Page 156 - a-portrait-of-the-artist-as-a-young-man

without was already failing and, as it fell slowly through the
dull red blinds, it seemed that the sun of the last day was
going down and that all souls were being gathered for the
judgement.
—I AM CAST AWAY FROM THE SIGHT OF THINE
EYES: words taken, my dear little brothers in Christ, from
the Book of Psalms, thirtieth chapter, twenty-third verse.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Ghost. Amen.
The preacher began to speak in a quiet friendly tone. His
face was kind and he joined gently the fingers of each hand,
forming a frail cage by the union of their tips.
—This morning we endeavoured, in our reflection upon
hell, to make what our holy founder calls in his book of spir-
itual exercises, the composition of place. We endeavoured,
that is, to imagine with the senses of the mind, in our imag-
ination, the material character of that awful place and of
the physical torments which all who are in hell endure. This
evening we shall consider for a few moments the nature of
the spiritual torments of hell.
—Sin, remember, is a twofold enormity. It is a base con-
sent to the promptings of our corrupt nature to the lower
instincts, to that which is gross and beast-like; and it is also
a turning away from the counsel of our higher nature, from
all that is pure and holy, from the Holy God Himself. For
this reason mortal sin is punished in hell by two different
forms of punishment, physical and spiritual.
Now of all these spiritual pains by far the greatest is the
pain of loss, so great, in fact, that in itself it is a torment

156 A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man