Page:Meditations For Every Day In The Year.djvu/38

 Him as  nothing  and  vanity."  (Is.  xl.  17.)  He  would therefore  highly  insult  God,  who  is  the  supreme  and everlasting  good,  who  should  abandon  Him  only  once, and  that,  too,  to  gain  the  whole  world;  but  much  more he  who  should  contemn  Him  for  trifles.  He  complains, of  this  insolent  folly  of  mankind  by  the  mouth  of  the prophet:  "Be  astonished,  O  ye  heavens,  at  this;  and ye gates  thereof,  be  very  desolate,  saith  the  Lord;  for  my people  have  done  two  evils:  they  have  forsaken  Me,  the fountain of  living  water,  and  have  digged  to  themselves cisterns, broken  cisterns,  that  can  hold  no  water."  (Jer. ii.  12,  13.)  Ponder  how  fitly  God  is  termed  the  fountain of  living  water,  from  which  flow  all  good  things,  and how  suitably  ail  the  things  of  this  world  are  called  cisterns, which  can  hold  no  water,  that  is,  which  can  afford no  means  of  satisfying  the  cravings  of  an  immortal  soul. They  seem  at  first  to  have  something  in  them,  but  in  reality they  contain  nothing  substantial.

II. For what  trifles  have  you  forsaken  God? Perhaps in order  that  you  might  please  His  creatures,  indulge some short-lived  pleasure,  gratify  some  propensity,  gain some vain  object  of  ambition,  or  the  like. If Esau  did  a foolish  action  by  selling  his  birthright  for  a  meal  of  food, so did  Judas  do  a  worse  one  by  selling  his  Lord  for  thirty pieces of  silver,  and  so  did  the  Jews  do  the  worst  action of all  by  preferring  the  miscreant  and  murderer  Barabbas  to  the  innocent  Jesus. These you  imitate  when  you prefer some  base  passion,  some  transient  gratification  or evil  action,  to  God,  and  to  your  birthright — heaven.

III. How you  ought  to  grieve  for  your  past  sins,  and redouble your  caution  for  the  future! "In proportion to  our  sins,"  says  St.  Cyprian,  "ought  to  be  our  grief, for  we  have  a  good  Lord,  and  according  to  His  greatness so  also  is  His  mercy  with  Him."