Chapter 9. Meditation for Wednesday Night, on Death

1.—Haying made the sign of the cross with the preparation mentioned in the second chapter, let the subject of thy meditation be death. This is one of the most profitable subjects for a christian to meditate on, both for obtaining the true knowledge of the way to avoid sin, as for a timely commencement of his preparation for the hour of death.

2.-—In order to render these reflections useful, thou shouldst beg of God to let thee feel by anticipation the seusations of that last struggle, that thou mayst so arrange thy affairs and order thy life now as thou wouldst then wish to have done. For that purpose thou shouldst not look on death as a strange and distant thing but as thy own case, beholding thyself as stretched on thy bed, given up by thy physicians and about to die.

3.—Consider then first the uncertainty of the hour of death; because thou knowest not the day nor the place nor the manner in which it will overtake thee. All thou knowest is, that die thou must, the rest is all uncertainty ; but it ordinarily happens that death overtakes a man when least prepared and it is least expected.

4.—Consider secondly the separation that will then take place not only from all things we have loved in this world, but between a man’s soul and his body its old and long cherished companion. If exile from country and the home of our childhood be deemed a sad calamity even though allowed to take with us all that we love; how much more terrible must that absolute banishment be from home estate and friends, from father mother and children, from the light of day and the breath of heaven, in a word, from everything. If the ox low when separated from its fellow under the yoke, how much more will thy heart complain when thou art separated from all in whose companionship thou hast borne the yoke of the burthens of this life ?

5.—Consider also what will then be the anguish of a man when he reflects on the destiny of his body and of his soul after death; as to the body we know, honoured as it may have been during life, one lot only is open to it, six feet of earth alongside its fellow dead; but as to the soul and what her lot will be, we know nothing; for though hope in God's mercy may strengthen her, the contemplation of her sins must fill her with dismay. Add to this the rigour of divine justice and the depth of the judgments of God which differ from and clash with the opinions of man. The thief ascended from the cross to paradise, aN pel Judas fell into hell from the height of the xxxiii, & xxxvi, Apostolate; Manasses found time for reUI Kings xi. pentance after all his abominations; and as for Solomon, though gifted with so many virtues, we are left in the dark as to whether he did or not. One of the greatest anxieties felt at that hour will be, the knowledge that the glory and the pain are eternal, and that both the one and the other are so near, and the ignorance as to which of these opposite destinies the soul is about to pass.

6.—To this anxiety succeeds another equally great; the account then and there to be rendered, and such an account as to make the strongest tremble. It is written of the Abbot Arsenius, that when on the point of death he began to tremble, and that one of his disciples said to him, “Father, and do you now tremble ?” To which he answered, ‘My children this fear is not new to me, for I have always lived in it.” There, then will rise up before a man all the sins of his past life, like a band of enemies advancing upon him, and the greatest sins in which he took the greatest pleasure, will be the most pressing and cause him the greatest horror. Then will his memory drag before him the virgin whom he has dishonoured, the married woman whom he has solicited, the poor whom he has despised and ill-treated, the neighbour whom he has scandalized. There, will cry out against me, not the blood of Abel, but the blood of Christ which I shed and wasted when I scandalized my neighbour. And if this sin be judged according to the law which says, ‘‘ An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth and a blow for a blow,” what hope for a soul to be saved from damnation if judged by that law? Oh, how bitter at that moment is the recollection of past pleasures which once appeared so sweet! Truly did the wise man say, Proverbs xxiii. “Look not thou on the wine when it is red, when it giveth its colour in the cup, because though at the ke time of drinking it appears sweet, afterwards it bites like the snake and spreads its poison like the basilisk.” Oh that men would know the great truth here spoken to us. What sting has the snake to wound compared with that with which the memory will be wounded by the recollection of past pleasures! Apoc. xvii, Jerem. li- These are the dregs of the poisoned drink of the enemy, these are the lees of the outward ti chalice of Babylon.

7.—Then follow the sacraments of confession and com- i munion and afterwards of extreme unction, the last help of the church, in this struggle; and here as before thou must dwell on the anxieties and troubles man must bear for having lived a wicked life, and on how he would then wish to have travelled along another road, and what a different life he would live in future, were but time allowed him for it, and how he will then strive to call upon God, but the pains and agony of his illness will scarcely allow him.

8.—Consider also all those other incidents to illness loa are the forerunners of death, how dreadful they are and cal- a culated to fill us with fear. The breast heaves, the voice grows husky, the feet chill, the cheeks freeze, the nose sharpens, the eyes sink and the face becomes livid, the tongue ceases to b perform its duties, and lastly, with the flight of the soul the 3 paralyzed senses lose their strength and action. But beyond |. all, itis the soul that there suffers the greatest pains, she is then struggling and agonized both at parting from the body and from dread of the account she has to render; she naturally 4 refuses to fly because she loves her dwelling and shudders at the reckoning.

9.—Now that the spirit has left the flesh, two ways lie before thee. The one with the body leads to the place of sepulture, the other with the soul to the place of her trial. Letus | consider the lot of each. Behold then the.body after the soul |. has taken her leave, look at the garments in which it is arrayed for its obsequies and see how soon it is turned out of its Y house. Look at the funeral with all its pageantry, the tolling of the bells, the prayers for the dead, the last offices and doleful dirges of the church, the concourse of weeping friends and lastly all the customary rites until the corpse is laid in the grave to remain buried in the land of eternal oblivion; and as we'see how changeable is the course of human affairs, perhaps the time will come when some building will be erected close to thy tomb, however grand that may be, and that they will throw out the earth to build a wall, and thy poor body will be used as earth to form a mud embankment, though to-day it be the noblest and daintiest in the world. But tell me how many bodies of Kings and Emperors have been able to retain their dignity ?

10.—Having left the body in the graye, then follow the soul and see the road she takes through that new country which will be her everlasting home, and watch her trial. Imagine thyself present before the judgment-seat in the midst of the whole court of heaven awaiting the result of the trial, where everything received to the least tittle will be charged and discharged. There an account will be demanded of the whole life, of all the estate and property, of the inspirations of God, of the means furnished us to lead a good life and above all of the blood of Christ and of the use of the sacraments, and then each will be sentenced according to the account he can give of what he has received.

11.—At the conclusion of the meditation make an act of thanksgiving, an offering and petition as mentioned before in the second chapter.