Page:Sermons by John-Baptist Massillon.djvu/31

 gular consequences;  you  will  be  unable  to  produce,  before  the Lord, a  single  instance  of  these  in  your  favour,  without  the  enemy having it  at  the  same  time  in  his  power  to  reckon  a  thousand against you:  salvation  occupies  your  intervals  alone;  the  world has, as  I  may  say,  the  foundation  and  the  principal:  the  moments are for  God,  our  entire  life  is  for  ourselves.

I know,  my  brethren,  that,  with  regard  to  this,  you  feel  sensibly the  injustice  and  the  danger  of  your  own  conduct. You confess, that  the  agitations  of  the  world,  of  business,  and  of  pleasures, almost entirely  occupy  you,  and  that  a  very  little  time,  indeed, remains for  you  to  reflect  upon  salvation:  but,  in  order  to  tranquillize yourselves,  you  say,  that  some  future  day,  when  you  shall be more  at  ease;  when  affairs  of  a  certain  nature  shall  be  terminated;  when  particular  embarrassments  shall  be  at  an  end;  and, in a  word,  when  certain  circumstances  shall  no  longer  exist,  you will then  think  seriously  upon  your  salvation,  and  the  business  of eternity  shall  then  become  your  principal  occupation. But, alas! your deception  is  this,  that  you  regard  salvation  as  incompatible with the  occupations  attached  to  the  station  in  which  Providence has placed  you. For cannot  you  employ  that  station  as  the means of  your  sanctification? Can you  not  exercise  in  it  all  the Christian virtues? Penitence, should  these  occupations  be  painful and distressing;  clemency,  pity,  justice,  if  they  establish  you in authority  over  your  fellow-creatures? Submission to  the  will of Heaven,  if  the  success  does  not  correspond  sometimes  with  your expectations? A generous  forgiveness  of  injuries,  if  you  suffer oppression or  calumny  in  that  station? Confidence in  God  alone, if in  it  you  experience  the  injustice  or  the  inconstancy  of  your masters? Do not  many  individuals  of  your  rank  and  station,  in the  same  predicament  as  you  find  yourselves,  lead  a  pure  and Christian life? You know  well,  that  God  is  to  be  found  every where; for,  in  those  happy  moments  when  you  have  sometimes been touched  with  grace,  is  it  not  true,  that  every  thing  recalled you to  God? That even  the  dangers  of  your  station  became  the vehicles of  instruction,  and  means  of  cure  for  you;  that  the  world disgusted you  even  with  the  world;  that  you  found,  continually and every  where,  the  secret  of  offering  up  a  thousand  invisible  sacrifices to  the  Almighty,  and  of  making  your  most  hurried  and tumultuous occupations  the  sources  of  holy  reflections,  or  of praiseworthy  and  salutary  examples? Why do  you  not  -cultivate these impressions  of  grace  and  salvation? It is  not  your  situation in life,  it  is  your  infidelity  and  weakness,  which  have  extinguished them in  your  heart.

Joseph was  charged  with  the  management  of  a  great  kingdom; he alone  supported  the  whole  weight  of  the  government;  nevertheless, did  he  forget  the  Lord,  who  had  broken  asunder  his  chains and justified  his  innocence? Or, in  order  to  serve  the  God  of  his fathers, did  he  delay  till  a  successor  should  come  and  restore  that tranquillity to  him  which  his  new  dignities  had  necessarily  deprived him of? On the  contrary,  he  knew  how  to  render  serviceable,