Page:Massillon's sermons for all the Sundays and festivals throughout the year.djvu/137

Rh guilty, the penitent from the impenitent, how many would he place on his right hand? Would he place the greater number of us? Would he place one half? Formerly, he could not find ten just men in five populous cities; and could he find as many, do you think, in this small assembly? How many, then, would he place on his right? You cannot give an answer, neither can I. Thou alone, my God, knowest thy elect, thy chosen few.

But if we cannot say who will be placed on his right hand, we can say at least that sinners will be placed on his left. Who, then, are sinners? They may be divided into four classes. Let every individual attend, and examine whether he may not be ranked in one of them. 1. They who are immersed in vice, and will not reform: 2. They who intend to reform, but defer their conversion: 3. They who fall into their former habits as often as they pretend to renounce them: 4. They who think that they need not a change of life. These are the reprobate: separate them from the rest of this assembly, for they will be separated from them at the last day. Now, ye chosen servants of my God ye remnant of Israel, lift up your heads; your salvation is at hand: pass to the right: separate yourselves from this chaff, which is destined for the fire. O God! where are thy elect! How few of us will be comprehended in the number!

Beloved Christians, our perdition is almost certain; and why are we not alarmed? If a voice from Heaven were heard in this temple, proclaiming aloud that one of us here present would be consigned to eternal flames, without disclosing the name, who would not tremble for himself?—who would not examine into the state of his soul?—who would not, like the apostles at the last supper, turn to Jesus, and say: "Is it I, Lord?" And, if time were still at our disposal, who would not endeavour to secure his own soul by the tears and sighs of repentance?

Where then is our prudence? Perhaps not more than ten of my present auditory will be saved; perhaps not even so many; perhaps......But, O God! I dare not, I cannot fix my eyes on the dreadful, unfathomable abyss of thy justice: perhaps not more than one of us will see Heaven. And yet, we all flatter ourselves that we shall be the happy souls that will escape: we all imagine, without considering either our virtues or vices, that God will have mercy on us in preference even to those who are more innocent and deserving.

Good God! how little are the terrors of thy justice known in the world! The elect in every age withered away through fear, when they contemplated the severity and the depth of thy judgments on the sins of men. Holy solitaries, after a life of the severest penance, were terrified at the thought, and when stretched on the bed of death, shook their hard couch of poverty and