Page:Sermons for all the Sundays in the year.djvu/401

 saints go with great confidence to meet death, which delivers them from the miseries and dangers of the present life, and unites them perfectly with God. But the man who has thought only of his pleasures and of his own ease, and has neglected to recommend himself to God, or to reflect on the account which he must one day render, cannot meet death with confidence. Poor sinners! they banish the thought of death whenever it presents itself to them, and think only of living in pleasures and amusements, as if they never were to die. But for each of them the end must one day come. "The end is come; the end is come." (Ezech. vii, 2.) And when this end is come every one must gather the fruit which he has sown during his life. "For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap." (Gal. vi. 8.) If he has sown works of holiness, he shall receive rewards of eternal life; but if he has sown evil works, he shall reap chastisements and eternal death. 2. The scene of his past life is the first thing which shall rush on the mind of the dying man, when the news of death shall be announced to him. He shall then see things in a light far different from that in which he viewed them during life. The acts of revenge which appeared to him lawful the scandals which he disregarded the liberty of speaking obscenely and injurious to the character of his neighbour the pleasures which were regarded as innocent the acts of injustice which he held to be allowable shall then appear what they really were: grevious sins and offences against God, each of which merited hell. Alas! those blind sinners, who voluntarily blind themselves during life, by shutting their eyes to the light shall, at death, involuntarily see all the evil they have done. ” Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened." (Is. xxxv. 5.) At the light of the candle which lights him to death, ” the wicked shall see and shall be angry," (Ps. cxi. 10.) He shall see all the irregularities of his past life his frequent abuse of the sacraments, confessions made without sorrow or purpose of amendment, contracts completed with remorse of conscience, injury done to the property and reputation of others, immodest jests, rancours, and vindictive thoughts. He shall