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blackest darkness "the moon shall not shed her light" (a), but your sentence shall come, quick, inevitable, and irrevocable, deciding your fate for eternity. O judgment! O dread sentence !

AFFECTIONS.

1. Of dismay. "Alas! wretch that I am: when will the day of judgment arrive, and the books be opened that disclose the secrets of hearts! When it shall be said to me, 'there is the man, and these are his acts'. What shall I then do, O Lord, when the heavens shall make my iniquity manifest, and the earth shall rise up against me? In very truth, I have nothing to reply, but, my head bowed down in shame and confusion, I stand before Thee abashed."

2. Of fear. O dread moment! which I can never escape, and which may, perhaps, come upon me very, very soon. What a torturing crisis !—on the one hand are arrayed my sins, which stand as my accusers s; and on the other I see suspended the sword of Divine Justice, which threatens me with vengeance; beneath my feet I behold the terrible pit of hell prepared to swallow me up; above me I see a Judge justly enraged; within me I feel the stings of a conscience reproaching me with my manifold faults. Alas, where shall I hide myself! how shall I appear! To hide myself is impossible-to appear is a torture beyond endurance! Who is it that will not awake at those terrible words, "Arise, ye dead, and come to judgment!" Ah! "Thou thunderest forth over my head thy judgments, O Lord, and thou shakest all my

(a) S. Augustine, Med. cap. 39.

bones with fear and trembling, and my soul is terrified exceedingly" (a). 3. Of grief. Alas! my soul, what hast thou done in sinning? You have offended that self-same God by whom you shall one day be judged. But I repent me of my transgressions; "Have mercy on me, O Lord, according to thy great mercies, and forgive my sins," which I abhor and detest with all my soul, because they have offended Thee who art the infinite good; and, henceforward, I purpose to avoid them, and to extirpate the roots from which they have sprung, and, in particular (N.N.)

4. Of self-knowledge and hatred of one's self. I know full well, O Lord, that I am but a sinner. I can see in myself nought but wretchedness and sin; impotence for aught that is good, and a very decided propensity towards evil. My crimes are more numerous than the very hairs upon my head, and even the few virtues that I do possess have about them a something that savours of vice. Wherefore, I despise myself, and shrink back into the abyss of my own nothing"O that I could but feel duly humble for my crimes" (b). O accursed flesh, the love of which has so often led me to insult so dread a judge! Henceforward I swear against thee undying enmity. Would that I could claim as mine that golden spirit of indifference to every occurrence, be it what it may, to every place, to every office, and to all conditions of health! With this spirit for my guiding star, I shall henceforward serve God in the manner which pleases him best; that I may one day be enabled to hear from Christ,

ness.

(a) "Imitation of Christ," book 3, ch. 14.

(b) S. Bernard.

my Judge, those consolatory words, "Come, thou blessed of my Father," &c.

COMPENDIUM.

I. We must all needs present ourselves before the judgment-seat of God, where all our faults shall be most minutely investigated. Yes; all of them. 1. All the sins we have committed. 2. The good that has been omitted, the graces that have been unavailed of, the opportunities squandered, the time lost, the talents ill-employed. 3. Even our good actions, when blamable, either because of the manner in which they were performed, or the motive which prompted them, or the end for which they were undertaken, shall form the subject of inquiry.

II. All those things shall be placed most distinctly before us our sins shall be counted for us; their species shall be distinguished; they shall be weighed in an unerring balance; and their malice shall be held up before us for ourselves to study. Even our most hidden feelings shall be inquired into. Our whole life will be held up before us as in a mirror.

III. Escape there shall be none; neither may one plead in excuse ignorance, or his tender years, or his natural disposition, for there shall arise against him innumerable saints, who though circumstanced in the self-same manner, overcame all obstacles, and eventually became saints. Even your angel guardian shall become your accuser, while the Devil lays the indictment against you. Not even Mary will be your helper mercy there will be none. O Judgment, how terrible thou art!

CONSIDERATION.

On the manner of preparing for Death.

Among the principal fruits to be gathered from the retreat, may also be reckoned that happy frame of mind in which one always feels himself prepared to die, without even a thought to trouble or disturb him. And, in truth, if one does not prepare for death during the time of Retreat, when will he do so? If he cannot find time during those days, when is he to find it? Most certainly he is unworthy of salvation, who, on the expiration of those days of salvation, finds himself unprepared to meet death. I submit to you a method which will assist you in doing this great work well. Set about it at once, and the peace of mind which you will afterwards experience will be your reward.

§ I. How to receive the announcement of Death in a Christian manner.

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On your knees within your oratory, and with your crucifix in your hands, fancy that your angel guardian warns you of the approach of death, saying to you, "Thus saith the Lord: Take order with thy house, for thou shalt die, and not live (a). On receiving this message, you ought to exclaim with joy, "Behold me, O Lord, ready". My Lord and my God, the arbiter alike of life and of death, who hast decreed that because of sin man must die, behold, I humbly submit to this thy decree: the while

(a) Isaias xxxviii, 1.

I detest, with all the powers of my soul, all the sins of which in my life past I may have been guilty. That death which I have so many times merited, I now freely accept, in the hope that this acceptance may serve in some slight degree to atone for past transgressions, and may help to bring me finally to that happy land where "Sin shall be no more".

Yes, my God; let death come to me wherever, whenever, and in what manner pleases Thee best. For my part, I am perfectly indifferent. Should your Providence decree that my death be one of painful torture, I accept the decree, and kiss your Fatherly Hand. Thy holy will be ever done? How great soever these pains may be, they will still fall far short of the torments of hell, which I have so many times deserved by my sins. The very hatred I bear myself would make me wish to die, that the worms might consume this flesh of mine, which has been the slave of so many sinful passions. The feeling of my own abasement creates within me a desire of death, that so I may return to my original nothingness, and the world thus have a happy riddance of a wretched sinner, who, casting off the mild yoke of his Creator, has strayed so far away from his last end.

§ II, On reviewing our past life, and inquiring into the actual condition of our soul.

Simultaneously with the announcement of death, our memory shall be flooded with the thoughts of the past, and with a painful consciousness of the actual condition of our soul. Well would it be then to have taken those thoughts to heart at the proper time!

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