Suddenly a weird sensation passed over me. A messenger sent from the Lord stood by my side and said, �Be not afraid. I have been sent from the Lord to sustain and strengthen you.� Then the weird, strange sensation passed through my very being, and suddenly I felt myself plummeted headlong through that fire. It did not burn or hurt. In an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, I found myself in another realm. It was like being in another world. And in that world I heard the shrieks and groans of souls by the countless thousands. I heard ironical, sarcastic laughter. I heard weeping and wailing; I heard cries and curses. Instinctively, before my heavenly conductor told me, I knew I was in the regions of the lost, the place that we speak of as Hell. Let me pause long enough to say this: I believe in literal Hell fire, because the Bible says it is literal; and also because I�ve seen it. I know that it exists. Not only eternally by literal fire, but they will also be tormented by the sin and vices that caused them to be lost. For I discovered, as my guide conductor led me through the various caverns and corridors, that Hell was divided into sections.
Over yonder I saw the greatest gambling games that could ever be imagined. I shuddered. There were devices of gambling which I am sure have never been perpetrated on the face of the earth. There were great piles of gold and silver and precious gems; and these lost souls were gambling with them. They gambled furiously. Every time they touched the devices, every time they touched the money, it burned, and they drew back; and yet some irresistible force drove them to gamble again. They loathed it, they hated it, they wanted to get away from it but they couldn�t. They were held at the spot as by some magnetic force.
Not long ago, when we were traveling to Boise, Idaho, I had a strange experience. We read signs along the highway advertising a certain gambling place in Reno, Nevada. We stopped in Reno for just a few moments, and I said, �I want to go in that gambling place and see just what goes on.� It was evening time. We stepped inside and walked through some of the corridors. Hundreds of people were engaged in gambling of every form. Suddenly my blood chilled. I turned to my wife and said, �Oh, please let�s get out of here. I�ve seen this place before, and I don�t want to stay around it.� We went out-doors, I had seen something just like that, only worse, in the realms of the lost!
In another section of Hell I saw an eternal dancing party going on. As I came close, and looked into the faces of those lost souls, my heart pitied them with a great pity; for they were so utterly, abjectly weary and tired. They pleaded and said, �Oh can�t we stop for just a moment?� But there was no stopping. The eternal dance went on and on, just like some great churning caldron. I never spend much time preaching against worldly amusements; for I believe that, when people really get saved, the Lord will take the desire for such things out of their hearts. But I�m going to pause long enough to say this: the modern dance hall is one of the devil�s biggest trap doors leading directly into Hell.
In another place an eternal drinking party was going on. I have witnessed some scenes of drunken debauchery in this life that have been hideous, but nothing to compare to the wild, drunken orgies that go on eternally in Hell. And they can�t stop it, friends. That thing, that took them to Hell, torments them continually throughout all eternity.
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