Page:The Way Of Salvation- Meditations For Every Day Of The Year (IA TheWayOfSalvation1836).pdf/116

 fying my senses, have I renounced thy friendship! O that I had died rather than have thus dishonoured thee! Have pity on me.

III. All mankind being assembled together, will he summoned by angels to appear in the valley of Josaphat, thereto be publicly judged before all: Nations, nations in the valley of destruction, Joel, iii. 14. O my God, and must I appear in that valley? in what place shall I stand there? with the elect in glory, or with the reprobate in chains? My beloved Redeemer, thy precious blood is my only hope. Woe to me, how often have I deserved to be condemned to dwell for ever in hell, far far from thee, without being able to love thee! No, my Jesus, I will love thee for ever, in this life and in the next. Permit me not to be ever again separated from thee by sin. Thou knowest my weakness; be thou always my help, O Jesus, and do not abandon me. Mary, my advocate, obtain for me the gift of holy perseverance.

I. SO great was God’s love for us, that after having loaded us with gifts and graces, he bestowed upon us his own Son: God so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son. St. John, iii. 16. For us poor miserable worms of the earth, the eternal Father sent his beloved Son into this world to lead a poor and despised life, and to undergo the most ignominious and bitter death, that any mortal on earth had ever suffered, an accumulation of internal as well as external torments, such as to cause him to exclaim when dying: My God, my God,