Page:Meditations For Every Day In The Year.djvu/496

 thereof?" (i  Cor.  ix.  7.)  Hence  Almighty  God  expects fruit  from  you.  He  goes  into  a  foreign  country  and seems  to  be  absent  from  you,  because  He  wishes  you  to exercise  your  own  free  will.  But  woe  to  that  vine  which does  not  produce  fruit  during  His  apparent  absence!

III. God often  sends  to  you  His  servants,  viz.,  preachers, superiors,  and  others,  to  put  you  in  mind  of  your duty. He sends  also  His  only  begotten  Son  by  interior inspirations and  the  example  of  His  life  and  passion. Take care,  therefore,  that  you  do  not,  like  the  wicked husbandmen in  the  gospel,  contemn  God's  officers,  or murder  His  Son  again  by  sin,  lest  the  kingdom  of  God be taken  from  you  and  given  to  another,  "  that  shall  render Him  the  fruit  in  due  season." (Matt. xxi.  41.)

I. "  There  was  a  certain  rich  man  who  had  a  steward, and  the  same  was  accused  unto  him  that  he  had  wasted his  goods." (Luke xvi.  1.)  God  is  designated  under this certain  rich  man;  for  "  the  earth  is  the  Lord's,  and the  fulness  thereof." (Ps. xxiii.  1.)  You  are  the  steward to whom  God  has  intrusted  many  goods,  both  of  soul and body,  natural  and  supernatural. His object  was that you  might  use  these  goods  well;  but,  by  your  mismanagement and  mis administration,  you  have  deserved to be  accused  before  your  employer  of  having  "  wasted his  goods." What a  disgrace  it  is  to  misemploy  the treasures of  God,  and  to  become  a  bankrupt  to  heaven!

II. The rich  man  said  to  his  steward,  "  Give  an  account of  thy  stewardship." When God  calls  you  from this world,  you  will  be  obliged  to  render  a  strict  and