Page:Meditations For Every Day In The Year.djvu/36

 sand ways,  towards  your  last  end. How could  you  find it in  your  heart  to  abuse  so  kind  and  so  affectionate  a benefactor  and  friend! "Is this  the  return  thou  makest to  the  Lord,  O  foolish  and  senseless  people?  Is  not  He thy  Father,  that  hath  possessed  thee,  and  made  thee,  and created  thee? — Thou  hast  forsaken  the  God  that  begot thee,  and  hast  forgotten  the  Lord  that  created  thee." (Deut. xxxii.  6.)

III. How much  you  ought  to  be  ashamed  of  your  unblushing ingratitude,  how  much  you  should  be  afflicted for having  offended  your  God  and  Saviour! Do not  abuse any longer  so  much  goodness  and  such  patience,  but  immediately commence  a  life  of  penance;  "otherwise  thou treasurest  up  to  thyself  wrath  against  the  day  of  wrath." (Rom. ii.  5.)

I. It  would  be  deemed  a  high  offence  if  one  prince were to  strike  another,  but  much  less  than  if  a  subject were thus  to  insult  his  sovereign;  because  the  offence  is proportioned  to  the  inequality  that  exists  between  the offending and  the  offended  parties. Now what  greater inequality can  there  be  than  between  God  and  yourself? Reflect who  you  are,  who  dare  insult  the  living  God  and the Lord  of  hosts,  and  in  His  very  presence  commit the most  enormous  crimes,  as  if  there  were  no  power  in heaven  to  punish  you. As to  your  body,  you  are  a  contemptible worm,  formed  of  the  slime  of  the  earth. "Man's days  are  as  grass;  as  the  flower  of  the  field,  so shall  he  flourish.  For  the  wind  shall  pass  over  it  and  it shall  not  be,  and  one  shall  know  its  place  no  more"  (Ps. cii.  15). "Your life  is  a  vapor  which  appeareth  for  a  little while." (James iv  15.)   Never  lose sight of  the  sentence