XXVI. Behind the Veil
1. A PRIEST, who was conducting the exercises of a retreat, related the following anecdote to his youthful hearers. "Some years ago," he said, "when I was prefect of studies in an ecclesiastical seminary, owing to press of work I sat up one evening until eleven o'clock. At this unusually late hour there came a knock at my door, and when I opened it there stood before me one of the older students, a good and clever young man. His eyes were full of tears. 'Alas! your Reverence,' he said, 'I can not go to sleep, I have commuted a grievous sin, I must go to confession.' And when he had done this, he was greatly relieved; he fell asleep in the peace of God, and he told me afterward that he had never slept better in his life."
You will readily guess what gave this young man courage for this self-conquest. It was the thought of eternity, of what lies behind the veil — the thought of eternal damnation. Let us pause and reflect upon hell, upon that which lies behind the veil.
2. What is hell? Or perhaps I ought rather to ask another question, and say: is there any hell? Only the fool, the unbeliever, can say in his heart: "There is no hell, no eternity." Look at those who so impudently deny the existence of hell; what sort of persons are they? Godless persons, sunk in sin and vice — persons who have every reason to dread hell, and therefore call in question or boldly deny its existence. But, however impudently they may assert the non-existence of hell, in their secret heart they often think very differently. Ever and anon they hear a thunderous, terrifying voice which
