Oh, how many are the obligations of your state unfulfilled, how many the duties of your office which you have neglected, how many the means of salvation which you have passed by heedlessly, how many the opportunities of doing good which you have slighted. 3. Poor wretch! what will be your feelings when the Divine Judge shall exclaim, with a voice of thunder: Render to me an account of the time so liberally granted to you to do penance, to increase your store of grace, and to merit glory; time which you have recklessly squandered, either in idleness or in doing something else besides that which you were ordered to do, or, perhaps, in the commission of sin. Give an account of the talents entrusted to you, and which you either buried because you were too indolent to use them, or which you have impiously profaned by their abuse. Give an account of the many confessions, the communions, the meditations, and the retreats, which you have either omitted, or have performed in a careless manner, and without deriving any fruit therefrom. Give an account of the many sins which you might have hindered, of the many souls which you might have saved, of the many pious practices which you might have diffused among the people. Alas! O Lord! "shame hath covered my face" (a), “for my soul is filled with evil” (b). 4. Finally, before that dread tribunal there shall be an inquiry even into our good actions which have been badly performed; for God will search Jerusalem (a) Psalm lxviii. 8. (b) Psalm lxxxvii. 4. with lamps" (a), and even "will judge justices" (b). Alas! when the Eternal Judge shall examine our good actions, "all our justices shall be as the rag of a menstruous woman" (c); and S. Gregory says, our justice, when examined by Divine Justice, will be found to be injustice; and under the rigid examination of the Judge, those things will be found blamable, which in our estimation were most praiseworthy” (d). 66 In that terrible hour, even our very best actions will be found faulty, either because of the manner in which they were performed, or of the motive which prompted them, or of the end which we had in view when carrying them out. Even the man who considers that he is rich in merits, shall then discover that he is "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked" (e). Here, then, once for all, know thyself . . . O how very suitable is the meditation of Judgment to discover to us the sinfulness of our soul! and what a powerful incitement is this knowledge towards a profound humiliation of ourselves, a detestation of sins, and a hatred of ourselves! SECOND POINT. Not only shall we be arraigned on all these counts, but they shall be put before us distinctly, and with all possible precision; for God "searcheth the reins and heart" (f), and He "will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the (a) Sophonias i. 12. (b) Psalm lxxiv. 3. (d) Lib. v. moralium, cap. vi. (f) Apoc. ii, 23. counsels of the hearts" (a). That eye which penetrates even the intentions and the thoughts of men, will make a most minute examination of our soul, fully disclosing its secret inclination towards evil, and its natural inability to perform aught that is meritorious. Before this tribunal, the number of our sins will be calculated with the most scrupulous exactness, their species will be distinguished, the precise degree of guilt involved in them will be weighed in an unerring balance, and their heinousness will appear in most unmistakable colours. One by one, Almighty God will inquire into every feeling of our soul, and will discover the many sources from which our failings have sprung. One by one, He will hold up before our face the silly fancies we harboured, the groundless pretensions we have cherished, the false and seductive maxims which regulated our every act. In a word, on that terrible day, you shall see, as in a panorama, the story of your life year by year; the opportunities which lay within your grasp of obtaining perfection, and of cultivating the spirit of piety, the powerful impulses of grace which you have experienced, the remedies placed within your reach whenever you chanced to fall, the continuous, unbroken chain of graces which were ever at your command, and which you have always abused. With such knowledge before you, what would you think of the malice of sin? What of that insatiable thirst of yours for honours and pleasures? What of those baubles which you love so much? In what state of life would you choose to live, and how (a) 1 Cor. iv. 5. would you wish to have served the Lord in the state already chosen. What, think you, will then be your esteem for the principle of indifference to every place, to every office, and to all conditions of health -a principle so often inculcated. Oh! how very different will your opinions then be ! "Then the poor and humble will have great confidence, and the proud will fear on every side. Then every devout person will rejoice, and the irreligious will be sad. Then the flesh that has been mortified shall triumph more than if it had been always pampered in delights. Then the contempt of riches shall weigh more than all the treasures of worldlings. at present to suffer in little things, that then thou mayst be delivered from more grievous sufferings" (a). Humble yourself, therefore; chastise your flesh, and do what, if left undone, may hereafter cause you to weep bitter tears of fruitless penance. THIRD POINT. Wherefore, learn The On that day of wrath and unrelenting justice, not only will all things be examined separately, and on their merits, but the accused will have no chance of flight, no escape from the Judge's sentence. time for pleading excuses has passed by: every gate which mercy might hold open is for ever closed against the sinner. And, in truth, even you yourself must needs confess that " you are inexcusable” (b). Should you dare put forward ignorance as your excuse, the dogmas of Faith in which you believed will convict you of a lie. Should you plead your (a) "Imitation of Christ," book I. ch. 24. (b) Rom. ii. 1. natural impotence to do good as a palliation of your crimes, then will rise up against you the many graces which were within your reach. You may, perhaps, say that the path of virtue is a difficult one to tread ; but, then, there are the words of Jesus Christ: "My yoke is sweet, and my burden light". You may, perhaps, plead in excuse your tender age, or your delicate constitution, but from the east and from the west there shall rise up in judgment against you persons of the same age, and of a constitution equally delicate; and the example of what they have done will be your strongest condemnation. Even your angel guardian, becoming your adver sary, will cry out, "You might have become a saint if you only wished it. You might and you ought to have become one." Your damnation is of your own choosing. By-and-by the demons, while they mock you, will explain to you both sides of the question, holding up before you on the one side, Faith, and what it prescribes-on the other, your life, the while they say, "See, this is what you believed, and yet you have acted thus. Behold, this is the charter of your Faith, and this the picture of your life. These are the laws for the regulation of your conduct, and this your observance of them." Tears and entreaties shall then be useless, for there will be no longer time for showing mercy. will be of no avail to repent of sins past, nor to form resolutions against sins in the future, for the hour of repentance has gone by. Then "time shall be no longer" (a). Not even will it be permitted you to fly for succour to Mary, because in that night of (a) Apoc. x. 6. It |
