The testimony describes the angelic guide returning the narrator from heaven to earth, but first taking him to visit hell to witness the consequences of sin and divine justice. The narrator observes the terrifying darkness, demonic spirits, and the throne of Lucifer, who angrily laments his defeat and plots vengeance on mankind. He then sees tormented souls accusing each other for their sins that led them to eternal punishment. The testimony highlights that companions in sin on earth suffer together in hell, explaining why the rich man in Luke 16 did not want his brethren to join him there.
CONDUCTED TO HELL
Then the bright messenger who had brought me to heaven returned. "I have," said the angel, "a commission to return you to the earth from where I took you, after first visiting the regions of the prince of darkness. There you will see the reward of sin, and what Justice has prepared as the judgment of those who would exalt themselves above the throne of the Most High God."
To leave heaven for earth, was extremely disappointing. But to leave heaven for hell, turned my very heart within me! However, when I knew that it was God's good pleasure, I was a little comforted. So I said to my bright conductor, "That which God has ordered I shall always be willing to obey. Even in hell I will not be afraid—if I may have His presence with me there."
To this my shining guardian replied, "Wherever the blessed God grants His presence—there is heaven, and while we are in hell He will be with us."
Then bowing low before the Almighty’s throne, swifter than thought, my guardian angel carried me on a speedy journey down through the heavens. When I saw the stars I told my conductor that I had heard on earth that each one of these stars had their own worlds. "But I would ask you to tell me the truth of this matter."
To this my shining guardian answered, "To Him Who is Almighty, there is nothing impossible. But from knowing that it is in His power to do this, to argue that it is His will—is no good logic in the school of heaven. We know what He pleases to reveal to us; and what He has not revealed, are secrets locked up in His own eternal counsel. For anyone to inquire into these secrets would be but bold and presumptuous curiosity. There is no doubt that He can make as many worlds as He wants—but He has not yet revealed it to us, and it is not our duty to inquire."
By this time we had come down to the lowest regions of the air. There I saw multitudes of horrible forms and dismal dark appearances which fled from the shining presence of my bright conductor.
I said, "These surely are some of the vanguard of hell—so black and so frightening are their forms!"
My conductor replied, "Now we are upon the borders of hell, and these are some of the apostate spirits that wander around like roaring lions."
Soon we were surrounded with a darkness much more black than night, and with a stench far more suffocating than that of burning sulfur. My ears were likewise filled with the horrible yelling of the damned spirits, which in comparison with—would make the most discordant notes on earth, sound like beautiful music.
"Now," said my guardian angel, "you are on the edge of hell—but do not fear the power of the destroyer. My commission from the Imperial Throne secures you from all danger. Here you may hear from devils and damned souls—the cursed causes of their endless ruin. What you ask them about, they will answer. The devils cannot hurt you, though they would want to, for they are bound by Him who has commissioned me."
THE THRONE OF LUCIFER
We then came within hell’s territories, placed in the caverns of the infernal deep in the center of the earth. There, in a sulfurous lake of liquid fire, sat Lucifer upon a burning throne. His horrid eyes sparkled with hellish fury, as full of rage as his strong anger could make him. I saw that the demons that had fled from us as we approached from heaven had given notice of our coming. This had put all hell in an uproar, and made Lucifer release horrid blasphemies against the blessed God with an air of arrogance and pride.
"What would the Thunderer have?" said he. "He has my heaven already, whose radiant scepter this bold hand should bear. Instead of those never fading fields of light, He confines me here in this dark house of death, sorrow, and woe! What, would He take hell away from me too, that He insults me here? Ah! Could I but obtain another day to try it, I would make heaven shake and His bright throne to totter. Nor would I fear the utmost of His power, though He had fiercer flames than these to throw me in!
Although I lost the battle that day, the fault was not mine! No winged spirit in heaven strove better for the victory than I did. But, ah!" he continued with a changed voice, "that day is lost, and I am forever doomed to these dark territories! But it is still at least some comfort to me—that mankind’s sorrow waits upon me. And since I cannot fight against the Thunderer, I will make the utmost of my anger to fall on them."
I was amazed to hear his ungodly speech, and felt compelled to say to my conductor, "How justly are his blasphemies rewarded!"
"What you have heard from this apostate spirit, is both his sin and punishment; for every blasphemy he belches against heaven, makes hell the hotter to him!"
THE DAMNED ACCUSE EACH OTHER
We then passed on to see more sorrowful scenes. I saw two wretched souls being tormented by a demon. He was continually plunging them in liquid fire and burning brimstone, while at the same time they accused and cursed each other! One of them said to his tormented fellow sufferer, "O cursed be your face, that ever I set eyes upon you! My misery is due to you! I may thank you for this, for it was your persuasions that brought me here. You enticed me, it was you who ensnared me into this. It was your covetousness, cheating, and oppression of the poor—that brought me here. If you had been as good an example as you had been a bad one, I might now be in heaven. O what a fool I was! When I followed your steps—you ruined me forever. O that I never had seen your face—or that you had never been born!"
The other wretch replied, "And may I not as well blame you? Don't you remember how at such a time and place you enticed me to go along with you? I was minding my own business when you called me away—so you are as guilty as I. Though I was covetous—but you were proud. Though you learned how to cheat from me—yet you taught me to lust, to lie, to get drunk and to scoff at godliness. So although I tempted you in some things, you tempted me as much in others. Therefore if you blame me, I can blame you as much. I wish you never had come here—the very sight of you wounds my soul, by bringing sin afresh into my mind. It was with you, with you—that I sinned! O grief to my soul! Since I could not avoid your companionship on earth—O that I could be without it here!"
From this sad conversation, I learned that those who are companions in sin upon earth, shall also be punished together in hell. I believe that this was the true reason why the rich man seemed so charitable to his brethren (Luke16:27-28). The reason he did not want them to join him in hell—was because they would have increased his torments!
This next testimony describes horrifying scenes of torment in hell, focusing on two damned souls. One woman, condemned for her greed, is eternally tormented with flaming sulfur by demons, still craving gold even in her suffering. Another soul lies on a bed of burning steel, crying out in anguish over the word “forever” as he reflects on his foolish choice to reject salvation despite countless opportunities. Both testimonies highlight the eternal consequences of sin and the terrifying reality of a soul abandoned to its sinful desires. The narrator is overwhelmed with gratitude for God's grace, realizing that only divine mercy spared them from the same fate.
THE TORTURES & TORMENTS
There were yet more tragic scenes of sorrow that we saw as we left these two cursed wretches accusing each other. One woman had flaming sulfur continually forced down her throat by a tormenting demon! He did this with such horrible cruelty and insolence, that I said to him, "Why should you so delight in tormenting that cursed wretch, and be pouring that flaming, infernal liquid down her throat?"
"This is a more than just reward," replied the demon. "This woman in her lifetime was such a greedy wretch—that though she had plenty of gold, she could never be satisfied. Therefore I now pour it down her throat! She cared not who she ruined—as long as she could get their gold. And when she had gathered together a greater treasure than she could ever spend—her love of money would not let her spend enough of it to supply herself with her basic living needs. She often went with an empty stomach, though her money bags were full. She kept no house because she would not be taxed, and would not keep her treasure in her hands for fear she should be robbed. She would not put her money in bonds, for fear of being cheated; although she always cheated everyone that she could. She was so great a cheat that she cheated her own body of its food, and her own soul of mercy. Since gold was her god on earth—is it not a just reward that she should have her belly full of it in hell?"
THE LIE OF GOLD IN HELL
When her tormentor had done speaking, I asked her whether this was all true. To this she answered me, "No; to my grief it is not."
"Why is this not true," I said, "and why are you grieved that it is not true?"
"Because if what my tormentor told you is true," she said, "I would be satisfied. He tells you that he pours gold down my throat; but he is a lying devil and speaks falsely. If it was gold I would never complain. But he mocks me, and instead of gold he only gives me this horrid, stinking sulfur! If I had my gold I would be happy still, for I value it so much that if I had it—I would not part with it even if an entrance to heaven could be bought."
THE LOVE OF SIN IS THE GREATEST PUNISHMENT
I told my angelic conductor that I was amazed to hear a wretch in hell itself so greedy for riches, while forever being tormented.
"This," he said, "may convince you that it is sin which is the greatest of all evils. Whenever the love of sin controls a soul, it is the greatest of all punishments for them to be abandoned to that evil love. The love of gold which this cursed soul is consumed by—is a more fatal punishment than what the demons can inflict upon her!"
"O!" said I, "if only wicked men on earth could for one moment hear the horrid shrieks of those damned souls, they could not be in love with sin again."
"Eternal Truth has told us otherwise, for those who will not fear His ministers, nor have regard to what His Word contains—will not be warned, though one should come from hell."
THE ETERNAL CRY: “FOREVER!”
We had not gone much farther before we saw a wretched soul lying on a bed of burning steel, almost choked with brimstone. He cried out with such dreadful anguish and desperation, that I asked my conductor to wait. I heard him speak as follows:
"Ah, miserable wretch! Undone forever, forever! Oh, this killing word, 'forever!' Will not a million years be long enough to bear that pain, which if I could avoid it, I would not endure for even one moment for the sake of being offered one million worlds? No, no! My misery never will have an end; after millions of years it will still be forever! Oh, what a helpless and hopeless condition I am in! It is this 'forever' that is the hell of hell! O cursed wretch! Cursed to all eternity! How willfully have I undone myself! Oh, what stupendous folly am I guilty of—to choose sin’s short and momentary pleasure—at the dear price of everlasting pain! How often I was told that it would be so! How often I was encouraged to leave those paths of sin—which brought me to the chambers of eternal death! But I, like a dumb animal, would not listen to those pleadings. Now it is too late to change it, for my eternal state is fixed forever! Why was I made a person, that I would choose this fate? Why was I made with an immortal soul—and yet should take so little care of it? Oh how my own neglect stings me to death—and yet I cannot die! I live a dying life, worse than ten thousand deaths; and yet I once could have changed all this—but did not! Oh, that is the gnawing worm that never dies! I might once have been happy, salvation was offered to me and I refused it. Had salvation been offered to me only once, it would have been an unforgivable folly to refuse it! But salvation was offered me a thousand times, and yet (wretch that I was!) I still as often refused it. O cursed sin, that with deluding pleasures, leads mankind to eternal ruin! God often called—but I as often refused; He stretched His hand out—but I would not mind it. How often have I ignored His counsel! How often have I refused His reproof! But now the scene is changed—the case is altered! Now He laughs at my calamity, and mocks at the destruction which is come upon me. He would have helped me once—but I would not accept His help. Therefore those eternal miseries I am condemned to undergo—are but the just reward of my own doing!"
THE GRACE THAT MAKES THE DIFFERENCE
I could not hear this sorrowful lamentation without thinking about the wonderful grace that God had shown to me. Eternal praises to His holy name! For my heart told me that I had deserved eternal judgment as much as that sad wretch—but that God's grace alone had made us different. O how unsearchable are His counsels! Who can fathom His divine decree?
A WARNING TO THE LIVING
After these thoughts I spoke to the sorrowful complainer, and told him that I had heard his woeful complaints. I saw that his misery was great, and his loss irreparable, and told him I would willingly hear more about it—if this might possibly help lessen his sufferings.
"No, not at all; my pains cannot be relieved even for one small moment! But by your question I understand that you are a stranger here; and may you ever be a stranger! Ah, had I but the least hope still remaining, how I would kneel and cry and pray forever to be redeemed from this hell! But it is all in vain—I am lost forever! But so that you will be warned about ending up here—I will tell you what the damned suffer."
