an hour to hear a sermon, you must sit down to rest; to fast and abstain for forty days seems almost an impossibility to you; an ill-fitting shoe, an ill-made feather-bed, a dish not prepared exactly to your taste, a soup too hot or too cold, is enough to excite your anger; how will you be able to hold out on a bed of fire in hell; and that forever? “Which of you can dwell with devouring fire?” Can you, O unchaste man! who spend day and night in seeking sensual gratification, and pass your time in a round of dissipation? Will you be able to stand that hellish oven, in which your body, penetrated through and through by fire, shall become fire itself? And that forever? “Which of you can dwell with devouring fire?” Can you, O vain and delicate maiden! who cannot now bear the prick of a needle without screaming; who could not bear a spark of fire, or even a drop from a burning candle on those shoulders that you expose as a source of temptation and scandal to souls? How will you be able to lie on, and hide yourself, and wallow in those burning coals of hell fire, not for a day, or a month, or a year, or a hundred thousand years, but for all eternity? Which of you, my dear brethren, can dwell with devouring fire?
Therefore we will do penance and amend our lives. Mercy, O God, mercy! No; there is not one of us who can do that; not one of us who can make up his mind to it! We will do penance, and that at once for our past sins. Ah, we want no hell! no fire! no eternal fire! We are ready for any other punishment, O angry God! only save us from eternal fire! From this moment we renounce sin and begin to lead new lives, so that we may escape this fire, and come to Thee in eternal joys. Such should be the thoughts, the resolutions, the actions of all, if there are any such here present, who are in the state of sin. If in future any occasion, temptation, passion, or inclination, no matter what it may be, should try to lead us into sin, let us at once ask ourselves in thought, can I then burn forever in devouring fire? But if I now choose to commit this sin, I prepare that fire for myself. No, no; I will not be so cruel to myself. Or if we find that thought fruitless, we might imitate the pious hermit who, when he was tempted to carnal sins, ran at once to the fire, put his hand into the flame, and said to himself: see how yon can stand fire and flame; and if you cannot bear it for a short time, how will you bear to have your whole body burning forever in hell? Are you still inclined to sin?
A lesson for
Think of the same fire, too, O you troubled and oppressed souls!