Page:Sermons by John-Baptist Massillon.djvu/123

 to go and spit out the venomous traits of the serpent, against those whom the unity of faith, charity, the sacrament, and even their very errors, should render more endeared and more respectable to you."

By the wisdom and moderation of our discourses, let us deprive the enemies of virtue of every occasion to blaspheme against it; let us correct our brethren by the sanctity of our example rather than by the keenness of our censures; let us recall them, by living better than they, and not by speaking against them; let us render virtue respectable by its sweetness rather than by its severity; let us draw sinners toward us by compassionating rather than censuring their faults, in order that our virtue may be conspicuous to them only through our charity and indulgence, and that our tender care to cover and excuse their faults, may induce them to accuse and condemn themselves with more severity, when they perceive the difference of our conduct. By these means we shall regain our brethren; we shall honour piety; we shall overthrow impiety and freethinking; we shall deprive the world of all occasion for those discourses, so common and so injurious to real virtue; and, after having used mercy toward our brethren, we shall with more confidence go to present ourselves before the Father of mercies, and the God of all consolation, to ask mercy for ourselves.

An improper use of time is the source of all the disorders which reign amongst men. Some pass their whole life in idleness and sloth, equally useless to the world, their country, and themselves: others, in the tumult of business and worldly affairs. Some appear to exist only for the purpose of indulging an unworthy indolence, and escaping, by adversity of pleasures, from the weariness which every where pursues them, in proportion as they fly from it: others, in a continual search, amidst the cares of the world, for occupations which may deliver them from themselves. It appears that time is a common enemy, against which all men have agreed to conspire. Their whole life is one continued and deplorable anxiety to rid themselves of it. The happiest are those who best succeed in not feeling the weight of its duration: and the principal satisfaction they reap, either from frivolous pleasures or serious occupations, is the abridgment of days and moments, and deliverance from them, almost without a perception of their being passed.

Time, that precious deposit confided to us by the Lord, is therefore become a burden which fatigues and oppresses us. We dread,