of time; put all the printing presses of the

world to work printing numbers till judgment

day. Will hell continue as many years as that

number expresses? No, longer!

Take a handful of water and count the

drops. Count all the drops of all streams,

lakes and seas. Imagine an ocean as large



78 THE DARK BEYOND

as the whole universe, and imagine a little

bird would come every thousand years to

drink but a single drop from this immense

ocean. When will that bird have emptied

that ocean? And when the ocean is emptied,

hell will not have been shortened one second!

“Forever and ever
,

for all eternity
!”

That means without end . We can pronounce

the word, but we can not grasp its meaning,

for it surpasses all human understanding.

“ For all eternity ” means as long as God

lives

!

What terrible certainty for the reprobate!

What an ocean of torments is always before

him ! Gigantically, with the weight of a

mountain the awful monster of eternity

presses on him! With a clear eye he must

stare into eternity and in his dread he antici-

pates every moment of that endless woe. As

the whole weight of a ball rests on a point,

no matter how it may be turned, so the infinite

ball of eternity ever rests on the condemned

sinner with the whole of its crushing weight.

Ever torment— never deliverance ! Ever
despair— never consolation ! Ever— never !

!

That is the pendulum stroke of the infernal

clock whose hand does no more indicate



THE DARK BEYOND 79

hours, but Ever— Never. O terrible fate of
the damned : to live only in order to suffer

;

to live eternally in order to suffer eternally

!

EVER— NEVER!
Oh, if the reprobate could but die! Even if

he were compelled to suffer a hundred death

agonies, how gladly he would die! But no!

Holy Scripture expressly states this terrible

truth : “ In those days men shall seek death

,

and shall not find it: and they shall desire to

die
,
and death shall fly from them

”

(Apoc.

9:6). Did you hear it? Yes, had the

damned only a faint glimmer of hope, that

through double, ten or a hundredfold tortures

of hell they could find death, they would ea-

gerly rush into the most horrible torments,

where the flames would be fiercest and the

pool of suffering unbearable.— But in vain

!

They suffer the torments of death indeed, but

they are deprived of its consolations; they

cannot die, though their condition is a con-

tinual death, an everlasting dying. Ever —
Never !

!

With gnashing teeth they curse themselves,

curse their own folly and blindness in life,

curse the day of their birth, curse the mother

that bore them, curse the whole world, curse



8o THE DARK BEYOND

heaven, curse the devil, curse God Himself

!

But— EVER— NEVER !

!

That is hell !

!

A Picture of Hell .

“ I would rather be in hell with Goethe

than in heaven with the Jesuits/’ Thus spoke

a man on board a steamer as he glanced tri-

umphantly, conscious of his cleverness, at the

circle of acquaintances assembled in a salon.

“ Yes,” continued the scoffer,
“
in hell we

find society of high rank. There we find,

if the Jesuits are right, and they must cer-

tainly know, emperors, kings, army officers,

ministers of state, poets, bankers, all the

opera and theatre performers, the philoso-

phers of the ancient and modern heathen

schools, etc. You see, gentlemen, these are

personages of learning and wit, so that one

will not be lonesome as in
—

” He could not

finish.

“ A wreck in sight!” came the shout from
the man in the masthead. In a moment the

whole ship was in an uproar. Ten minutes

more and the wreck was seen by the passen-

gers.

A ship without sails, without rudder, with-



THE DARK BEYOND 8l

out crew, at the mercy of the waves affords

an inexpressibly sad sight. It is a floating

coffin. And what misery and heart-rending

woe may be associated with it! All were

visibly affected as we drew nearer and nearer

to the deserted ship. Now it was very near.

We shouted. No answer. Death seemed to
reign there. A boat was fitted out and several
of us, also the scoffer, went in and rowed to

the wreck. Soon we were on board; a few

rats ran away slowly. Everything was swept

away from the deck. We. went down into the

cabins: nowhere a living being. But with a

shudder we saw the traces of a terrible strug-

gle; a fearful scene had been enacted here.

We entered the great salon— everywhere
pieces of glass, drinking vessels, remnants of

food and traces of blood. Now we under-

stood the situation somewhat. The crew most

likely had mutinied, had plundered the ship,

thrown the captain into the sea or killed him

in some other way, and then with their booty

fled to land in the largest boat.

Whilst we thus looked around, suddenly one

of the company uttered a loud cry, pointing

to the farther end of the salon. There sat an

old man with gray beard and hair, apparently



82 THE DARK BEYOND

sound asleep, his face buried in his arms that

rested on the table. I hurried to awake him

and shook him. No sign of life. I raised

his head which was cold and stiff. I was

terrified
;
his bloodshot eyes met mine with a

dull stare.
.
His face, haggard and pale, was

terribly emaciated, and his tongue, black and

shriveled up, protruded from his mouth.

“ Starved to death ! ” cried the ship’s sur-

geon. “ That man must have suffered terri-

bly!”

“ Starved ? ” I asked and pointed to the

surroundings. Was not the floor strewn with

biscuits and the daintiest preserves set near

him? On a hanging table, a few feet from

him, was a glass of clear water and a bottle

of wine. How in the world was starvation

possible ?

“ It must be so,” repeated the surgeon.

“ The man slowly starved to death. Nothing

but the agony of thirst could parch his tongue

in such a manner
;

nothing but starvation

could distort so terribly his otherwise manly

and young face and turn his thick hair gray.”

“ But how can that be?
”

The mystery was soon solved. We noticed

under the sleeves of his jacket the shining



THE DARK BEYOND 83

steel bands of handcuffs. The short chain,

which held them firmly together, was fastened

to the massive table with a clinching iron,

which was driven through the table and bent

on the other side.

But more horrifying was the sight of the

poor man’s feet which were fastened to the

floor with iron clamps. The flesh of his feet

was eaten away by the rats. All around we

found new traces of the horrible crime. The

monsters had rubbed the feet of the captain

— for it was he— with pork and poured hot
lard over them to attract the rats which, while

he was yet alive, had gnawed away the flesh

from his shackled feet.

I shall never forget the look on the face so

terribly distorted by pain and starvation. The

fearful agony had left an awful expression

on those features. We could fancy hearing
the heart-rending cries for rescue, the moans

and groans of despair.
“ A face as if from hell ! ” one cried horri-

fied.

“ A faint picture of a reprobate,” I re-
marked with a glance at our scoffer. He was

silent and deadly pale.

The captain had gnawed at the table and



84 THE DARK BEYOND

had eaten all the oilcloth within his reach.

On the left arm we saw the marks of his

teeth, made when he had tried to quench his

burning thirst with his own blood. His

wrists were black and swollen. The poor man

must have struggled hard to reach food in

spite of his fetters.

“ How long did the unhappy man have to

suffer till death ensued? ” someone asked after

a long pause.

“ From eight to ten days, perhaps longer,

depending on circumstances,” replied the sur-

geon.

“ And in hell ? ”— one said.
“ Forever! ” all replied at once.

Not another word was spoken. Deeply

moved we all left the gradually sinking wreck.

From a distance we looked upon it, till it dis-

appeared, lost in the bottomless deep— for-
ever !

I have travelled since then over the wide,

wide world, and often temptations, grievous

temptations, have assailed me, but a thought

of the wreck sufficed to make me shudder at

the abyss into which I was in danger of fall-

ing. “In all thy works remember thy last

end, and thou shalt never sin
93

(Eccli. 7:40).



THE DARK BEYOND 85

What became of the scoffer, I do not know,

but since that hour he became very grave . 1

CHAPTER X

CAN WE GO TO HELL?

My dear reader! It is not my intention to

terrify you
;
I shall not say more than I know

for certain; and this is certain: There is a

hell, and at this very moment many are burn-

ing in it.

We know this beyond a doubt of the fallen
angels. Once heavenly spirits, exalted princes,

friends of God, they committed but one sin

of thought, and in the same moment they

were cast into hell by divine justice. Before

beautiful angels, they became hideous devils,

and have already burnt thousands of years.

How many people go to hell ?

I do not know
;
that is one of the unsearch-

able mysteries of God's justice. The loving

heart of the Saviour pardoned even the blood-

stained thief : hence, says St. Augustine, no

one need despair of God's mercy; the unre-

1 Taken from the Stiittg. Sonntagsblatt. 1888.



86 THE DARK BEYOND

penting thief is lost: as a warning against

presumption.

But suppose that of one million persons only

one were lost: would that not be terrible

enough? And if all others were saved what

would it avail you if you alone were lost?

But, O my God, if we consider on the one
hand the sayings of Christ and on the other

the boundless levity and carelessness of so

many worldlings, though no man can hope to

penetrate the hidden ways of God’s mercy,

we must fear that many are lost. “ The king-

dom of heaven suffereth violence, and the vio-

lent bear it away” (Matth. n : 12). “ Enter
ye at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate,

and broad is the way that leadeth to destruc-

tion, and many there are who go in thereat .

How narrow is the gate, and straight is the

zvay that leadeth to life: and few there are

that find it” (Matth. 7:13, 14).

What is required to go to hell? ONLY
ONE MORTAL SIN ! Neither murder nor
adultery nor positive defiance of God are nec-

essary, but one mortal sin of thought is suf-

ficient. The Apostle admonishes us: “Do

not err: neither fornicators, nor idolators, nor

adulterers, nor effeminate, nor liars with man-



THE DARK BEYOND 87

kind
,
nor thieves

,
nor covetous

,
nor drunkards

,

nor railers
,
nor extortioners, shall possess the

kingdom of God
”

(1 Cor. 6:9, 10).

What would we see if the curtain could be

withdrawn for a moment? Let us in thought

descend into hell and view the throng of the

damned! There we find one, perhaps, who

suffers for theft. Another writhes in the sea

of flames: he could tell us: “I have missed

Mass on Sunday/’ There is another, gnash-

ing his teeth,— how he suffers in the infernal
pool ! Let us ask him what he has done.

He could stretch out his glowing hands and

tell us : “ I have raised these hands against

my parents.” “ And you ? ” we ask another.
“ I have calumniated my neighbor/’

“
And

you ?
”

“I was a drunkard. Oh, for a drop

of water !
” “ And you, who seem to be so

grievously tormented in the flames of hell ?
”

“ I suffer on account of impurity.”

—

This is no imagination, but reality. For

these very reasons the damned burn in hell

this very moment. And we live so thought-

lessly, forgetting that under our feet such

terrible things may be taking place. While

you read this, hell burns on, its flames flare

up, the condemned howl with pain and despair.



88 THE DARK BEYOND

What fearful tortures they suffered since this

morning! Perhaps there are some there who

lived with you, laughed and sinned with you;

perhaps some who were better than you
;
per-

haps many who suffer for but one mortal sin

!

And you heap sin upon sin, crime upon crime,

shame upon shame— as though God had
created hell only for others and not for you

also! You think you will escape hell? That

is just what most of the damned thought.

If those only would go to hell who expect to

go there, then hell would not be very large.

The saints feared that they might be lost

— and you ? Thousands leave the world and
go into deserts and monasteries to lead a life

of penance, and still have to hear the admoni-

tion of the Holy Ghost : " With fear and

trembling work out your salvation” (Phil. 2:

12).

St. Peter Damian confesses that at the

thought of hell his hair stood on end. St.

Francis Borgia became very sad. Being

asked the reason, he replied : “ I thought of

hell” St. Bernard, who had saved innumer-

able souls, had worked astonishing miracles,

yet trembled almost on the threshold of



THE DARK BEYOND 89

heaven. St. Paul, who had converted half

the world, who was rapt into the third heaven,

chastises his body, lest having preached to

others, he should become a castaway (1

Cor. 9:27). St. Jerome flees into the desert:

wild beasts howl around him, the desert hears

his sighs and groans, its sands are moistened

with his tears, he strikes his bleeding chest

with a heavy stone. St. Jerome, why all this?

“ On account of the fear of hell/’ 1

These saints would rather have shed their

blood than offended God even by a venial sin,

and still in their humility they fear that they

might be lost— AND YOU? Does a mortal
sin stain your soul at this moment ? Have you

really transgressed the law of God in an im-

portant matter, with clear knowledge and full

consent? If that is the case, lay this book

aside for a while and imagine that the chair

on which you sit is aglow, the table before you

is in flames and the fires of hell pour in upon

you— could that not become reality, if you
continue in sin? But perhaps you have com-

mitted two mortal sins. Then you have de-

served hell twice : every one will suffer accord-

1 Ep. 18 aut. 24.



90 THE DARK BEYOND

mg to the measure of his guilt. “ As much

as she hath glorified herself
,
and lived in deli-

cacies, so much torment and sorrow give ye

to her
”

(Apoc. 18:7).

One mortal sin— one hell
;
two mortal sins

— two hells
;
ten mortal sins— ten hells

;
a

hundred mortal sins— a hundred hells.

—

And you intend to live on in this danger-

ous state? Do you not hear the thunders of

God’s justice rolling terribly over your guilty

head? You unhappy habitual sinner, with one

foot you already stand in hell. It is high time

to amend ! You may die this evening or this

night. If so, what then? Will you live on

in this state for another hour? Do you per-

haps feel strong enough to endure the pains

of hell

?

If that is the case, then you may be

without fear. The saints indeed, who were

used to severe penance, trembled at the thought

of hell— but you need not ! You may live
on in your folly— but, my friend, before you
do so, I ask you to make a little experiment

:

just hold your hand to a hot stove for an

hour, or at least for a minute, and if you

can not bear that, then listen to the warning

words of the Prophet Isaias (33:14):

“ Which of you can dwell with devouring



THE DARK BEYOND 91

fire? Which of you shall dwell with ever-

lasting burnings?
” 1

You unjust man! You have stolen from

and cheated others, through your fault others

have been injured. Can you endure hell? If

not, quickly restore the stolen goods, repair

the injury, for “ know you not that neither un-

just, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor extor-

tioners
,
shall possess the kingdom of God?"

(i Cor. 6:9, 10.)

“ Which of you can dwell with devouring

fire? Which of you shall dwell with everlast-

ing burnings?
”

Revengeful man! You will not forgive and

forget. Can you endure hell? If you can,

then hate on; feed your heart on thoughts of

revenge. But if you cannot lie in fire even

one night, then quickly be reconciled with

your enemy ! “ If you will not forgive men,

neither will your heavenly Father forgive you

your offenses

”

(Matth. 6: 15).
u
Which of you can dwell zvith devouring

fire? Which of you shall dwell with everlast-

ing burnings?
’’

Drunkard

!

Through your shameful vice

you lower yourself below the brute, cause un-

1 Cf. Mentges, 5. Sonnt. in der Fasten.



92 THE DARK BEYOND

told sorrow and distress to your family
;
your

wife and family suffer want and disgrace,

whilst you think only of satisfying your in-

satiable thirst— can you endure hell? If you
can, go on overfeeding your body, so that later

it may be the better fuel for the fire of hell;

continue to excite your craving for alcoholic

drinks that you may the more feel the infernal

thirst ! What will you choose : the little thirst

and self-denial of total abstinence, for that is

your only hope of safety, or the eternal thirst

of hell? “Drunkards shall not possess the

kingdom of God” (i Cor. 6: io). That you

may choose wisely, listen to the inspired

Prophet: “Which of you can dwell with

devouring fire ? Which of you shall dwell

with everlasting burnings?
”

Abstinence or Hell! !!

Sacrilegious Man! You have concealed

your sins in confession, and have laid violent

hands on the Body and Blood of Christ in

Holy Communion: you certainly must be able

to endure hell, for you desire hell, since you

have renounced all grace and mercy, “ eating

judgment to yourself” (Cf. I Cor. 11:29).

But poor wretch I Can you really endure hell ?

You fear the admonitions of the father con-



THE DARK BEYOND 93

fessor, and you are not afraid of the shame

and confusion on judgment day before heaven

and earth and hell? (Cf. Apoc. 6: 16). I

beg you for the sake of your poor soul, go

quickly and make a good, general confession

lest hell swallow you up, for God even now

by my words calls you to sincere penance.

Confess or burn!

“ Which of you can dwell with devouring

fire? Which of you shall dwell with everlast-

ing burnings?
”

Impure Man! You bear the fetters of this

shameful vice; perhaps for years you have

committed the most shameful sins which sad-

den your Guardian Angel, and at which the

very walls could blush with shame, you slave

of impurity— can you endure hell? If you
can, and if neither the love of God, nor the

loss of heaven, nor a remnant of a sense of

honor or shame, nor anything else, can induce

you to give up this debasing vice, then do not

care for the threats of the Almighty ! Keep

on to wallow in the mire of sin
;
sacrifice your

health, your honor, your peace of soul ! But

before you do so, just hold your finger into

the fire whilst you read the following texts:

“ The impure shall have their portion in the



94 THE DARK BEYOND

pool burning with fire and brimstone
”

(Apoc.

21 r 8), and “He that joineth himself to har-

lots
,

will be wicked
,

rottenness and worms

shall inherit him
”

(Eccli. 19:3);
“ Which of

you can dzvell with devouring fire ? Which

of you shall dwell with everlasting burnings?
”

Finally, O sinner, whatever sin may burden

your conscience, I beg you for the sake of your

immortal soul, be merciful to yourself ! For

God’s sake ! do not wantonly make yourself

unspeakably miserable for all eternity, when

with a little effort, you can make yourself un-

speakably happy for all eternity ! ! Kneel

down at once, raise your sinful hands to

heaven and cry to the good and merciful God

:

“ Grace and mercy, O God ! Have mercy on

me, O God, according to Thy great mercy ! ”

Then go to confession as soon as possible, lest

you die in your sins,— and curse your folly
for all eternity.

Listen to God, speaking to you in the words

of Holy Scripture: “ To-day if you hear my

voice
,
harden not your heart

!”
(Ps. 94:8).



THE DARK BEYOND 95

CHAPTER XI

CAN WE AVOID HELL?

In the twelfth century there lived in Paris

the famous and learned philosopher Abelard.

But alas, he led a very worldly life. He had

a frightful dream. It seemed to him that he

was poised, held by an invisible hand, between

heaven and earth. Suddenly, like an arrow, he

sinks downward. Below him a bottomless

abyss opens and with mad speed he goes down

into the earth. A sudden cry— already he is
in bottomless depths. He becomes dizzy— he
keeps right on. He would like to stop— im-
possible ! Cold sweat covers his forehead—
he goes down faster ! He feels a dismal heat

— his hair is singed— the heat grows more
intense : at last he stands before the fatal

entrance of the prison of hell. With a crash

the gate opens, and he sees an immense city

of fire ! The streets are fire
;
the pavement is

glowing stone
;
the gutters boiling sulphur

;
the

houses built of burning walls. In every house

a reprobate is tormented. Abelard is forced

to enter, driven by an invisible power. Madly



96 THE DARK BEYOND

he rushes over the burning ground, through

burning houses amid the general howling and

moaning. There he sees a house at which the

devils are still building; on top only one fiery

stone is wanting*
“
For whom is this house?

”

he cries. “ Ha,” the devils laugh, “ for the

famous philosopher, Abelard of Paris. Just

one more mortal sin and he will be here !
”

He was thunderstruck. He awoke
;

it had

been a dream. “ But,” he said to himself,

-“I 'will not commit that one mortal sin!”

That was his resolution.

You also still live. You are not yet in

hell ! What consoling certainty ! Can you

still avoid hell

?

St. Thomas Aquinas was once asked by his

sister, who no doubt admired the wonderful

purity of this angel in the flesh :
“
Brother,

what must I do to gain heaven ? ” The doctor

of the Church answered : “ To gain heaven

you need only to wish it !
”

Indeed you can escape hell, if you only wish

to Your salvation depends on two: on God

and yourself. “He {God) will have all men

to he saved ” (i Tim. 2
: 4) ; it is only for you

to will it also. Resolutely employ the right

means!



THE DARK BEYOND 97

I. First of all make a good confession.

During a mission, preached by the zealous

P. Brydaine (t 1767) at Aix in the Provence,

the following incident took place. The Father

was just about to begin his meal, when an old

army officer in great excitement rushed into

the dining-room and asked to speak to the

missionary Father.

“ Come quick, Father,” he said in a com-

manding tone, “ I have to tell you something

confidentially.” He violently grasped the

priest's hand and pulled him into the adjoin-

ing room
;
locked the door

;
threw down his

hat and drew his sword. The missionary be-

came alarmed, but already the officer threw

himself at his feet with many tears and said

:

“ P. Brydaine, I want to go to confession,

but immediately, otherwise I do not know

what will happen to me. I traveled 27 miles

to see you
;
my heart threatens to burst.

Since I heard your sermon on hell, I can

endure this no longer
;
my conscience has be-

come my hangman and leaves me no rest day

and night. Understand well
:
you will not

leave this room before you have taken this

load from my heart.”

Deeply moved, the missionary embraced the



98 THE DARK BEYOND

poor sinner, heard his confession and recon-

ciled him with his God. At his departure the

good officer begged the priest's pardon for

having caused him so much alarm and added

:

“ I feared death might take me away in my

sins and that hell might swallow me up. Be-

lieve me, Father, when a man has such an

enemy at his heels, he can not be at rest even

though he has a heart of steel.”

Six months later the officer appeared before

the judgment seat of God, for which he could

prepare himself by severe penance. It was

high time

!

1

Who knows whether you still have so much

time? If your conscience is not at rest, then,

for God's sake, do not put off your conver-

sion !

!

“To-day if you shall hear His (God's)

voice
,
harden not your hearts

”

(Ps. 94:8).

Perchance this is the Last Call of grace

for you ! A hundred years hence— what will
you then wish to have done

?

2. If you are in the state of grace, then

flee like death what alone can cast you

into hell— Mortal Sin! Hell's fiery glare
reveals with dazzling brightness the wicked-

1 Carron, Vie de Brydaine.



THE DARK BEYOND 99

ness and folly of a grievous offense against

God. When temptations assail you
;
when the

fires of sensuality burn in your members; or

when the wicked world with its thousand al-

lurements calls you
:

quickly cast a look into

the surging ocean of hell fire

!

A pious lay brother spent his whole life in

the monastery kitchen as cook. He stood at

the fireplace and wept without ceasing think-

ing of the fire of hell. He attained a high

degree of perfection.

St. Chrysostom had a picture of hell in his

room. A look at the picture banished the

allurements of temptation in a moment.

For 25 years the hermit Martinian had led

a life of severe penance
;
he was known for

his sanctity far and wide. Then the enemy of

salvation used a depraved woman to tempt

him to bring even this servant of God to fall.

The temptress pressed him hard with her al-

lurements
;
a fierce struggle raged in his heart

;

when about to yield he ran to a fire and

jumped in with his bare feet. What pain!—
O the fire of hell !— The temptation was over-
come.

3. Very frequently go to the Holy Sacra-

ments of Penance and Holy Eucharist, for



IOO THE DARK BEYOND

only then you can remain in the state of sanc-

tifying grace, which is a necessary condition

of salvation. Our Holy Father, Pope Pius

X., most earnestly admonishes us to resume

the salutary practice of daily Communion of

the first Christians. What was good for them

is good for us. Go at least frequently.

Listen to Christ Himself regarding the won-

derful effects of Holy Communion: “Amen,

amen I say unto you : Except you eat the

;flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood ,

you shall not have life in you. He that eateth

my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath ever-

lasting life: and I will raise him up in the last

day. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh

my blood, abideth in me, and I in him. As

the living Father hath sent me, and I live by

the Father; so he that eateth me, the same also

shall live by me. This is the bread that came

dozm from heaven. . . . He that eateth this

bread
,

shall live foreverA (John 6:54, 55,

57 , 58, 59 -)

4. Do penance in this life, at least by bear-

ing patiently the sufferings God sends you.

“ Fire or penance, tears or flames !
” 1 Which

is easier?

1
St. Leonard of Port Maurice, Die Schrecken der

Ewigkeit.



THE DARK BEYOND IOI

Father Nierenberg, a wonder of learning

and piety in his time, was confined to his bed

for ten years by a very painful illness. His

friends tried to console him. But he replied,

smiling: “ Non est ignis.— It is not the fire.”
His pain increased; hardly a member of his

body was free from suffering : “ Non est

ignis— It lot the fire.” His nerves were
contr-

;
all bent up he lay motionless

:

“xson est ignis— It is not the fire.” His
flesh began to decay, so that it had to be cut

off piece by piece, sometimes to the bone.

Quivering with pain, he still said: “ Non est

ignis— It is still no fire.”
O let us kiss the chastizing hand of divine

love; “He will strike
,
and He will cure us”

(Osee 6:2). Let us cry out with St. Augus-

tine : “ Lord, here cut, here bucn, but spare

me in eternity !
”

5. Hasten with full confidence to the arms

of divine mercy ! God does not wish to make

you unhappy, be convinced of that. “ The

Lord is sweet to all: and His tender mercies

are over all His works

”

(Ps. 144:9). Let

the bleeding, open Heart of the God-Man be

your refuge ! Seek shelter there when you

consider the terrors of judgment! Bl. Mar-



102 THE DARK BEYOND

garet Mary Alacoque, the favorite pupil of the

Sacred Heart of Jesus, said: “ How sweet it

is to die when one has honored the Heart of

Him who will one day judge us !
”

6. Daily pray for a happy death! O terri-
ble moment on which your whole eternity de-

pends ! Recommend your last hour especially

to St. Joseph, who died in the arms of Jesus

and Mary, for he is the patron of a happy

death. Daily say at least one Hail Mary in

his honor.

7. Above all, do not forget the Blessed

Virgin Mary! A child of Mary will never be
lost

;
for the child belongs to the mother.

Seek shelter in the folds of her protecting

mantle when the thunders of divine justice

terrify you! Grasp her mild hand and cry to

her with suppliant confidence : “ Holy Mary,

Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and

at the hour of our death ! Amen.”

“Let the thought of the eternal fire go to

sleep with you every evening and let it awake

with you every morning
”

(St. John Cli-

macus.)

THE END









: •