Page:Sermons for all the Sundays in the year.djvu/406

 reason why that time is unfit for repairing the evils of the soul. At that time the dying man is sick in mind as well as in body. He shall be assailed by pains in the chest, spasms in the head, debility, and delirium. Those shall render him unable to make any effort to excite a true detestation of his past sins, or to apply to the disorders of his past life a remedy which will calm the terrors of his conscience. The news of his approaching death will astound him to such a degree, that he shall be scarcely half alive. 9. A person labouring under a severe headache, which deprives him of sleep for two or three nights, will not even attempt to dictate a letter of ceremony. And at death when he feels but little, understands but little, and sees only a confusion of things which fills him with terror, the careless Christian adjusts a conscience burdened with the sins of thirty or forty years. Then are verified the words of the gospel: ” The night cometh when no man worketh." (John ix. 4.) Then his conscience will say to him:  ” Now thou canst be steward no longer.  ” (Luke xvi. 2.) There is no more time for negotiation; what has been done, is done.  ” When distress cometh upon them, they will seek for peace, and there shall be none. Trouble shall come upon trouble." (Ezech. vii. 25, 26.) 10. It is often said of a person that he led a bad life, but afterwards died a good death; that by his sighs and tears he gave proofs of sincere repentance. "Morientes non delicti pœnitentia," says St. Augustine, "sed mortis urgentis admonitio compellit." (Serm. xxxvi.) The wailing of such persons proceeds not from sorrow for their sins, but from the fear of imminent death. He was not afraid of sinning, says the holy doctor, but of burning. ” Non meteuit peccare, sed adere." (Epis. cxiv.) Till this moment the dying man has loved sinful objects: will he now detest them? Perhaps he will then love them with more tenderness; for the objects of our affections become more dear to us when we are afraid of losing them. The celebrated master of St. Bruno died with signs of repentance; but when laid in the coffin, he said that he was damned. If, at the hour of death, even the saints complain that on account of