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 gain, whereby  to  gratify  your  animal  appetites  you forfeited your  heavenly  heritage. Like tigers  long pent up,  the  pains  of  conscience  will  then  spring  upon you. Your life,  which  seemed  before  as  calm  and clear as  a  mountain  lake,  will  then  be  lashed  to  fury by the  storm  that  is  to  rend  apart  your  soul  and  body, and all  the  sinful  refuse  that  lay  hidden  will  be  cast  up at  your  feet. The guilty  prisoner  is  never  so  agitated as on  the  eve  of  trial. Your presumptuous  habit  of relying  on  God's  mercy  will  not  avail  you  then,  for the hope  of  the  virtuous  is  as  the  sun  of  their  lives which reaches  its  zenith  at  their  death,  but  the  sinner's hope,  though  strong  through  life,  gradually declines and  disappears  at  the  moment  of  his  greatest need. Peter's salutary  sorrow  will  not  be  yours,  unless you  bitterly  weep  whenever,  as  now,  the  Saviour glances toward  you;  but  if  His  frequent  appeals  to you  are  all  in  vain,  be  sure  your  final  state  will  be  a Judas-like  despair.

Brethren, if  neither  the  nearness  of  death  nor  the misery of  a  sinful  life  can  drive  you  to  repentance, remember this,  that  the  result  of  deferring  your  conversion will  be  an  inability  to  repent  at  all. God said to Pharao:  "  Let  My  people  go,"  and  when  he  would not, God  sent  the  plagues  on  Egypt. When grievously oppressed  by  each,  Pharao  would  send  for Moses and  bid  him  remove  the  scourge  on  promise  of freedom  for  his  people,  but  when  Moses  would  say: " When,  when,  set  me  a  time,"  Pharao  would  always answer: "  To-morrow." Set me  a  time,  ye  sinners, set me  a  time  now. You know  not  if  there  be  a