Those persons whose sins are too great to be forgiven in this world, must be sent to one of the hells to winch I have alluded.  Weeping, wailing, shrieking, they are dragged to the palace of Yama, the king of those doleful regions.  On arriving there, they behold him clothed with terror, two hundred and forty miles in height, his eyes as large as a lake of water, his voice as loud as thunder, the hairs of his body as long as palm-trees, a flame of fire proceeding from his mouth, the noise of his breath like the roaring of a tempest, and in his right hand a terrific iron club.  Sentence is passed, and the wretched beings are doomed to receive punishment according to the nature of their crimes.  Some are made to tread on burning sands, or sharp-edged stones.  Others are rolled among thorns and spikes and putrefying flesh.  Others are dragged along the roughest places by cords passed through the tender parts of the body.  Some are attacked by jackals, tigers, and elephants.  Others are pierced with arrows, beaten with clubs, pricked with needles, seared with hot irons, and tormented by flies and wasps.  Some are plunged into pans of liquid fire or boiling oil.  Others are dashed from lofty trees, many hundred miles high.

The torment of these hells does not continue for ever.  After criminals have been punished for a longer or shorter time, their souls return to the earth again in the bodies of men.  Here they may perform such good acts as may raise them to one of the heavens of the gods; or commit crimes, which may be the means of their being sent again to the abodes of misery.

Things will go on in this way until the universe comes to an end, when every thing is to disappear, and to be swallowed up in Brahm.

The Hindoos say, that it is now more than one hundred and fifty billions of years since the world was created.  After it has continued about one hundred and fifty billions of years more, it is to come to an end.  Then Brumha is to die, and to be swallowed up with the universe in the sole existing Brahm.

By what you have heard, you will learn that the Hindoos expect, by their sufferings, to make an atonement for their sins.  But there is no atonement for sin, except through the blood of Jesus Christ.  We must come as lost sinners to our heavenly Father, confess our transgressions to him, and plead for his forgiveness, only through the sufferings and death which Christ endured.  My dear children, have you done this?  If not, do it speedily, or the regions of the lost must soon be your everlasting abode.

CHAPTER VIII.

HINDOO CASTES.