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 death. He repeated  promises  he  would  never  have fulfilled had  he  recovered. He said  he  detested  sin, when he  only  feared  it  and  trembled  for  its  effects. The sorrowful  wail  of  his  widow  is  a  lie,  for  she  is already  thinking  of  her  becoming  mourning  and  its effect on  a  possible  substitute  for  the  dead. The tears of  his  children  are  lies,  for  they  are  even  now silently speculating  on  the  terms  of  the  will. The shameful praises  of  the  callers  are  lies;  the  pompous funeral is  a  lie;  the  grandiloquent  funeral  oration  is a  lie,  for  they  all  attribute  to  the  dead  virtues  he  never had. They all  give  honor  where  honor  is  not  due. Nay, the  lie  follows  him  to  the  very  edge  of  the  grave in the  inscription  on  his  tombstone;  nay,  into  the grave in  the  bright  breast-plate  on  his  coffin;  nay, beyond the  grave,  for  his  soul  has  gone  to  dwell  forever with  that  liar  and  father  of  lies — the  devil. Oh, would to  God  that  such  deaths  were  rare;  that  such was not  the  death  of  hundreds  and  thousands  of Christians,  of  hundreds  of  Catholics! For as  a  man lives so  shall  he  die;  and  since  the  vast  majority  of men  daily  insult  their  God  by  sin,  therefore,  "  vengeance is  Mine,"  saith  the  Lord:  "and  I  will  repay, for  they  shall  seek  Me  in  the  hour  of  their  need  and they  shall  not  find  Me,  but  they  shall  die  in  their  sins, for  Amen,  I  say  to  you,  if  a  man  deny  Me  before  men on  earth,  I  will  deny  him  before  My  Father  who  is  in heaven."

Brethren, as  a  man  lives,  so  shall  he  die. As we live,  so  shall  we  die. And judging  from  the  lives  we are  leading,  which  of  these  deaths  may  we  reasonably