START your new year right by meditating upon the possibility that this will be your last year — and that it won’t end well. Unpleasant thought, for sure, but it could be just the thing you need.

It is fearful to think upon the union of God’s power, wisdom, and justice in producing this world of punishment, this wonderful, mysterious, and terrific part of creation, which is in its desolate mysteries as much beyond our conception as the joys of heaven are in their resplendency. Nevertheless we will leave the Great Evil, the loss of God, out of view, and all the horrible details of the cruelties of physical torture. Bating all these things, what sort of a life will the life in hell be, after the resurrection?

It will be a life where every act is the most hateful and abominable wickedness.

Read Frederick William Faber’s essay “Heaven and Hell” in his book Spiritual Conferences.

Please follow and like us: