Chapter 14. The Necessity of Entering This Gate, However Narrow, If We Wish to Be Saved.

BUT whether this gate be broad or narrow, we must necessarily strive to enter by it : for after this life, which passeth as a shadow, there is no other place where we can well remain, except within this gate. Therefore our Lord admonishes us, saying, (l Strive ye to enter in at the narrow gate," because, as He adds in the same place, those who remain without, will all be banished to a place where there will be eternal weeping and gnashing of teeth : these signify the greatest torments with a

despair of any remedy ; and thence comes a madness that impatiently endures what it does not wish to endure, and will always be compelled to endure. But how much better is it to strive to enter in at the narrow gate, where rest and joy will be found, after we have borne a little labour and sorrow ? If indeed men could escape the narrowness of the "gate, and the pains of hell at the same time, perhaps their frailty might excuse them from using violence to enter. But since we are compelled, either to labour here for a time by doing violence, or to fall hereafter into eternal sorrows, what judgment — what reason can we have that would induce us to avoid minor evils, and so to find those that are intolerable and most grievous ! But even if no evils would follow after this life, but being deprived of the House of God, where alone are eternal joys, this ought to induce us to strive to enter, not only through the nar rowness of the gate, but through briars and thorns, and fire and the sword. And though during this life we cannot feel what a loss it is to be deprived " of beatitude, yet after the separation of the soul from the body, the eyes of the mind will be opened and will most clearly see — what a loss, what an infinite loss it is, not to have obtained the end for which we were created. This desire is signified by those words which are mentioned in the Gospel, as being used by those who shall remain outside :

" Lord, Lord, open unto us/' The desire of their last end will ever torment these wretched beings, and the remorse of conscience will never rest : thus the words will be fulfilled, " Their worm will never die, and their fire shall never be extin guished."

Oh ! if we could now seriously think with what ardour these men will then ex claim, "Lord, Lord, open unto us:" as if they said, we cannot live without entering into the House of the Lord, and yet we cannot die! Wherefore we exist not to live, but to be for ever miserable. Wherefore " open unto us," because we are prepared to suffer every thing, provided only we can enter. But He will answer : " I know you not. The year of. jubilee has ended ; when you could have entered, you would not; now therefore it is but just, that when you wish to enter, you cannot." Thus though deprived of all hope, they will never cease exclaiming, being impelled by a natural desire, " Lord, Lord, open unto us." But because in their lifetime they were deaf to the exhortations of the Lord crying out to them, " Strive ye to enter in at the narrow gate," now the Lord will turn a deaf ear to them exclaiming, " Lord, Lord, open unto us." Wherefore, if we be wise, let us now consult our own welfare whilst we have time : let us do now, while we are able, what we shall then wish to have done, and shall not be able to do it.

THE

ETERNAL HAPPINESS OF THE SAINTS.