Chapter 10. On Death; Being a Lengthened Consideration of the Subject As Opened in the Previous Chapter

§ 1.—On three important points which are of great assistance in meditating upon death.

1.—The contemplation of death is very profitable for many reasons and for three especially. First to gain true

60 ON PRAYER AND MEDITATION. = wisdom, which consists in the knowledge of how to govern and regulate our lives. Because, according to philosophers, in actions directed to a particular end, we should be guided by the rules and means that lead to that end. Hence the builder, the sailor, in fact all who seek to carry out any design, always fix their eyes on the object they have in view and make everything else subservient to that. As then at the close of life death is a thing certain to await us, he who wishes to travel through life with safety, should fix his eyes on that target and never swerve from the direct line towards it. See how poor and naked thou hast to go out hence, and what a severe trial thou hast to undergo, and how trodden-down and forgotten thou hast to be in the grave, and then see that thou regulatest thy life accordingly. Thus wilt thou act like the philosopher who said, ‘‘Naked I came out from my mother’s womb and naked I go back to the graye.” Why then do I seek to lose time in gathering riches, if at the end I am to be stript of them? From not having this end always in view, all our errors spring. Hence arises our presumption, our pride, our covetousness, and our daintiness and the castles in the air which we build upon sand. For did we only consider what sort of a figure we shall make a few days hence in this our poor dwelling-house, our lives would be more humble and more temperate. Who would be arrogant did he there see himself but dust and ashes? Who would make a god of his belly did he there see himself the food of worms ? Who would puff up his thoughts so high if he only saw the hollow foundation on which they rested? Who would traverse sea and land in quest of riches did he see the return was only a poor shroud? In fine all our actions would be changed if we were guided by this rule.

2.—For this reason have philosophers said, that the life of a wise man was a constant contemplation of death. Because this teaches man what is something and what is nothing, what he should do and what he should not do in conformity ee $ A e sae. = with the end of his career. It is written of the Brahmin - philosophers who are in the habit of meditating on this subject, that they have their graves open in the threshold of their houses, to remind them always when they enter and when they go out, of what they are ultimately to come to. God told the prophet Jeremiah to go down into the potter’s psi: house as he wished to speak to him there. God could well have conversed with his prophet in any other place, but he wished to speak to him there to shew that the house of clay, which is the grave, is the school of true wisdom in which the Almighty is wont to instruct his own in his doctrines. There, he teaches how great is the vanity of the world, the misery of the flesh, the shortness of life and above all, there he teaches men to know themselves, one of the highest points of philosophy that there is to learn. Go down then, oh man, in spirit into this house, and there thou shalt see who thou art, and of what: thou art, and in what thou art to end, and in what ends the beauty of the flesh and the glory of the world, and thus wilt thou learn to despise all that the world adores from not knowing how to regard it: for the world only looks at the face of Jezabel who appears at the window Kings vi. decked in loveliness, and sees not her miserable extremities, which after her body was devoured, God wished should remain entire, in order to shew us how different the world is from what it seems, and in order that we may so behold its face, as at the same time to bear in mind its wretched extremities in which all its glory terminates.

3.—Secondly this consideration helps to detach us from sin, as the preacher testifies, saying, “Remember thy last end Eecle. vii. and thou shall never sin.” ’Tis a great thing not to sin, and the great antidote against sin is for man to remember that he has to die. St. John Chimacus writes of a monk, who having been grievously tempted by the beauty _of a woman whom he had seen in the world, happening to hear of her death went to her grave and rubbed a handkerchief over the dead carcase, and wheneyer afterwards the devil suggested to him the wicked thou®ht, he put the handkerchief to his nose, saying, “See here, wretch, what thou lovest, and see here how end the pleasures and beauties of the world.” This was a powerful remedy against sin, and not less is the serious consideration of death, according to that of St. Gregory, “There is nothing which so mortifies the appetite of this unruly flesh as the reflection, what it will be itself when dead.” The same saint makes mention of another* monk who when sitting down to take some refreshment for his exhausted body, was suddenly impressed with the thought of death; and as if the thought had been an officer of justice, he shook and trembled to that degree as to abandon his meal. Behold how on the heart of a good man this thought can weigh so heavy, as to cause him to abstain from so innocent an act and one so necessary to sustain his existence.

4.—Truly it is most astonishing that men should know for a certainty the account which will be demanded of them at that hour and still persevere in sinning with such ease. If a traveller with only a penny in his purse entered a tavern and seating himself at the table ordered partridges, poultry and capons, in fact the best the house contained, and supped to his heart’s content without thinking of or considering the time of reckoning, who would not take him for a knave or a fool ? Then what folly can be greater than that of those who plunge so wildly into all sorts of vices and sleep so comfortably over them, without thinking that so soon and so'near, at the door of the tavern, a strict account of all that extravagance will be demanded ?

5.—On this account doubtless the devil labours so hard to - make us lose this remembrance, because he well knows how much we should profit by it; otherwise how would it be possible for men to forget so terrible and dreadful a calamity and one so certain to fall upon them? The fear of losing a small estate or any similar thing will oftentimes keep us awake all night and occasion both loss of sleep and health: how is it © then that the remembrance of death does not, death being both for body and soul the most horrible calamity that can happen? ’Tis a miracle to me that man so careful about trifles should be so utterly reckless about the one thing necessary.

6.—Thirdly this consideration is not only profitable for a good life, as we have said, but also for a good death. Forethought is of great use in all arduous and difficult matters. A great leap like that of death, a leap that bounds from this life to another, cannot be safely taken without starting a long way back and taking along run.” Difficult things are never well done at the first attempt. Then since death is a matter of such vast importance and since it is so necessary to die so well, let us often die during life that when the hour of death comes we may know how to die well. <A nation liable to be involved in war learns and practices in time of peace what will be necessary to do in time of war. The rider who has to ride a race first walks over and examines the course, noting the different turns and slopes that he may not feel strange and at a loss at the time of the race; and since we have'all to ride this race, (as there is no man living who shall not see death), and the course is so rough and uneven as we all know, and the danger so great that he who falls must tumble into the depths of hell; it would be well for us to examine carefully the route step by step, as there is much to look out for. But let us not rest satisfied with seeing what passes externally round the bed of the sick man but rather let us endeavour to fathom what is passing in his heart.

§ 2.—On the uncertainty of the hour of death and on the pain of the separation from everything.

7.—To begin then at the beginning of this battle. See how death when it comes, will come when thou art most secure, and as commonly happens, when least expected. AG Sa “The day of the Lord, says the Apostle, will

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come like a thief who takes care always to come when men are off their guard and are secure, the better to make his attack.” Thus then it most frequently happens, at the time when a man least reckons upon dying and is most forgetful of it, when he is engaged in arranging in advance his future occupations or in planning occupation for many days and years, that death suddenly overtakes him, cuts the thread of all his hopes and ravings and makes a mockery of all human projects. Thus is accomplished what was said by that wise King, ‘‘ My life was cai cut off like the web which the weaver cuts before its time, since scarce had he begun to weave, when at the time it was warped it was cut.” :

8.—The fear of dying is usually the first blow struck by death. A hard hit for him who loves his life. -Such pain is conveyed by this word that oftentimes worldly friends smother it without considering the injury thereby inflicted on the miserable soul. King Saul had a brave heart, but after the T Kings xxvii, = ghost of Samuel appeared to him and told him he would die .in the battle and added, saying, “On the morrow thou and thy sons shall see yourselves here with me,” so struck was he with fear and dread; that in a moment losing all his strength he fell upon the ground, as dead. What then will the lover of this life feel when he receives the like tidings? Then will he figure to himself the eternal separation and banishment from this world and all that it contains. Then will man see that his hour is come, and that the day has dawned upon his house, the day on which he has to sever himself from all he loves in this life. The body will die but once, but the heart as often as it numbers the dear things it has to lose, since the knife of death will sever it from them all. The deeper the tooth is fastened in the jaw, the greater the pain in extracting it. As then the heart of the wicked is so rooted in the love of the things of this life, it cannot but feel great anguish when the hour comes for its separation from each of them. Then the things most loved will wound the heart most acutely and that which has been looked upon hitherto as the solace of its sufferings, will then be its most cruel executioner. St. Augustin relates that when he contemplated separating himself from the world and all its pleasures, it seemed to him as if they all arranged themselves before him and addressed him. How? And are you going to desert us for ever, and are we never more to see you? Do thou then consider what thy carnal heart will feel when those that it most loves place themselves before it at that hour, and it sees itself despoiled of all so as to be obliged to cry out; “¿Now there is no world left for me, no air, nor sun, nor heayen for me, no wife or children or pleasures for me. Iam stript of all, now death despoils me of everything. My turn is now come, the number of my days is complete; now shall I die to all things and all things to me. Then, oh world, I commit thee to God: my inheritance and my estate I commit to God. My friends, my wife, my children I leave you to God for in this mortal flesh we shall see each other no more.”

9.—There is still another separation even more fearful than this, that of the soul from the body its long and so much cherished companion. The devil had despoiled Holy Job of - everything but life, and it seemed to him in comparison with that that all the rest was trivial and he thus spoke, “Skin for skin and all that a man has he will give for his life.””” This is what he naturally loves most and the separation from which he feels most. If the parting of two travellers though only companions for a short time causes sorrow and a feeling of loneliness, what will the parting of two such intimate friends and companions as the soul and the body which have travelled together from their mother’s womb up to that hour and are knit together by so many acts of mutual kindness? What will it be when the spirit shall say to the flesh, ‘‘ Without thee I stand alone?” And the flesh shall say to the spirit, “Shall I then continue thus without thee since of thee I received my very being?”

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10.—After this it naturally occurs to the dying man to consider where his body will be left after its separation from the soul. He then sees its fate at best is only a small grave. He is astonished at so mean a lot as this, because considering on the one hand in what estimation he held his body and seeing on the other, in what a bare and miserable hole it has to remain, he cannot avoid being filled with amazement. He sees how narrow is the home prepared for it in the earth, how dark and how loathsome, the companion of worms and the bones and skulls of the dead and how horrible even to be looked at by the living. And as he sees that body which he used to treat so daintily, and that belly which he made his god, and that palate to whose pleasures the earth and sea were made tributary, and that flesh for whose clothing gold and silk were woven, and which was provided with a white and downy bed, have to be thrown on'so miserable a dunghill, there crawled upon and devoured by worms, and reduced to the same end as the hack that dies in the field, at which the passer-by holds his nose and hurries past out of the stench. When he reflects on all this and sees after the soft bed the + hard earth, after the sweet perfumes dust and filth, and «instead of so many meats and servants, such worms and devourers, he cannot, if he retain any of his faculties, cease to be astonished at seeing to what a base end so noble a nature can descend, and with whom that, in one hour is made equal, which so unequally. spent the entire term of life.

11.—Wise men are not apt to wonder, and the frequent recurrence of great events prevents them occasioning surprise, yet with all this the wise man was filled with astonishment at this misery though of daily and such frequent recurrence,

Ecele. ii. 8. when he says, ‘‘ If the manner of the death of man and of beast be one, what doth it profit to have laboured much in seeking after wisdom?” If the body in this separation retained some value or were of any use, it would be some consolation; but it is a subject for wonder that so excellent a creature should make its final resting place in the most degraded and abominable hole. This is that great misery, at which Holy Job was with just reason astonished when he said, ‘‘The tree after it is cut down hopes to live again and to be again clothed with green leaves; and should its root grow old in the soil, and its trunk be dead and reduced to dust, still with a fresh shower it revives and puts forth leaves as when first planted, but man when dead and stript and consumed, I ask you, tell me where he is?” Great without doubt was the tribute charged upon the children of Adam for sin. Well did the Eternal Judge know the punishment he inflicted on man, when he said, “ Dust thou art and into dust thow shalt return.”

12.-—This however is not the greatest cause for fear that at that momént presents itself, much greater cause for fear has the soul when she looks forward and begins to contemplate the dangers of the next life and to reflect on the fate that awaits her there. ’Tis like launching from a little creek into the open sea, where there is nothing around but sky and ocean, to an inexperienced navigator a fearful look-out. For when a man sees the endless ages which succeed death, and that new unknown country, never shewn to the living, through which he is about to journey, and that eternal glory or punishment which awaits him, and knows that where the tree falls there it will for ever lie, but cannot see on which side it will fall, it is impossible he should not feel filled with tribulation. Heel. xviii. Ben-hadad King of Syria was sick and was IHI Kings, vii, in such anxiety to know whether his illness was mortal, that he sent the General of his army with forty camels laden with treasure to the Prophet Eliseus, beseeching him in the most humble terms to relieve his mind from its anxiety and inform him whether he should be healed or not. If then the love of a life so short as this so fills us with solicitude, how great will be the solicitude of a prudent man when he finds himself so placed that he cau say with truth, “Two hours hence, one of two things will be my portion: life everlasting or eternal death, and which of the two, for certain I know not?” What martyrdom so excruciating as this agony ? Tell me, were a King a prisoner amongst the Turks and when his ambassadors were sent to treat for his ransom, the infidels insisted that the business should be determined by drawing lots, and that if he drew the lucky ticket he should be ransomed and taken back by his ambassadors to his kingdom, but if he were unfortunate in the draw he should be thrown into a blazing fire then burning before his eyes: tell me, when the \lots were cast in and the hand was already in the act of drawing and the by-standers in suspense were looking for the ticket and the King himself gazing in the agony of doubt about his fate; how dost thou think he would feel, what would be his trouble! what his fear! what readiness to promise and to offer the world for his deliverance from such a difficulty ? But what is all this, terrible as it seems, but a shadow compared to the peril of which we are speaking ? How much greater is the kingdom for which we are striving? How much hotter the blazing fire before which we shudder? And how much more embarassing the perplexity of this affair ? Since on one side angels will be looking on to bear us up to the kingdom of heaven, and on the other devils in readiness to cast us into the fiery furnace of hell; and no man knows which of the two may be his own fate at any moment. Turn then thy eyes upon thy own heart at that moment and watch its pulsations, how it quivers, how it is humbled, how prostrate before the face of Him who alone can deliver thee from this danger! No mortal tongue can properly describe this scene.

§ 4.—How at the hour of death the errors and blindness of our past life will be seen ; and on the terrors of the last account.

13.—After this affliction comes another as severe, especially for all who have led a wicked life, the discovery made so late, of the deceits and errors of our past lives. Oh how bewildered will the wicked be, when the anguish of suffering shall open their eyes hitherto blinded by the charms of sin! How clearly will they then see those false Gods whom they worshipped! How deceitful will those riches appear, which they laboured for! And now they have only found perdition by following the track along which they expected to find repose. The servants of the King of Syria came to seize the Prophet Eliseus and as God at the prayer of the Prophet struck them with blindness, the Prophet after their sight was taken HT Kings, vi. from them said to them, ‘‘Come along with me and I will shew you what you are in quest of.”” And saying this he bore them behind him to Samaria and set them down in the market-place of the city in the midst of ‘all their enemies, and again lifting up his voice in prayer said, ‘‘ Open, O Lord, the eyes of these wretched men that they may see where they are.” Now I pray you tell me, when they opened their eyes and saw where they stood, believing they were about to obtain what they had come in search of, what was their astonishment and confusion! What can serve better than this to illustrate the course of our deceitful life! We all walk in this world along the road of our appetites and covetousness, some in search of gold, some of honours, others of pleasures, others of dignities and offices, and each one is content to obtain what he is in search of. But when the presence of death and the perils of the last account expose the vanity of our hopes, then when we find ourselves brought to book, we see clearly our mistake and discover that the road we thought leading to our final repose has ended in our everlasting perdition. O miserable creatures that we are! how blind we now walk, but how our eyes will then be opened! How different will our ideas then be, and how changed our opinions! Then we shall see what a miserable affair this world is, how false its goods, “how crooked its ways, how lying its promises, how bitter its pleasures, and how short its glory! Then shall we discover, alas too late, how its riches were thorns, its delights poison ; and lastly, how with our eyes shut, in ignorance of the end of our journey we find ourselves in the market-place of Samaria and in the net of divine justice surrounded by all our enemies. How will the wicked at that hour find themselves confounded and deceived! How truly may each of them then cry out, Woe isme! My past pleasures, what do they avail me now but to draw down upon me the indignation of the judge who has to sentence me? Yea all pleasures are ended now, and nothing remains of them to afford me delight, no more than if they had never been; but on the contrary, like thorns they wound my heart, make my cause doubtful, and’ at this moment torture my soul and will perhaps be the cause of its torments for ever. This is the fruit I have gathered from my pleasures, this the flavor left by my past gluttony ; pleasures have now ceased, they have fled never to return and perhaps for the pleasures of a single moment, I have prepared for myself an eternity of pain. What blindness then could be greater? How much better would it have been for me never to have been born than to have offended Him of whom at this hour I stand in such need! How much better would it have been for the earth to have opened aud swallowed me up, than that I should have thought to offend Him! O unfortunate day ! O ill-fated hour in which O Lord I sinned against thee! How was it I looked not forward to this hour! How was it I forgot this judgment? How were my eyes blinded by such feeble brightness? Is this the road I aimed at following? Do the world’s honours terminate in this? Is all that the world esteemed so much, so worthless now ?

14.—Another trouble and not less serious follows, the dread of the accoant about to be demanded. ‘This is one of the most grievous evils then to be endured. For awful as it is to have to enter into judgment with the Almighty, the devils themselves will then aggravate our terrors, they who before deluded us with hopes of the divine mercy. Then will they bring to our minds the ‘severity of God’s judgments and the rigour of his

Luke xxiii. $l. Justice which refused to pardon his own son on account of the sins of others. If, they will say, he does this in the green wood what will he do in the dry? Then will the wicked man begin to tremble and to say within himself, wretched creature that lam! If that be true which the Scriptures every where proclaim, that God will render to each one according to his works, I who have done such works of sin, what have I to expect? If the Gospel says that the tree shall be judged by its fruits, for him who has produced such fruits as mine, what sentence

_is to be expected? If the prophet says no man shall ascend the mountain of God who has not innocent hands and a clean heart, I whose hands are so guilty and whose heart so filthy, where

Proy. XXyii. shall I go? If the wise man says that he who shuts his ears not to hear the law, shall cry out and shall not be heard, what can he hope for who has so closed his ears against the Word of God and opened them to the lies of the world? Then O my God, with what face shall I appear before thee and beg of thee to hear me, since thou hast called to me so often and I heard thee not? How shall I ask thee to receive me into thy house, since so often when thou hast called at mine I closed the door in thy face? Howshall I find thee now in the time of need, when so often when thou wast in want of me, thou didst not find me? ‘With what claim can I ask thee at the end of the day’s work to admit me into heaven, haying spent all my life in the service of thy enemy? Oh how justly canst thou then say to me O Lord, “ Thou hast served the world and the

I Kings, viii. devil, look to them for thy reward.” Thus answered the Prophet Eliseus to King Joram, who having spent all his life in the service and worship of idols, in the time of his necessities applied to the prophet of God for assistance; and thus answered the prophet, saying, “ Go, look to the prophets of thy father and thy mother whom thou hast followed and call on them for assistance now.” O how much we. resemble this bad king both in life and death. During life we serve the world and in death we call upon God. What answer then canst thou expect in that hour, but the same which has already been given under similar circumstances? What hast thou to do with me, since thou hast never served me? Away, look to those counsellers whose advice thou hast followed, to those idols thou hast loved and served and adored, and bid them pay thee for thy services. “When thou criest out; says the Lord by Isaiah, let thy supporters come to thy help, all of whom the wind and the air shall blow and carry away.”

15.—Here man begins to wish for time for repentance and imagines were that given him, he would not be content with any sort of penance, but would undergo the bitterest in the world, and as he sees no further time is granted, and calls to mind the ~ time and opportunities he once had, and how he allowed them to pass idly by, bitter will be the regret for this loss accompanied by the knowledge that this punishment is but a just reward for him who made such poor use of the time he had. O how many of us act in this foolish manner, we spend the time given us by

God in vanity and folly, and only miss it when we stand in need - of it. Thus our fortune resembles that of the young pages of the palace who receive a candle to light them to bed which they burn over play during the night and have afterwards to grope their way to bed in the dark.

§ 5.—On catreme unction and the last agony.

16.—The disease having reached its crisis, the church begins to assist her children with prayers and the sacraments and all her aids. And as the necessity is so pressing, (for at that moment the destiny of an eternity is determined), she hastens to call upon all the saints to her assistance in such a crisis. What else is that litany which she then orders to be recited for the dying, but because like a tender mother pressed by her child’s danger she knocks at every gate of heaven, and begs of all the saints to interpose as petitioners before the divine presence for the salvation of the unfortunate sinner.

17.—Then the priest anoints all the senses and limbs of the sick man praying God to forgive him all his sins committed through the medium of each of them. Thus anointing the eyes he says; ‘‘ May the Lord by this holy anointing, and by his own most tender mercy pardon thee whatever sin thou hast committed by thy sight.” And in a similar manner he anoints all the others. Then if the wretched sinner has sinned with his eyes, or his tongue or any of his other senses, and all these past sins present themselves at that time before him, and sees the little fruit they have left him, how can he escape feeling unutterable anguish ? What would he not give never to have raised his eyes off the earth, never to have opened his mouth to utter a bad word ?

18.—After this follows the agony of death, the greatest struggle of life. When the lighted taper and the shroud are ready and the sick man is told that the hour for his departure is at hand and to commend himself to God and to invoke the assistance of his blessed Mother, the help of those who call upon her in that hour; when the cries and groans of his poor wife as she begins to feel the sorrows and loneliness of her new widowhood ring in his ears; when the soul begins to struggle out of the body and in the act of her flight each member feels the pang of separation; then are all her agonies renewed, then she has to combat and to struggle, not so much against her departure but with the terrors of the hour of reckoning which is at hand. Here is room for fear and trembling even for the bravest. The blessed Hilarion finding himself at this point began to tremble and to shrink from death but the holy man thus encouraged himself saying: ‘‘Go forth my soul, go forth, what dost thou fear? Seventy years thou hast served Christ and dost thou still fear death?” If he who had so long served Christ thus dreaded this pass, what must he do who has perhaps sinned against him for as many years? Where willhe go? On whom will he call? What counsel will he take? Oh that men could understand the extent of this perplexity and anxiety! I pray thee now to imagine how the heart of the Patriarch Isaac would beat when his father held him on the faggots bound hand and foot ready for sacrifice. Gen. xxii. Above he saw the gleaming knife of his father, below the flames of the burning fire, the servants who might have helped him had stopped at the foot of the mountain, he was bound hand and foot unable to flee or to defend himself. How then would the heart of that holy youth beat when he thus saw himself? But much more streightened will the soul of the wicked be at that hour, for on what side soever she looks,she sees nothing but cause for fear and tribulation. If she looks up, she beholds the threatening sword of divine justice, if down, the grave yawning open to receive her, if within, there is her conscience stinging. If she looks around her, she imagines angels and devils each watching and hoping for their prize. If she turns her eyes back upon the world, she sees there still servants and relatives and estate, but they are not for her assistance, she alone is leaving life, all the rest remain as they were. Lastly if after all she turns her eyes within and looks at herself, she trembles at the sight; and were it possible would flee from herself. The past will appear as a breath of air, but the future, infinite. What » then will the hapless creature do surrounded by such troubles ? O the folly and blindness of the children of Adam who neglect - to provide against such an event whilst yet there is time!

§ 6.—On the foulness of the body after death, on the burial, on the grave and on the departure of the soul.

19.—Lastly, after this protracted struggle, the soul quits the body and goes forth from her old dwelling whilst the body remains deprived of all that gave it value.

20.—Let us now contemplate the fate of each, and first that of the body after the soul has left it. What more honoured during life than the body of a Prince, and what more despised and vile than the same after death? Where is that ancient majesty, that comeliness, that authority, that frown that caused all to tremble, that approach on bended knees and with such show of reverence? How quickly does all that pomp dissolve like the fabric of a dream or like a farce played out in an hour!

21.—Then is the shroud prepared, the richest treasure that can be carried out of this life, with which the richest man receives his pay at last. Therefore, said the prophet with much reason, “* Be not thou afraid when a man shall be made rich and when the glory of his house shall be increased, for when he shall die he shall- take nothing away, nor shall his glory descend with him.”

22.—Then shall they dig a hole from seven to eight feet long, though it be for Alexander the Great whom the whole world could not satisfy, and with this only the body then rests content. There is its home for ever, there its perpetual abode with the rest of the dead, there the worms crawl out to welcome it; and there it is ultimately left in a poor sheet, the face covered with a handkerchief, the feet and hands tied together to little purpose, for it is quite safe not to fly from its prison and

• can defend itself against no one. There the earth receives it into her bosom and the bones of the departed welcome it in peace, and the ashes of those who have gone before embrace and invite it to that table and that home which is the destiny of every living being. And the last honour the world can then bestow is to throw over it a coat of clay and cover it well that the passers-by may not gaze upon its foulness and its dishonour. And the greatest kindness the dearest friends can shew it is to honour it with a handful of earth. The faithful are in the habit of performing this ceremony over the dead in the hopes that God will provide some one to do as much for them. What greater exhibition could there be of our misery, than the sight of men thus anticipating their own want of so small a favour ? Oh, avarice of the living and poverty of the dead that so much should be coveted for so short a life when so little is expected to satisfy at the last hour!

23.—Then the sexton with his spade and rammer begins to turn over bones on bones and to batten down the well-beaten earth. Thus the loveliest face, the most cared for and protected against the sun and weather will be crushed under the rammer of the rough grave-digger, who cares not to smash in its forehead and crack its skull, to punch in its eyes and nose that it may lie flat in the ground; and on that fine gentleman, who was too delicate and dainty during life for the air to breathe upon, and off whose clothes every speck of lint must be brushed, they will cast a midden of dirt; and that other who strutted redolent of amber and perfumes will find himself covered with filth and worms. This then is the end of the gay dresses and of all the pride of the world.

24.—Thus will its friends leave it housed in that narrow. dwelling, in that land of oblivion and that darksome prison in the company of eternal solitude. Oh world, what is thy glory! Riches, whatis your power! Friends, where have you left me ? How is it such ancient fellowship has so suddenly vanished? How is the wheel of such prosperity so suddenly broken ? IV. Kings, ix, Those who saw Queen Jezabel, by the righteous judgment of God devoured by dogs, and that nought remained of all her beauty but the skull and the extremities of her feet and hands, as they had before known her encircled by such glory and then saw her in such a plight, filled with wonder at so great a change, asked each other saying, ‘‘Is this that same Jezabel?” And all who past by that way and saw her body made the food of dogs, repeated the exclamation, ‘“‘Is this that same Jezabel?” Is this that great queen and princess of Israel? Is this the powerful one who enriched herself with the estates of her vassals at the price of their blood? Can death drag down the powerful so low ?

25.—Descend now O brother in spirit into the tombs of the princes and great lords of whom thou hast heard or whom thou hast known in this world, and see the horrible and shapeless mass lying there and thou wilt see, that thou also hast good reason to exclaim in the same words and cry out, “Is this that same Jezabel?” Is this that same face I so well knew in life? Are these those bright eyes? Is this that merry tongue? Is this that graceful form? Do crowns and sceptres end in this? Is this the end of the glory of the world? “Oh,” says a wise man, ‘‘ whenever I chance to stray amongst the sepulchres of some of the dead, amazed and astonished at all before me, I fix my eyes on some figure near me, my limbs tremble and. with clasped hands and quivering lips I say within myself: see those feet, what journies they have travelled! those hands, how much they have grasped and saved! those eyes, what vanities they have looked on! what gluttony has revelled in that mouth! and what castles in the air has that skull built! For the gratification of that dust and shrivelled skin what sins have been committed for which the soul of that body perhaps at this moment is suffering pains which will endure for ever! I rush aghast from the place and meeting other men, I fix my eyes on them and wonder whether they and I with them will not soon have to see ourselves in the same predicament and in the same abasement. Then oh wretch that Iam! what avail riches if here T am to lie so naked? What gay clothes and ornaments since here I am so squalid? Of what avail feasts and pleasures since I am here to be the food of worms ?”

26.—Let us now leave the body in the sepulchre and follow the soul on its journey to that new world which is like another hemisphere with a new sky and a new earth and another sort of life and another kind of knowledge and understanding. Freed from the flesh she enters into this new region where the living have never trod, full of fear and covered with the shadow of death. What will this stranger do in that foreign land, if in this life she has not secured for that hour a guard of angels for her protection? ‘‘Oh my soul,” says St. Bernard, “how wilt thou feel on that day when alone thou enterest that unknown country where thou wilt encounter on the road such terrible and tremendous monsters! Who will protect thee ? Who defend thee? Who will deliver thee from the lions raging with hunger and waiting to devour thee ?”

27.—Fearful indeed is the road but still more dreadful the trial to be there held. Who can tell how closely woven - will be the web of justice, how severe the judge, how zealous the prosecutors, how few the friends, how minute the account, - how long the scrutiny of our life? If then the just man, according to St. Peter, shall with difficulty be saved, where will the sinner, where the wicked appear? And ’tis well worthy of our notice that in this our great need, what we have most loved and most reckoned upon to help us, will not only be of no use but will most contribute to embarrass us. What

HI Kings xiv. xviii. the beautiful Absalom most loved and valued was his hair, and that God ordained, as a fitting judgment, should be the cause of his death. This same judgment awaits the wicked at that hour, what they most valued in life and for the love of which they most offended God, shall then throw the deepest doubt upon their case and give them the greatest torture. Then those sons whom right or wrong we would enrich, then that wicked wife for love of whom we broke the laws of God, then that estate and honour, and those pleasures which were our idols, shall prove our executioners and shall most cruelly torment us. Then shall God execute his judgments against all the gods of Egypt commanding that those things in which we had gloried should there be the cause of our perdition. ‘

28.—The stroke of that divine sentence, if in conformity with our offences, who dare await it? One of the fathers of the desert said, there were three things of which he lived in dread. First the departure of the soul from the body, second when she had to appear before the judgment seat of God, and thirdly when her sentence had to be pronounced. But beyond all, what if at last there fall upon thee the sentence of eternal damnation? What will thy troubles then be? And what a day of rejoicing for thy enemies! Then how those words of the prophet will be fulfilled, ‘‘Thy enemies have opened their mouths against thee and have hissed and gnashed their teeth Psalm xii. and have said, we will devour him; this is the day we looked for, we have found it, we have seen it.” 29.—But thou, oh good Jesus, enlighten the eyes of my soul, that I may never sleep in death, that my enemy may never say, ““I have prevailed against him.” Amen.