The worst aggravation of the sufferings of Hell is that they will never end. If only they would cease or be alleviated after a thousand or a million years, the ray of hope would shine on the inmates of that prison-house. It is the knowledge that at the end of countless millions of years they will still be suffering as now, that makes the agony of the lost so intolerable.

Add to this the frightful monotony of their torments. How wearily the time drags on through a night sleepless on account of acute pain! But what will be the monotony of anguish that will make those endless ages drag along in unchanging misery? Nothing to vary the blackness of darkness around them; nothing to vary the worm of remorse ever gnawing at their heart; nothing to vary the excruciating agony of the fire that will never be quenched.

All this is the necessary result of their being fixed in an unchanging enmity to God. If only they could receive in their souls one spark of the love of God, Hell would at once cease to be Hell. One thought of love would turn their agony of despair into joyful hope. But no such thought will ever come to them. They have deliberately chosen separation from God, and must endure that choice and all its consequences for ever.

Make acts of love of God, and ask Him that you may never be separated from Him by sin.