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What Will Hell Be Like?

BY ST. ALPHONSUS LIGUORI

Edited by J. Schaefer

Though many of the pagans were true atheists, considering Hell a fable invented to frighten the
wicked, the more renowned of the ancient philosophers such as Socrates, Xenophon, Aristotle,
Plato and others had no difficulty in admitting the existence of a future life a Heaven where the
good would be rewarded, and a Hell where the evil are to be punished. Only the most perverted of
men will deny that there is a God, the Creator and Governor of all things. Such men would prefer
to deny the existence of God than to face the just chastisement of their own misdeeds.

We Expect Reward or Punishment

On the one hand, men know perfectly well that God is a just rewarder of good, and at the same
time they behold in the world countless wicked men who live in the midst of prosperity, while many
of the virtuous live out their lives in the midst of affliction and misfortune. Hence, most people
are convinced that after this mortal life, there exists another world in which vice is to be
chastised and virtue rewarded as it deserves.