Hell: Heaven’s Great Missionary

“Preach many great truths of salvation”, Pope Pius IX once told a French priest. “Preach especially about Hell. Let there be no hiding it: tell the whole truth about Hell, very clearly and out loud. Nothing is more capable of making people think and of bringing poor sinners back to God”.

These words of the great Pope are what prompted the great French apologist Monsignor Louis Gaston de Ségur to write this little book on Hell. In it, he shows that the dogma of Hell is a truth of common sense, as well as being one that is revealed by God and constantly taught by the Church. Then, he describes the punishments of Hell and shows that they are (and must be) eternal. Finally, and most importantly, he tells us what practical steps we must take in order to avoid going there.

“I offer you this modest book”, he writes, “asking the Good God to permeate you to the depths of your soul with the great truths it summarises so that fear may arouse love in you and that love may lead you straight to Paradise”.