Page:Sermons by John-Baptist Massillon.djvu/44

18 mistakes the decisive points of eternity. There is nothing important in life but this single object; all the rest is a dream, in which any mistake is of little consequence. Trust not yourselves, therefore, to the multitude, which is the party of those who err; take not as guides men who can never be your sureties; leave nothing to chance, or to the uncertainty of events; it is the height of folly where eternity is concerned: remember that there is an infinity of paths, which appear right to men, yet, nevertheless, conduct to death; that almost all who perish do it in the belief that they are in the way of salvation: and that all reprobates, at the last day, when they shall hear their sentence pronounced, will be surprised, says the gospel, at their condemnation; because they all expected the inheritance of the just. It is thus, that, after having waited for it in this life, according to the rules of faith, you will for ever enjoy it in heaven. Now to God, &c.

day, my brethren, you continue to demand of us, if the road to heaven is really so difficult, and the number of the saved is indeed so small, as we say? To a question so often proposed, and still oftener resolved, our Saviour answers you at present, that there were many widows in Israel afflicted with famine; but the widow of Sarepta was alone found worthy the succour of the prophet Elias: that the number of lepers was great in Israel in the time of the prophet Eliseus; and that Naaman was only cured by the man of God.

Were I here, my brethren, for the purpose of alarming, rather than instructing you, I needed only to recapitulate what in the holy writings we find dreadful with regard to this great truth; and running over the history of the just, from age to age, to show you, that, in all times, the number of the saved has been very small. The family of Noah alone saved from the general flood; Abraham chosen from amongst men to be the sole depositary of the covenant with God; Joshua and Caleb the only two of six hundred thousand Hebrews who saw the Land of Promise; Job the only upright man in the Land of Uz,—Lot, in Sodom. To representations so alarming would have succeeded the sayings of the prophets. In Isaiah you would see the elect as rare as the grapes which are found after the vintage, and have escaped the search of the gatherer; as rare as the blades which remain by chance in the field, and have escaped the scythe of the mower. The Evangelist would still have added