HELL The decisive factor is his will. From the beginning of his life upon earth God is the supreme object of the love of man’s will when this is rightly directed. Yet during life upon earth there is in most men a good deal of fluctuation, and in all men at least the possibility of fluctuating. At one moment the will is set towards God. Then comes mortal sin and the will is set towards self and away from God. With repentance and true sorrow, the will is turned again to God. And so it goes on. But with death the fluctuations of the will are over : it has chosen finally, and will not change. This power of the will to make a final choice which it will not change — a power which makes possible not only the eternity of hell but also the eternity of heaven — anyone might at least suspect from reflection upon the experiences of this life. Character tends to set into a mould, the way of life to become settled as the years go by. We might, as 1 say, suspect that at death the will has made final choice of its direction. From God’s teaching we know that it has done so. It is either fixed towards God or fixed away from God : that is to say man either loves God with a love that will abide forever or hates God with a hatred equally abiding. In the one case he will spend eternity with God. In the other case he will spend eternity apart from God. It is easy to see how all this applies to the Catholic. By baptism he is incorporated with Christ — that is to say, he becomes a living cell in Christ’s Mystical 133