A Man Who Wanted to Go to Hell
"I remember once attending a man in a hospital. When I asked him to make his peace with God he said, 'I suppose you're going to tell me I'm going to hell.' 'No,' I said, 'I'm not.' 'Well,' he said, 'I want to go to hell.' I replied, 'I have never in my life met a man who wanted to go to hell, so I think I will just sit here and watch you go. 'Of course, I did not intend to let time pass without doing something, but I was absolutely sure that if he had a few minutes to himself, he might change his point of view. So I sat alone with him for twenty minutes. I could see him going through a kind of soul struggle. Then he said to me, 'You really believe there is a hell?' I asked him, 'Do you feel unhappy on the inside? Are you fearful? Is there dread, anxiety? Are all the evil things of your life coming up before you as a specter, a ghost?' Well, it was not long until he made his peace with God."