Page:Sermons by John-Baptist Massillon.djvu/208

 prosperity. Were charity  insufficient  to  redeem  our  offences,  we might  certainly  think  ourselves  entitled  to  complain,  says  a  holy father; we  might  take  it  ill,  that  God  had  deprived  men  of  so  easy a mean  of  salvation;  at  least  might  we  say  that,  could  we  but  open the gates  of  heaven  through  the  means  of  riches,  and  purchase  with our whole  wealth  the  glory  of  the  holy,  we  then  should  be  happy. Well, my  brethren,  continues  the  holy  father,  profit  by  this  privilege, seeing  it  is  granted  to  you;  hasten,  before  your  riches  moulder away,  to  deposit  them  in  the  bosom  of  the  poor,  as  the  price  of the  kingdom  of  heaven. The malice  of  men  might  perhaps  have deprived you  of  them;  your  passions  might  have  perhaps  swallowed them  up;  the  turns  of  fortune  might  have  transferred  them  to other  hands;  death,  at  last,  would  sooner  or  later  have  separated you  from  them:  ah! charity alone  deposits  them  beyond  the reach of  all  these  accidents;  it  renders  you  their  everlasting  possessor;  it  lodges  them  in  safety  in  the  eternal  tabernacles,  and  gives  you the right  of  for  ever  enjoying  them  in  the  bosom  of  God  himself.

Are you  not  happy  in  being  able  to  assure  to  yourself  admittance into heaven  by  means  so  easy; — in  being  able,  by  clothing  the naked, to  efface  from  the  book  of  divine  justice  the  obscenities,  the luxury, and  the  irregularities  of  your  younger  years; — in  being able, by  filling  the  hungry,  to  repair  all  the  sensualities  of  your life; — lastly, in  being  able,  by  sheltering  innocence  in  the  asylums of compassion,  to  blot  out  from  the  remembrance  of  God  the  ruin of so  many  souls,  to  whom  you  have  been  a  stumbling-block? Great God! what goodness  to  man,  to  consider  as  meritorious  a virtue  which  costs  so  little  to  the  heart;  to  number  in  our  favour feelings of  humanity  of  which  we  could  never  divest  ourselves, without being,  at  the  same  time  divested  of  our  nature;  to  be  willing to  accept,  as  the  price  of  an  eternal  kingdom,  frail  riches, which we  even  enjoy  only  through  thy  bounty,  which  we  could never continue  to  possess,  and  from  which,  after  a  momentary  and fleeting enjoyment,  we  must  at  last  be  separated! Nevertheless, mercy is  promised  to  him  who  shall  have  shown  it;  a  sinner,  still feeling to  the  calamities  of  his  brethren,  will  not  continue  long  insensible to  the  inspirations  of  heaven;  grace  still  reserves  claims upon a  heart  in  which  charity  has  not  altogether  lost  its  influence; a good  heart  cannot  long  continue  a  hardened  one;  that  principle of humanity  alone,  which  operates  in  rendering  the  heart  feeling  for the wants  of  others,  is  a  preparation,  as  it  were,  for  penitence  and salvation; and  while  charity  still  acts  in  the  heart,  a  happy  conversion is  never  to  be  despaired  of. Love, then,  the  poor  as  your brethren; cherish  them  as  your  offspring;  respect  them  as  Jesus Christ himself,  in  order  that  he  say  to  you  on  the  great  day,  "Come, ye  blessed  of  my  Father,  inherit  the  kingdom  prepared  for  you  from the  foundation  of  the  world.  For  I  was  an  hungered,  and  ye  gave me  meat;  I  was  thirsty,  and  ye  gave  me  drink;  I  was  a  stranger, and  ye  took  me  in;  I  was  naked,  and  ye  clothed  me;  I  was  sick, and  ye  visited  me:  for,  inasmuch  as  ye  have  done  it  unto  one  of  the least  of  these  my  brethren,  ye  have  done  it  unto  me."