The Spirit of the Man Murdered

As he was being taken away, one from among the good spirits, who had come to help him, said to him, "I have forgiven you with all my heart. Now can I do anything to help you?" The murderer at once recognised him as the same man whom he had killed some years before. Ashamed and smitten with fear he fell down before him, and at once the evil spirits began to clamour loudly, but the angels who were standing at a distance rebuked and silenced them. Then the murderer said to the man whom he had killed, "How I wish that, in the world, I could have seen your unselfish and loving life as I see it now! I regret that through my blindness, and because your body screened your real spiritual life, I could not then see the inner beauty of your life. Also, by killing you I deprived many of the blessings and benefit that you would have given them. Now I am forever a sinner in God's sight, and fully deserve my punishment. I don't know what I can do except hide myself in some dark cave, because I cannot bear this light. In it, not only does my own heart make me miserable, but all can see every detail of my sinful life." To this the man who had been murdered replied, "You should truly repent, and turn to God, for if you do there is hope that the Lamb of God will wash you in His own blood, and give you new life that you may live with us in heaven, and be saved frown the torment of Gehenna."

The murderer said in reply, "There is no need for me to confess my sins for they are open to all. In the world, I could hide them, but not here. I want to live with Saints like you in heaven, but when I cannot bear the dimness of the self-revealing light in the world of spirits, then what will be my state in the searching brightness and glory of that light-filled place? My greatest hindrance is that, through my sins, my conscience is so dull and hardened that my nature will not incline towards God and repentance. I seem to have no power to repent left in me. Now there is nothing for it, but that I shall be driven out from here forever. Alas for my unhappy state!" As he said this, fear-stricken, he fell down, and his fellow evil spirits dragged him away into the darkness. Then one of the angels said, "See! There is no need for anyone to pronounce a sentence of doom. Of itself, the life of any sinner proves him guilty. There is no need to tell him, or to put forward witnesses against him. To a certain extent, punishment begins in the heart of every sinner while in the world, but here they feel the full effect of it. And God's arrangement here is such that goats and sheep, that is, sinners and righteous, separate of their own accord.

God created man to live in light in which his spiritual health and joy are made permanent forever. Therefore, no man can be happy in the darkness of Sheol, nor, because of his sin-perverted life, can he be happy in the light. So, wherever a sinner may go he will find himself in a hell. How opposite to this is the state of the righteous, who freed from sin, is in heaven everywhere!"