Hell is primarily separation from God in the other world, as heaven is the possession of God. Hell is the necessary consequence of sin, as darkness is the necessary consequence of excluding the light; or rather hell is sin under another aspect, viz., as transferred from time to eternity. It may be said that sin is its own punishment, or at least that it works its own punishment. The variety of pains in hell are only the different ways in which the loss of God and the action of sin are apprehended by the body and soul. All that is of the essence of hell is the immediate product of sin. Hell then is no arbitrary punishment devised by God and inflicted by His action; it flows from the sinner's own act, for God can do nothing but what is beneficent. Evil and death cannot proceed from Him who is essential goodness and life. "Destruction is thine own, O Israel; thy help is only in Me" (Osee xiii. 9). Hell is the continuation of the sinner's life as commenced on earth; it is a transformation and also a conservation of the same energy of sin which worked in him here. If you love and seek sin, you are loving hell under a thin disguise. If you cut yourself off from faith and virtue, you are cutting your self off from God and from heaven, which are now presented to you under those forms.
