There had to be one man to disbelieve, to betray and to lie in hell for it, or the whole plan would have been frustrated.

There was a theme for Dante, Aunt Bell--not the one soul in hell, but the other souls in heaven slowly awakening to the suffering of that one soul--to the knowledge that he was suffering in order that they might be saved.

Do you think they would find heaven to be real heaven if they knew he was burning?
And don't you think a poet could make some interesting talk between this solitary soul predestined to hell, and the God who planned the scheme ?" Aunt Bell looked bored and uttered a swift, low phrase that might have been "Fiddlesticks!" "My dear, no one believes in hell nowadays." "Does any one believe in anything ?" "Belief in the essentials of Christianity was never more apparent." It was a treasured phrase from the morning's sermon.
"What are the essentials ?" "Belief that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son--you know as well as I, child--belief in the atoning blood of the Christ." "Wouldn't it be awful, Aunt Bell, if you didn't believe in it, and had to be in hell because the serpent persuaded Eve and Eve persuaded Adam to eat the apple--that's the essential foundation of Christianity, isn't it ?" "Why, certainly--you must believe in original sin--" "I see--here's a note in Bernal's hand, on one of these old papers--evidently written much later than the other: 'The old gentleman says Christmas is losing its deeper significance.

What is it?
That the Babe of Bethlehem was begotten by his Father to be a sacrifice to its Father--that its blood might atone for the sin of his first pair--and so save from eternal torment the offspring of that pair.

God will no longer be appeased by the blood of lambs; nothing but the blood of his son will now atone for the sin of his own creatures.