Page:Meditations For Every Day In The Year.djvu/46

 carry nothing  out."  (1  Tim.  vi.  7.)  The  author  of  Ecclesiasticus  then  justly  exclaims,  "O  death,  how  bitter  is the  remembrance  of  thee  to  a  man  who  has  peace  in  his possessions." (Ecclus.  xli.  1.)  Divest  yourself,  therefore, of  worldly  affections  in  time,  that  there  may  be nothing  which  you  will  have  to  leave  with  regret  at  the hour  of  death.

III. Consider the  anguish  and  perplexity  of  mind which every  one  will  experience  at  the  hour  of  death,  in consequence  of  his  uncertainty  in  regard  to  the  future. The moment  in  which  their  irrevocable  doom  will  be pronounced  is  at  hand,  "and  yet  man  knoweth  not whether  he  be  worthy  of  love  or  hatred." (Eccles. ix.  1.) The devil  will  be  there  to  tempt  you  to  despair. Consider what, at  that  moment,  you  would  wish  to  have done during  life,  and  do  it,  before  it  be  too  late.

I. What  will  become  of  the  body  after  death — that  body which you  indulge  and  adorn  with  so  much  care  and  attention. 1. A  dead  body  lies  senseless  and  motionless; it sees  nothing,  it  hears  nothing;  it  cannot  even  shake off the  worms  that  crawl  around  it. 2. It  loses  its  color and becomes  deformed;  it  is  soon  a  prey  to  corruption, in such  a  manner,  that  the  dearest  friends  of  the  deceased are  struck  with  horror  and  avoid  it. This horror was the  cause  of  St.  Francis  Borgia's  sanctity;  for  being obliged by  his  office  to  inspect  the  corpse  of  the  queen of Spain,  who  had  been  a  great  beauty,  and  seeing  her beauty so  soon  and  so  suddenly  fled,  and  succeeded  by the  most  loathsome  corruption,  he  is  said  to  have  exclaimed, "  How  long  shall  we  love  vanity  and  seek  after sin." (Ps. iv.  3.)    "  How  long  shall  we  neglect  solid