South Western Inferno

It would seem that British trains cannot function in the sunshine of summer any more than the snows of winter. South Western Railways cancelled and delayed almost all trains between Portsmouth and Southampton due to a loss of electricity. These things happen, of course, but their failure to provide alternative transport or even reliable information suggested to hundreds of passengers like me that running trains might not be their strong point; perhaps they ought to go into floristry or cake shops. I was meant to leave at 14.27 which would have left ample time to make the mid-week Bible study at Spring Road Evangelical Church which I had arranged to attend, but I only alighted at 19.50. I therefore never received the fellowship I had desired and they must be wondering about this fly-be-night from Lancashire who made a fuss about coming but never materialised.

In-between one of the many false hopes of an actual running train, I nipped out to Waterstones and perused the shelves. I selected one of those posh, clothbound copies of the classics, which cost me nineteen pounds (!). Dante’s Inferno seemed the most appropriate choice, considering the temperatures and the mood of most of South Western Railway’s passengers. I read it at the various stations (Portsmouth, Eastleigh, Havant) to which their ill-fated trains deposited me. Far from being a heavy and boring battle, I rather enjoyed the first few cantos. Although popish theology inevitably pollutes his meaning, the style is lively and thought-provoking. His multi-tiered hell famously has nine levels each reserved for commissioners of specified sins (e.g. lust and gluttony). Where corporate incompetence fits, I cannot tell.

On the other hand, it reminded me that life’s aches and pains, inconveniences and failures are nothing compared to the fate awaiting those who spurn Jesus Christ and His generous gospel. Inferno might be a poem, and its details fanciful and dated, but the substance is real enough. Stuck in a boring train station in the heat is nothing compared to what most of our race is on track to receive.

But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.

A D