Eleventh Day
With regard to the doctrine of purgatory the apostles taught as their divine Master did. St. Paul says: “For other foundation no man can lay but that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus. Now if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, every man’s work shall be manifest; for the day of the Lord shall declare it, because it shall be revealed in fire, and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide, which he hath built thereon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work burn he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved, but so as by fire.”—1 Cor. iii. 12. He who appears before the Judgment Seat of God with works still stained and imperfect, will reach indeed his happy end, but not before those stains and imperfections have been cleared away by a process which is like unto the crucible of fire. The fire which the Apostle speaks of cannot be the fire of tribulation, or the sufferings of this life; for he speaks of a fire which burns on the Judgment Day; that is, after this life. Again, it cannot mean the mere ordeal of the Judgment, because here the soul is not only tried, but also burns and suffers from the burning. Nor can it mean the fire of hell, because he who burns in the fire will come out of it and be saved, which cannot be said of those in hell. The Apostle could only have had the fire of purgatory in view—that fire which burns for the purification of souls not quite spotless, and which will continue until the Day of General Judgment.
Prayer.
Release, O Lord, etc., etc.