God Arises
The Life We Seek
~ 445 ~
one of unending darkness, great waves of which
strike at them here in this ephemeral world. In that
world they will have absolutely nothing to fall back
on; in this world they already feel something of that
helplessness, as a warning of what is to come. In the
life after death, terrible ordeals await those who
have denied God. In this world mental unease gives
them an inkling of those ordeals. The doubts which
beset them on earth are like puffs of smoke from the
Fire of Hell, which all those who denied God or
worshipped false gods will enter after death. If they
heed the warning, they will be able to save
themselves from that awful doom. Imagine that a
person’s house catches fire while he lies asleep. A
whiff of the smoke reaches him while the fire is in
its early stages. If he is roused then, well and good;
he will be able to save himself. But it will do him no
good to become alert to the danger when the fire
has already engulfed him, for then he is bound to
perish. If only his senses had been sharper, he could
have avoided the impending danger! Now that it
has descended on him, there is nothing he can do to
escape it. Will no one awaken while there is still
time?
