Page:Sermons for all the Sundays in the year.djvu/408

 12. ” O that they would be wise, and would understand, and would provide for their last end." (Deut. xxxii. 29.) Behold, dearly beloved brethren, how the Holy Ghost exhorts us to provide now for the terrible straits and distress by which we shall be encompassed at death, and to adjust at present the accounts which we must render to God; for it will be then impossible to settle these accounts so as to save our souls. My crucified Jesus, I will not wait till death to embrace thee; I embrace thee at this moment. I love thee above all things; and because I love thee, I repent with my whole heart of all the offences and insults I have offered to thee, who art infinite goodness; and I purpose and hope, with thy grace, to love thee always, and never more to offend thee. Through the merits of thy passion I ask thee to assist me. How great is God’s goodness! how difficult it is to obtain pardon from a man whom we have offended! when sinners cast themselves at the feet of the Lord with humility and with sorrow for having offended him, he instantly pardons and embraces them. ” Turn to me, saith the Lord of Hosts, and I will turn to you. ” (Zach. i. 3.) Sinners, says the Lord, I have turned my back on you, because you first turned your back on me: return to me, and I will return to you and will embrace you. When rebuked by the Prophet Nathan, David repented, and said: ” I have sinned against the Lord; I have offended my God." David was instantly pardoned: for at the very moment that he confessed his guilt, Nathan said to him:  ” The Lord also hath taken away thy sin." (2 Kings xii. 13.) But let us come to the gospel of the day, in which we find that a certain ruler, whose daughter was dead, went immediately to