A Little Book of Eternal Wisdom [23]
joy and sorrow, laughing and weeping, mirth and sadness, are
mingled together; where no heart ever obtained perfect happiness; for it is
false and deceitful, more than I will tell thee. It promises much and
performs little; it is short, uncertain, and changeable; today much joy,
tomorrow a heart full of woe. Behold, such is the disport of this scene of
time!
CHAPTER XI. On The Everlasting Pains of Hell
Eternal Wisdom.--O my chosen one! now look from the very bottom of thy
heart at this lamentable misery. Where are now all those who heretofore sat
down amidst this temporal scene with tranquility and pleasure, with
tenderness and comfort of body? What avails them all the joys of this world
which are as soon vanished on the wings of swift time as though they had
never been? How quickly over is that carnal love for which pain must be
eternally endured! O ye senseless fools! Where is now what ye so gaily
uttered: "Hail, ye children of merriment, let us give holiday to sorrow, let
us cherish the fullness of joy!" What avail now all the pleasures ye ever
obtained? Well may ye cry aloud with sorrowful voice; Woe upon us that ever
we were born into the world! How has swift time deceived us! How has death
stolen upon us! Is there any one still upon the earth who could be more
deceived than we have been deceived? Or is there any one willing to take
counsel from the calamity of others? If any one were to bear all the
sufferings of all mankind for a thousand years it would only be as a moment
against this! How very happy is that man who has never sought after
pleasures displeasing to God, who for His sake has renounced all temporal
delights! We foolish ones, we deemed such men forsaken and forgotten of God:
but see how He has embraced them in eternity with such marks of honour
before all the heavenly host. What harm can all their sufferings and
disgraces now do them, which have turned out so much to their joy?
Meanwhile, all that we so entirely loved, how is it vanished? Ah, misery on
misery! and it must last for ever. Oh, for ever and ever, what are thou? Oh,
end without end! Oh, dying above all dying, to be dying every hour, and yet
never to die. Oh, father and mother, and all that we ever held dear, God
bless you for ever and ever, for we shall never see you and love you again:
we must ever be separated from you. Oh, separation, oh, everlasting
separation, how grievous thou art! Oh, wringing, oh, shrieking and howling
for ever, and yet never to be heard! Nothing but sorrow and distress must
our wretched eyes behold, our ears be filled with nothing--but alas! nothing
save only Woe is me! Oh, all hearts, let our lamentable For ever and ever!
move your compassion, let our miserable For ever! pierce to your core. Oh,
ye mountains and valleys, why do ye wait for us, why do ye keep us so long,
why do ye bear with us, why do ye not bury us from the lamentable sight? Oh,
sufferings of that world and sufferings of this world, how very different ye
are! Oh, time present, how blinding, how deceiving thou art, that we should
not have foreseen this in the bright days of our youth, which we wasted so
luxuriously, which will never more return! Oh, that we had but one little
hour of all those vanished years! Yet this is denied by God's justice, and
without any hope for us, ever must be denied. Oh, suffering, and distress,
and misery, in this forgotten land, where we must be separated from all that
is dear, without solace or hope, for ever and ever! Nothing else would we
desire than that if there was a millstone as broad as the whole earth, and
in circumference so large that it everywhere touched the heavens, and that
if there came a little bird every hundred thousand years, and took from the
stone as much as the tenth part of a grain of millet, so as in ten hundred
thousand years to peck away from the stone as much as an entire grain of
millet; we unfortunates would desire nothing more than that, when the stone
came to an end, our torments too might terminate; and yet
mingled together; where no heart ever obtained perfect happiness; for it is
false and deceitful, more than I will tell thee. It promises much and
performs little; it is short, uncertain, and changeable; today much joy,
tomorrow a heart full of woe. Behold, such is the disport of this scene of
time!
CHAPTER XI. On The Everlasting Pains of Hell
Eternal Wisdom.--O my chosen one! now look from the very bottom of thy
heart at this lamentable misery. Where are now all those who heretofore sat
down amidst this temporal scene with tranquility and pleasure, with
tenderness and comfort of body? What avails them all the joys of this world
which are as soon vanished on the wings of swift time as though they had
never been? How quickly over is that carnal love for which pain must be
eternally endured! O ye senseless fools! Where is now what ye so gaily
uttered: "Hail, ye children of merriment, let us give holiday to sorrow, let
us cherish the fullness of joy!" What avail now all the pleasures ye ever
obtained? Well may ye cry aloud with sorrowful voice; Woe upon us that ever
we were born into the world! How has swift time deceived us! How has death
stolen upon us! Is there any one still upon the earth who could be more
deceived than we have been deceived? Or is there any one willing to take
counsel from the calamity of others? If any one were to bear all the
sufferings of all mankind for a thousand years it would only be as a moment
against this! How very happy is that man who has never sought after
pleasures displeasing to God, who for His sake has renounced all temporal
delights! We foolish ones, we deemed such men forsaken and forgotten of God:
but see how He has embraced them in eternity with such marks of honour
before all the heavenly host. What harm can all their sufferings and
disgraces now do them, which have turned out so much to their joy?
Meanwhile, all that we so entirely loved, how is it vanished? Ah, misery on
misery! and it must last for ever. Oh, for ever and ever, what are thou? Oh,
end without end! Oh, dying above all dying, to be dying every hour, and yet
never to die. Oh, father and mother, and all that we ever held dear, God
bless you for ever and ever, for we shall never see you and love you again:
we must ever be separated from you. Oh, separation, oh, everlasting
separation, how grievous thou art! Oh, wringing, oh, shrieking and howling
for ever, and yet never to be heard! Nothing but sorrow and distress must
our wretched eyes behold, our ears be filled with nothing--but alas! nothing
save only Woe is me! Oh, all hearts, let our lamentable For ever and ever!
move your compassion, let our miserable For ever! pierce to your core. Oh,
ye mountains and valleys, why do ye wait for us, why do ye keep us so long,
why do ye bear with us, why do ye not bury us from the lamentable sight? Oh,
sufferings of that world and sufferings of this world, how very different ye
are! Oh, time present, how blinding, how deceiving thou art, that we should
not have foreseen this in the bright days of our youth, which we wasted so
luxuriously, which will never more return! Oh, that we had but one little
hour of all those vanished years! Yet this is denied by God's justice, and
without any hope for us, ever must be denied. Oh, suffering, and distress,
and misery, in this forgotten land, where we must be separated from all that
is dear, without solace or hope, for ever and ever! Nothing else would we
desire than that if there was a millstone as broad as the whole earth, and
in circumference so large that it everywhere touched the heavens, and that
if there came a little bird every hundred thousand years, and took from the
stone as much as the tenth part of a grain of millet, so as in ten hundred
thousand years to peck away from the stone as much as an entire grain of
millet; we unfortunates would desire nothing more than that, when the stone
came to an end, our torments too might terminate; and yet