Page:Sermons for all the Sundays in the year.djvu/190

 he hath but a short time." (Apoc. xii. 12.) The enemy, then, never loses time in seeking to bring us to hell: and shall we squander the time which God has given us to save our souls? 7. You say: "I will hereafter give myself to God." But “why” answers St. Bernard, "do you, a miserable, sinner, presume on the future, as if the Father placed time in your power ?" (Serm. xxxviii., de Part., etc.) Why do you presume that you will hereafter give yourself to God, as if he had given to you the time and opportunity of returning to him whenever you wish? Job said with trembling, that he knew not whether another moment of his life remained: "For I know not how long I shall continue, and whether after a while my Maker may take me away." (xxxii. 22.) And you say: I will not go to confession to-day; I will think of it tomorrow. “Diem tenes," says St. Augustine, “qui horam non tenes." How can you promise yourself another day, when you know not whether you shall live another hour?”If," says St. Teresa, ”you are not prepared to die today, tremble, lest you die an unhappy death." 8. St. Bernardino weeps over the blindness of those negligent Christians who squander the days of salvation, and never consider that a day once lost shall never return. “Transcunt dies, salutis et nemo recogitat sibi perire diem ut nunquam rediturum." (Serm. ad Scholar.) At the hour of death they shall wish for another year, or for another day; but they shall not have it: they shall then be told that "time shall be no more." What price would they not then give for another week, for a day, or even for an hour, to prepare the account which they must then render to God? St. Lawrence Justinian says, that for a single hour they would give all their property, all their honours, and all their delights. “Erogaret opes, honores delicias, pro una horula." (Vit. Solit., cap. x.) But this hour shall not be granted to them. The priest who attends them shall say: Depart, depart immediately from this earth; for your time is no more. ”Go forth, Christian soul, from this world." 9. What will it profit the sinner who has led an