Page:SermonsFromTheLatins.djvu/21

 funeral dirge. And when  life  shall  have  merged  into death, time  into  eternity,  then,  as  the  Scripture  says: " The  worldlings  shall  have  slept  their  sleep  and awakening  shall  find  nothing  in  their  hands." Then looking at  those  who,  while  here,  were  dead  to  the world but  awake  to  God  and  the  best  interests  of their  souls,  the  worldlings  shall  say:  "  These  are  they whom  we  had  sometime  in  derision  and  for  a  parable of  reproach.  We  fools  esteemed  their  life  madness and  their  end  without  honor,  and,  behold,  now  they are  numbered  among  the  children  of  God."

Brethren, if  the  householder  only  knew  when  the thief would  come,  he  would  sit  up  and  prevent  his house being  robbed. We know  that  the  Lord  will come like  a  thief  in  the  night — surely  come,  but when, we  know  not;  and  blessed  is  that  servant whom He  shall  find  watching. Therefore, St.  Paul's first  reason  for  our  spiritual  awakening  is,  that  being vigilant in  time,  we  may  provide  for  our  last  end,  lest awakening only  in  eternity  we  find  the  folly  of  our lives irreparable. " Now  is  the  hour  for  rising,"  he says,  "  now  is  the  day  of  salvation." Our age,  the Christian era,  is  as  it  were  the  morning  of  God's  own day — midway between  the  night  of  infidelity  that  preceded it,  and  the  full  noontime  of  the  beatific  vision that is  to  come. " Before  Christ,"  as  Isaias  says, " darkness  covered  the  earth  and  a  shadow  over  the people,"  so  that  they  saw  and  knew  little  or  nothing of God's  transcendent  glory. The blessed  in  heaven,, on the  other  hand,  see  God  as  He  is  in  the  full  noonday of  His  splendor;  while  we,  by  the  aurora  of  Chris-