Page:Meditations For Every Day In The Year.djvu/377



I. It  is  recorded  in  the  Gospel  of  to-day,  that  Christ " wept  over  the  city  of  Jerusalem." (Luke, xix.  41.)  God is sensible  of  our  miseries,  and  compassionates  us;  hence He is  styled  by  the  Apostle,  "  the  Father  of  mercies  and the  God  of  all  consolation." (2 Cor.  i.  3.)  And  again he says,  "We  have  not  a  high  priest  who  cannot  have compassion  on  our  infirmities." (Heb. iv.  15.)  You  may, therefore, justly  comfort  yourself  with  this  thought,  that the same  merciful  God  will  visit  you  to-day,  to  bestow on your  souls  the  riches  of  His  mercy.

II. The mercy  of  God  in  regard  to  man  never  shone more conspicuously,  than  in  the  institution  of  the  holy Eucharist. Well may  the  Prophet  cry  out,  "  He  made  a remembrance  of  His  wonderful  works,  being  a  merciful and  a  gracious  Lord,  He  hath  given  food  to  them  that fear  Him." (Ps. ex.  4,  5.)  Reflect  what  a  mercy  it  is  in Him  to  give  you  His  own  body  and  blood  for  your  meat and drink. Who ever  did  so  much  for  his  greatest friend? Expose, therefore,  before  Him,  with  the  utmost  , confidence, the  miseries  of  your  soul,  when  He  visits you, and  beseech  Him  to  remedy  them.

III. Above ail  things  beware,  when  He  enters  your soul, of  giving  Him  cause  to  weep  over  you,  as  did  unhappy Jerusalem. Addressing Himself  to  that  obstinate city, He  foretold  its  evils,  and  said  they  would  happen, because "it  did  not  know  the  time  of  its  visitation." (Luke, xix.  44.)  He  frequently  visits  us  by  holy  inspirations, good  books,  and  the  like,  and  by  these  animates