‘The Sight of Hell’ by Rev. John Furniss, C.S.S.R.; 1882; Chapter XXVII; Pages 13-14; ‘The Boiling Kettle…’
Chapter XXVII. ~ The Fourth DungeonThe Boiling Kettle
Amos iv. The days shall come when they shall lift you up on pikes, and what remains of you in boiling pots. Look into this little prison. In the middle of it there is a boy, a young man. He is silent; despair is on him. He stands straight up. His eyes are burning like two burning coals. Two long flames come out of his ears. His breathing is difficult. Sometimes he opens his mouth and breath of blazing fire rolls out of it. But listen! There is a sound just like that of a kettle boiling. Is it really a kettle which is boiling? No; then what is it? Hear what it is.
The blood is boiling in the scalded veins of that boy. The brain is boiling and bubbling in his head. The marrow is boiling in his bones! Ask him, put the question to him, why is he thus tormented? His answer is, that when he was alive, his blood boiled to do very wicked things, and he did them, and it was for that he went to dancing-houses, public-houses, and theatres.
Ask him, does he think the punishment greater than he deserves? "No," he says, "my punishment is not greater than I deserve, it is just. I knew it not so well on earth, but I know now that it is just. There is a just and a terrible God. He is terrible to sinners in hell -- but He is just!"
Image: Gabriele Dell'Otto - Dante's Divine Comedy