Page:Sermons for all the Sundays in the year.djvu/402

 then see the bad examples which he gave to young persons who feared God, and whom he treated with contempt, and turned into derision by calling them hypocrites and other reproachful names. He shall see so many lights and calls received from God, so many admonitions of spiritual fathers, and so many resolutions and promises made but afterwards neglected. 3. He shall see particularly the bad maxims by which he regulated his conduct during life. ” It is necessary to seek the esteem of the world, and to preserve honour." But is it necessary for a man to preserve his honour by trampling on the honour due to God? "We ought to indulge in amusements as often as we can." But is it lawful to indulge in amusements by insulting God? ” Of what use to the world is the man who lives in poverty and has no money? ” But, will you, for the sake of money, lose your soul? In answer to these questions the sinner says: No matter. What can be done? ” If we do not make a fortune in the world we cannot appear among our equals." Such the maxims of the worldling during life; but at death he shall change his language. He shall then see the truth of that maxim of Jesus Christ: ” "What doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul." (Matt. xvi. 26.) Unhappy me! the worldling shall exclaim on the bed of death, I have had so much time to tranquillize my conscience, and behold I am now at the point of death, and I find my soul burdened with so many sins? What would it have cost me to have broken oft such a friendship, to have gone to confession every week, to have avoided certain occasions of sin? Ah! very little, but though it should have cost me a great deal of pain and labour, I ought to have submitted to every inconvenience in order to save my soul. Salvation is of greater importance to me than the dominion of the entire world. But, alas! the sentiments of negligent Christians at death are as fruitless as the sorrows of the damned, who mourn in hell over their sins as the cause of their perdition, but mourn in vain. 4. At that time they derive no consolation from their past amusements or pomps, from their exalted dignities, or from the humiliation of their rivals. On the contrary, at the hour of death, these things, like so many