Page:Sermons for all the Sundays in the year.djvu/114

 habes ?" Hast thou the soul of a brute, that thou expectest to make it happy by eating and drinking? 4. But, perhaps sinners who seek after and attain worldly honours are content? All the honours of this earth are but smoke and wind ("Ephraim feedeth on the wind" Osee xii. 1), and how can these content the heart of a Christian? “The pride of them," says David, “ascendeth continually." (Ps. lxxiii. 23.) The ambitious are not satisfied by the attainment of certain honours: their ambition and pride continually increase; and thus their disquietude, their envy, and their fears are multiplied. 5. They who live in the habit of sins of impurity, feed, as the Prophet Jeremiah says, on dung. “Qui voluptuose vescebantur, amplexati sunt stercora." (Thren. iv. 5.) How can dung content or give peace to the soul? Ah! what peace, what peace can sinners at a distance from God enjoy? They may possess the riches, honours, and delights of this world; but they never shall have peace. No; the word of God cannot fail: he has declared that there is no peace for his enemies. ”There is no peace to the wicked, saith the Lord. ” (Isaias, xlviii. 22.) Poor sinners! they, as St. Chrysostom says, always carry about with them their own executioner that is, a guilty conscience, which continually torments them. ”Peccator conscientiam quasi carnificem circumgestat." (Serm. x. do Laz.) St. Isidore asserts, that there is no pain more excruciating than that of a guilty conscience. Hence he adds, that he who leads a good life is never sad. ”Nulla pœna gravior pœna conscientiæ: vis nunquam esse tristis? bene vive." (S. Isid., lib. 2, Solit.) 6. In describing the deplorable state of sinners, the Holy Ghost compares them, to a sea continually tossed by the tempest. "The wicked are like the raging sea, which cannot rest." (Isa. lvii. 20.) Waves come and go, but they are all waves of bitterness and rancour; for every cross and contradiction disturbs and agitates the wicked. If a person at a ball or musical exhibition, were obliged to remain suspended by a cord with his head downwards, could he feel happy at the entertainment? Such is the state of a Christian in enmity with