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VEN. LOUIS OF GRANADA, O P.
THE SINNER’S GUIDE
Yen. LOUIS OF GRANADA, O.P.
A NEW AND REVISED TRANSLATION BY A FATHER OF THE SAME ORDER.
BOSTON :
T. B. NOONAN & CO.
BOSTON COLLb?^i‘ Li UKARY* CHESTNUT HILL, MASS,
APPROBATIONS.
Wt&tmus et Bpprobavimus :
fk. c. h. McKenna, o.p.,
Fr. J. L. O’NEIL, O.P.,
Revisor es Deputati.
Neo-Eboraci, Die 15 Novembris, 1883.
imprimatur :
Fr. M. D. LILLY, O.P.,
Pnor Provincicdis,
Provincice S. Joseph.
Neo-Eboraci, Die 15 Novembris, 1883.
imprimatur :
2 X
■ l~7
* JOHN J. WILLIAMS, D.D.,
Archbishop qf Boston.
By his Vicar-General.
Boston, November 22, 1883.
Copyright, 1883, by C. H. McKenna.
Brief of Our Holy Father Gregory XIII.
To our well beloved Son , Louis of Granada , of the Order of Friars Preachers .
GREGORY PP. XIII.
Dearly beloyed Son, Health and Apostolic Bene- diction :
Your arduous and incessant labors, both for the conver- sion of sinners and for the guidance of souls to perfec- tion, together with the valuable assistance you render those who are earnestly engaged in the work of the ministry, have always afforded us great consolation.
Your sermons and writings, filled with sublime doc- trine and practical piety, are unceasingly drawing souls to God. This is particularly gratifying to us, for all who have profited by your teaching (and their number is very great) may be considered as so many souls gained to Christ. You have thus benefited your fellow-creatures more than if you had given sight to the blind and raised the dead to life. For the knowledge of the Eternal Light and the enjoyment of the heavenly life, according as they are given to man on earth to know and enjoy them, are far above the knowledge and enjoyment of the transitory goods of this world.
The charity with which you have devoted yourself to your great and important labor has gained for you many crowns.
2 Brief of Our Holy Father Gregory , XIII.
Continue, then, to devote all your energies to the pro- secution of your undertakings. Finish what you have begun, for we understand that you have some works yet incomplete. Give them to the world for the health of the sick, for the strength of the weak, for the delight of God’s servants, and for the glory of the Church both militant and triumphant.
Given at Rome the 21st of July, 1582, in the eleventh year of our pontificate.
ANT. BUCCIPALULE.
INTRODUCTION.
THE author of the following work holds a high place among the spiritual writers of the Church. Living in an age of saints and doctors. Yen. Louis of Granada occupies a remarkable position among those who, during the sixteenth century, illumined the Church, particularly in Spain, by their sanctity and learning.
Though he has not been canonized, his memo- ry is in benediction, for he died with a reputa- tion for undoubted holiness, and time has con- firmed the judgment of his contemporaries.
The esteem in which he was held by Pope Gregory XIII. and St. Charles Borromeo is well known to readers of their lives. The letter addressed to him by this Pontiff, which is pub- lished with this edition, shows how Gregory appreciated his genius and piety, and what a value he placed on his services to the Church. St. Charles used his works almost exclusively for preaching. Pope Sixtus Y. offered him a
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Introduction .
cardinal’s hat, but he refused it, as well as the archbishopric of Braga, the primatial see of Portugal. St. Francis de Sales was also a de- voted student of his works, and highly recom- mended them to others.
Among his numerous writings the “Sinner’s Guide” is one of the most practical. For more than three hundred years it has been the means of enlightening many souls and leading them in the path of true justice. It has been trans- lated into almost every European language, besides the Chinese and Persian. When nam- ing the work the author doubtless bore in mind the declaration of St. John, that we have all sinned ; for the book is suitable for all, whether sinners or just. The method he follows is comprehensive, embracing the entire scope of the spiritual life, at least as far as it is attained by ordinary Christians. A special merit of the “ Sinner’s Guide ” is the copious use the author makes of Sacred Scripture and the Fathers. He constantly supports his teaching by these invincible authorities.
For publishing a work of this kind no apolo- gy is made. The need of good books was never greater than at present. Hot only youth, but old age untaught by experience, rush madly into the excesses of sensational or infidel read-
Introduction .
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ing and vile story-papers, which deprive them of all relish for pious or solid reading, and finally undermine the very foundations of their virtue and faith. As an aid in remedying so great an evil we publish the “ Sinner’s Guide,” confident that of its kind nothing superior to it has been written since its author first gave it to the world. It is true that for many years it has been before the English public. But the translation was by no means satisfactory. The present edition is a new translation, carefully revised, rearranged, and, where it seemed op- portune, also abridged. No essential changes, however, have been made, for it has been our desire to give the venerable author’s meaning in its substantial fulness. We trust, then, that the work will be widely circulated solely for its intrinsic merits and for the good it will ac- complish.
Convent of St. Vincent Ferrer,
New York, Nov. 9, 1883.
Feast of All Saints of the Dominican Order.
CONTENTS
PAGE
Brief of Oar Holy Father Gregory XIII., 1
Introduction, 3
CHAPTER I.
The First Motive which obliges us to practise Virtue and to serve God : His Being in itself and the excellence of His Perfections, 13
CHAPTER II.
The Second Motive for practising Virtue : the Benefit of our Creation, 26
CHAPTER III.
The Third Motive for practising Virtue: the Benefit of our Pre- servation, and the Government of His Providence, . . 34
CHAPTER IV.
The Fourth Motive for practising Virtue : the Inestimable Benefit of our Redemption, 44
CHAPTER V.
The Fifth Motive for practising Virtue : the Benefit of our Justification, 56
CHAPTER VI.
The Sixth Motive for practising Virtue : the Incomprehensible
Benefit of Election, 70
CHAPTER VII.
The Seventh Motive for practising Virtue : the Thought of Death, the First of the Four Last Things, .... 76
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Contents.
CHAPTER VIII.
PAGE
The Eighth Motive for practising Virtue : the Thought of the Last Judgment, the Second of the Four Last Things, . 87
CHAPTER IX.
The Ninth Motive for practising Virtue : the Thought of Heaven, the Third of the Four Last Things, ... 96
CHAPTER X.
The Tenth Motive for practising Virtue : the Thought of Hell,
the Fourth of the Four Last Things, 107
CHAPTER XI.
The Eleventh Motive for practising Virtue : the Inestimable Advantages promised it even in this Life, . . . .121
CHAPTER XII.
The First Privilege of Virtue : God’s fatherly Care of the Just, 130
CHAPTER XIII.
The Second Privilege of Virtue : the Grace with which the Holy Spirit fills the Just, 144
CHAPTER XIV.
The Third Privilege of Virtue : the Supernatural Light and
Knowledge granted to the Just, 148
CHAPTER XV.
The Fourth Privilege of Virtue : the Consolations with which
the Holy Spirit visits the Just, 156
CHAPTER XVI.
The Fifth Privilege of Virtue : the Peace of a Good Con- science, 164
CHAPTER XVII.
The Sixth Privilege of Virtue : the Confidence of the Just, . 172
Contents .
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CHAPTER XVIII, pAGE
The Seventh Privilege of Virtue : the True Liberty of the Just, 179
CHAPTER XIX.
The Eighth Privilege of Virtue: the Peace enjoyed by the Just, 195
CHAPTER XX.
The Ninth Privilege of Virtue : the Manner in which God hears the Prayers of the Just, 204
CHAPTER XXI.
The Tenth Privilege of Virtue : the Consolation and Assist- ance with which God sustains the Just in their Afflictions, 210
CHAPTER XXII.
The Eleventh Privilege of Virtue : God’s Care for the Temporal Needs of the Just, 218
CHAPTER XXIII.
The Twelfth Privilege of Virtue : the Happy Death of the
Just, .227
CHAPTER XXIV.
The Folly of those who defer their Conversion, .... 237 CHAPTER XXV.
Of those who defer their Conversion until the Hour of Death, 249 CHAPTER XXVI.
Of those who continue in Sin, trusting in the Mercy of God, 264 CHAPTER XXVII.
Of those who allege that the Path of Virtue is too Difficult, . 272 CHAPTER XXVIII.
Of those who refuse to practise Virtue because they love the World, 291
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Contents .
CHAPTER XXIX.
PAGE
The ’ First Remedy against Sin : a Firm Resolution not to commit it, 315
CHAPTER XXX.
Remedies against Pride, 323
Section I —General Remedies, 323
Section II.— Particular Remedies , .... 330
CHAPTER XXXI.
Remedies against Covetousness, 334
Section I. — Against Covetousness in General , . . 334
Section II —Against the unjust Detention of Another'' s
Goods, 341
CHAPTER XXXH.
Remedies against Lust, 344
Section I. — General Remedies, 344
Section II.— Particular Remedies , . . . .349
CHAPTER XXXIII.
Remedies against Envy, 353
CHAPTER XXXIV.
Remedies against Gluttony, 358
CHAPTER XXXV.
Remedies against Anger and Hatred, 362
CHAPTER XXXVI.
Remedies against Sloth, 368
CHAPTER XXXVII.
Other Sins to be avoided, 374
Section I —On taking the Name of Godin Vain, . 374 Section II. — On Detraction and Raillery, . . .376
Section III. — On Rash Judgments, . . . .381
Section IV.— On the Commandments of the Church , , 382
Contents .
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CHAPTER XXXVIII.
PAGE
Venial Sins, 384
CHAPTER XXXIX.
Shorter Remedies against Sins, particularly the Seven Deadly Sins, 385
CHAPTER XL.
Three Kinds of Virtues in which the Fulness of Justice con- sists ; and, first, Man’s Duty to himself, .... 394 Section l.—Our Threefold Obligation to Virtue , . . 394
Section II. — The Ref or matron of the Body, . . . 395
Section III.— Temperance, 399
Section IV. — The Government of the Senses, . . 405
Section V. — The Government of the Tongue, . . 407
Section VI.— The Mortification of the Passions, . . 409
Section VII.— The Reformation of the Will, . . 412
Section VIII. — The Government of the Imagination, . 414 Section IX — The Government of the Understanding, 416 Section X. — Prudence in Temporal Affairs, . . . 419
Section XL.— Means of acquiring this Virtue , . . 421
CHAPTER XLI.
Man’s Duty to his Neighbor, 423
CHAPTER XLII.
Man’s Duty to God, 429
Section I.— Man's Duties in General, . . . .429
Section II .—The Love of God, 430
Section III.— The Fear of God, 430
Section IV.— Confidence in God, 432
Section V. — Zeal for the Glory of God, . . . 433
Section VI— Purity of Intention, 434
Section VII.— Prayer, 436
Section VIII.— Gratitude, 436
Section IX.— Obedience, 437
Section X— Patience in Afflictions , .... 444
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Contents .
chapter xmi.
PAGE
The Obligations of our State, 450
CHAPTER XLIV.
The Relative Importance and Value of the Virtues, . . .454
CHAPTER XLV.
Four Important Results of the Preceding Doctrine, . . . 459
Section I. — The Necessity of Exteiior as well as In-
ierioi • Virtues, 459
Section H— Discernment in the Pursuit of Virtue , . 4G0
Section III —Virtues that are Less must sometimes
yield to those that are Greater , . . 461
Section W.—T/ue and False Justice, . . . .462
CHAPTER XLVI.
The Different Vocations in the Church, 470
CHAPTER XLVn.
The Vigilance and Care necessary in the Practice of Virtue, . 477 CHAPTER XLVIII.
The Courage necessary in the Practice of Virtue, . . . 479
Section I. — The Necessity of Courage, .... 479 Section II.— Means of acquiring Courage , . . .482
THE SINNER’S GUIDE.
CHAPTER I.
THE FIRST MOTIVE WHICH OBLIGES US TO PRAC- TISE VIRTUE AND TO SERVE GOD : HIS BEING IN ITSELF AND THE EXCELLENCE OF HIS PER- FECTIONS.
TWO things, Christian reader, particularly ex- cite the will of man to good. A principle of justice is one, the other the profit we may derive therefrom. All wise men, there- fore, agree that justice and profit are the two most powerful inducements to move our wills to any undertaking. Now, though men seek profit more frequently than justice, yet justice is in itself more powerful ; for, as Aristotle teaches, no worldly advantage can equal the excellence of virtue, nor is any loss so great that a wise man should not suffer it rather than yield to vice. The design of this book being to win men to virtue, we shall begin by showing our obligation to practise it because of the duty we owe to God. God being essen- tially goodness and beauty, there is nothing
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more pleasing to Him than virtue, nothing He more earnestly requires. Let us first seriously consider upon what grounds God demands this tribute from us.
But as these are innumerable, we shall only treat of the six principal motives which claim for God all that man is or all that man can do. The first, the greatest, and the most inexplicable is the very essence of God, embracing His infinite majesty, goodness, mercy, justice, wisdom, om- nipotence, excellence, beauty, fidelity, immuta- bility, sweetness, truth, beatitude, and all the inexhaustible riches and perfections contained in the Divine Being. All these are so great that if the whole world, according to St. Augustine, were full of books, if the sea were turned to ink, and every creature employed in writing, the books would be filled, the sea would be drained, and the writers would be exhausted before any one of His perfections could be adequately ex- pressed. The same Doctor adds : “ Were any man created with a heart as large and capacious as the hearts of all men together, and if he were enabled by an extraordinary light to apprehend one of the divine attributes, his joy and delight would be such that, unless supported by special assistance from God, he could not endure them.”
This, then, is the first and chief reason which obliges us to love and serve God. It is a truth so universally acknowledged that even the Epi- cureans, wdio endeavored to destroy all philo- sophy by denying a Divine Providence and the immortality of the soul, maintained, neverthe- less, religion, or the worship due to God. One
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of these philosophers * proves the existence of God by strong and undeniable arguments. lie proclaims the greatness and sovereignty of His admirable perfections, which oblige us to reve- rence and adore Him, and shows that for this reason alone, independently of any other title, God has a right to our love and service. If we treat a king, even out of his own dominion, with respect and honor purely because of the dignity of his person, though we owe him nothing, with how much more justice should we render honor and service to this King and Lord, Who, as St. John tells us, bears written “upon His garment and upon His thigh, King of Kings and Lord of Lords ” ! f This is He who hath “poised with three fingers the bulk of the earth.” J All beings are in His power; He disposes of them as He wills. It is He who propels the hea- venly bodies, commands the winds, changes the seasons, guides the elements, distributes the waters, controls the stars, creates all things ; it is He, in fine, Who, as King and Lord of the universe, maintains and nourishes all creatures. Nor is His kingdom acquired or inherited. By His very nature it is for Him an inherent right. Just as man is above the ant, for exam- ple, so is the divine substance in an eminent de- gree above all created beings, and the whole uni- verse is no more than one of these little insects compared to Him. If this truth were so mani- fest to the Epicureans, otherwise unworthy of the name of philosophers, how much clearer ought
* See Cicero, “De Natura Deorum.'” t Apoc. xix. 16. % Isa. xl. 12.
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it not be to us, who have been illumined by the light of true Christian philosophy ! For this latter teaches us, in fact, that among the innu- merable reasons which oblige us to serve God, this is the greatest ; and though man were en- dowed with a thousand hearts and a thousand bodies, this reason alone should be sufficient t*o cause him to devote them all to His love and service.
Though of all motives this is the most power- ful, yet it has least influence on the imperfect. The reason of this is because, on the one hand, they are more moved by self-interest, self-love having deep root in their hearts ; and on the other, being still ignorant, and novices in the ways of God, they are unable to appreciate His grandeur and beauty. Had they a better know- ledge of His perfections, His beauty would en- rapture their souls and cause them to love Him above all things. Therefore we shall furnish some considerations from the mystical theology of St. Denis which will help them to apprehend the perfections of the Master they serve. To lead us to a knowledge of God, St. Denis teaches us first to turn our ejTes from the qualities or perfections of creatures, lest we be tempted to measure by them the perfections of the Creator. Then, turning from the things of earth, he raises our souls to the contemplation of a Being above all beings, a Substance above all substances, a Light above all lights — or rather a Light before which all light is darkness — a Beauty above all beauties and before which all other beauty is but deformity. This is what we
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are taught by the cloud into which Moses entered to converse with God, and which shut out from his senses all that was not God.* And the action of Elias, covering his face with his cloak when he saw the glory of God passing before him, is a lively expression of the same sentiment. f Therefore, to contemplate the glory of God, man must close his eyes to earthly things, which bear no proportion to this supreme Being.
We shall better understand this truth if we consider with more attention the vast difference between this uncreated Being and all other be- ings, between the Creator and His creatures. The latter without exception have had a begin- ning and may have an end, while this eternal Being is without beginning and without end. They all acknowledge a superior and depend upon another, while He has no superior and is the supreme Arbiter of all things. Creatures are composed of various substances, while He is a pure and simple Being ; were He composed of diverse substances it would presuppose a being above and before Him to ordain the composition of these substances, which is altogether impos- sible. Creatures are subject to change ; God is immutable. They all admit of greater perfec- tion ; they can increase in possessions, in know- ledge. God cannot increase in perfection, con- tainingwithin Himself all perfection ; nor in pos- sessions, for He is the source of all riches ; nor in knowledge, for everything is present to His eternal omniscience. Therefore Aristotle calls Him a pure act — that is, supreme perfection,
* Exod. xxiv. 16, 18. t 3 Kings xix. 13.
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which admits of no increase. The needs of creatures subject them to movement and change ; God, having no necessities, is fixed and immov- able, and present in all places. We find in all creatures diversities which distinguish them one from another, but the purity of God’s essence admits of no distinction ; so that His being is His essence, His essence is His power, His power is His will, His will is His understand- ing, His understanding is His being, His being is His wisdom, His wisdom is His justice, His justice is His mercy. And though t lie last two attributes are differently manifested, the duty of mercy being to pardon, that of justice to punish, yet they are one and the same power.
The Divine Being thus comprises in its unity apparently opposite qualities and perfections which we can never sufficiently admire ; for, as St. Augustine observes,* “He is a profoundly hidden God, yet everywhere present ; He is es- sentially strength and beauty ; He is immut- able and incomprehensible ; He is beyond all space, yet fills all the universe ; invisible, yet manifest to all creatures ; producing all motion, yet is Himself immovable ; always in action, yet ever at rest, He fills all ^things and is circum- scribed by nothing ; He provides for all things without the least solicitude ; He is great with- out quantity, therefore He is immense ; He is good without qualification, and therefore He is the Supreme Good.” Nay, “He alone is good.”f Finally, all created things have a limited being, their power is equally limited ;
* “Meditations,” chaps, xix. and xx. + Matt. xix. 17.
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the works they accomplish, the space they fill, their very names, are no less limited. Human words can define them ; they can be assigned a certain character and reduced to a certain species. But the Divine Substance cannot be defined nor comprehended under any species, nor can it be confined to any place, nor can any name express it. Though nameless, therefore, as St. Denis says, it yet has all possible names, since it possesses in itself all the perfections expressed by these names.
As limited beings, therefore, creatures can be comprehended ; but the divine essence, being infinite, is beyond the reach of any created un- derstanding. For that which is limitless, says Aristotle, can only be grasped by an infinite understanding. As a man on the shore beholds the sea, yet cannot measure its depth or vast- ness, so the blessed spirits and all the elect con- template God, yet cannot fathom the abyss of His greatness nor measure the duration of His eternity. For this reason also God is repre- sented “seated upon the cherubim/5* who, though filled with treasures of divine wisdom, continue beneath His majesty and power, which it is not given them to grasp or understand.
This is what David teaches when he tells us that God “made darkness His covert 55 ;f or, as the Apostle more clearly expresses it, He “ inhabiteth light inaccessible.’5 J The prophet calls this light darkness because it dazzles and blinds our human vision. Nothing is more re-
* Dan. iii. 55 and Ps. xvii. 11. t Ps. xvii. 12. % 1 Tim. vi. 16.
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splendent and more visi-le than the sun, as a philosopher admirably n marks, yet because of his very splendor and t) e weakness of our vi- sion there is nothing upon which we can gaze less. So also there is no being more intelligible in itself than God, and yet none we understand less in this present life.
Know, therefore, you who aspire to a know- ledge of God, that He is a Being superior to any- thing you can conceive. The more sensible you are of your inability to comprehend Him, the more you will have advanced in a knowledge of His Being. Thus St. Gregory, commenting on these words of Job : * “ Who doth great things unsearchable, and wonderful things without number, ” says: “We never more eloquently praise the works of the Almighty than when our tongue is mute in rapt wonder; silence is the only adequate praise when words are power- less to express the perfections we would extol.” St. Denis also tells us to honor with mute venera- tion, and a silence full of love and fear, the wonders and glory of God, before Whom the most sublime intelligences are prostrate. The holy Doctor seems to allude here to the words of the prophet as translated by St. Jerome, “Praise is mute before thee, God of Sion,” giving us to understand, doubtless, that the most adequate praise is a modest and respectful silence springing from the conviction of our in- ability to comprehend God. We thus confess the incomprehensible grandeur and sovereign majesty of Him Whose being is above all being,
* Job. v. 9.
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Whose power is above all power, Whose glory is above all glory, Whose substance is immea- surably raised above all other substances, visi- ble or invisible. Upon this point St. Augus- tine lias said with much beauty and force : “ When I seek my God I seek not corporal grace, nor transient beauty, nor splendor, nor melodious sound, nor sweet fragrance of flowers, nor odorous essence, nor honeyed manna, nor grace of form, nor anything pleasing to the flesh. None of these things do I seek when I seek my God. But I seek a light exceeding all light, which the eyes cannot see ; a voice sweet- er than all sound, which the ear cannot hear; a sweetness above all sweetness, which the tongue cannot taste ; a fragrance above all fragrance, which the senses cannot perceive ; a mysterious and divine embrace, which the body cannot feel. For this light shines without radiance, this voice is heard without striking the air, this fragrance is perceived though the wind does not bear it, this taste inebriates with no palate to relish it, and this embrace is felt in the centre of the soul.”*
If you would have farther proof of the in- finite power and greatness of God, contemplate the order and beauty of the world. Let us first bear in mind, as St. Denis tells us, that effects are proportioned to their cause, and then consider the admirable order, marvellous beauty, and incomprehensible grandeur of the universe. There are stars in heaven several hundred times larger than the earth and sea together. Con-
* “ Conf.,” 1. x. c. 6. “ Solil.,” c. xxxi.
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sider also the infinite variety of creatures in all parts of the world, on the earth, in the air, and in the water, each with an organization so perfect that never has there been discovered in them anything superfluous or not suited to the end for which they are destined ; and this truth is in no way weakened by the existence of monsters which are but distortions of nature, due to the imperfection of created causes. And this vast and majestic universe God created in a single, instant, according to the opinion of St. Augustine and St. Clement of Alexandria ; from nothing He drew being, without matter or ele- ment, instrument or model, unlimited by time or space. He created the whole world and all that is contained therein by a single act of His will. And He could as easily have created mil- lions of worlds greater, more beautiful, and more populous than ours, and as easily reduce them again to nothing.
Since, therefore, according to St. Denis, ef- fects bear a proportion to their cause, what must be the power of a cause which has pro- duced such effects ? Yet all these great and perfect works are vastly inferior to their Divine Author. Who could not but be filled with admi- ration and astonishment in contemplating the greatness of such a Being ? Though we can- not see it with our corporal eyes, yet the re- flections we have just indicated must enable us in a measure to conceive the grandeur and in- comprehensibility of His power.
St. Thomas, in his “ Sum of Theology,” en- deavors by the following argument to give us
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some idea of the immensity of God : We see, he tells us, that in material things that which ex- cels in perfection also excels in quantity. Thus the water is greater than the earth, the air is greater than the water, and fire is greater than the air. The first heaven is more extensive than the element of fire, the second heaven is more extensive than the first, the third likewise exceeds the second, and so of the others till wre come to the tenth sphere, or the empyreal hea- ven, to the grandeur and beauty of which no- thing in the universe can be compared. Con- sequently the empyreal heavens, the finest and noblest of all the bodies which compose the universe, being incomparably greater than all the rest, we may infer, adds the Angelic Doc- tor, how far God, the first, the greatest, the most perfect of all beings, spiritual or corporal, and the Creator of all, exceeds them, not in material quantity — for He is a pure spirit — but in every possible perfection.
Thus we begin to understand, in some man- ner, what are the perfections of God, since they cannot but be in proportion to His being. For, as we read in Ecclesiasticus : * “ According to His greatness, so also is His mercy with Him.” Nor are any of His other attributes less. Hence He is infinitely wise, infinitely merciful, infi- nitely just, infinitely good, and, therefore, infi- nitely worthy to be obeyed, feared, and reve- renced by all creatures. Were the human heart capable of infinite homage, infinite love, it should offer them to this supreme Master. For
* Ecclus. ii. 23.
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if reverence and homage must be proportioned to the greatness and dignity of him to whom they are offered, then the homage we offer God should, if we were capable of it, be infinite also.
How great, then, is our obligation to love God, had He no other title to our love and ser- vice ! What can he love who does not love such Goodness ? What can he fear who does not fear this infinite Majesty ? Whom will he serve who refuses to serve such a Master ? And why was our will given to us, if not to embrace and love good ? If, therefore, this great God be the Sovereign Good, why does not our will embrace it before all other goods ? If it be a great evil not to love and reverence Him above all things, who can express the crime of those who love everything better than they love Him ? It is almost incredible that the malice and blindness of man can go so far ; but yet, alas ! how many there are who for a base plea- sure, for an imaginary point of honor, for a vile and sordid interest, continually offend this So- vereign Goodness ! There are others who go farther and sin without any of these motives, through pure malice or habit. Oh ! incompre- hensible blindness ! Oh ! more than brute stu- pidity ! Oh ! rashness, oh ! folly worthy of demons! AVhat is the chastisement propor- tioned to the crime of those who thus despise their Maker ? Surely none other than that which these senseless creatures will receive — the eternal fire of hell.
Here, then, is the first motive which obliges us to love and serve God. This is an obliga-
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tion so great that compared to it all obliga- tions to creatures, whatever their excellence or perfections, are only obligations in name. For as the perfections of creatures are mere im- perfections compared with the perfections of God, so the obligations resulting therefrom can- not with justice be considered obligations when contrasted with those which we owe to God. Nor can our offences against the creature be re- garded as offences, except in name, when we remember the guilt we have incurred by our many sins against God. For this reason David cried out : “ Against Thee only, 0 God ! have I sinned/5* though he had sinned against Urias, whom he murdered ; against the wife of Urias, whom he dishonored ; and against his subjects, whom he scandalized. The penitent king knew that his offences against creatures, notwithstanding their different degrees of defor- mity, could not equal the enormity of his re- volt against God. For God being infinite, our ob- ligations towards Him and our offences against Him are in a measure infinite.
* Ps. 1. So
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CHAPTER II.
THE SECOND MOTIVE WHICH OBLIGES US TO PRACTISE VIRTUE AND TO SERVE GOD : THE BENEFIT OF OUR CREATION.
WE are obliged to practise virtue and keep God’s commandments not only because of what God is in Himself, but because of what He is to us, because of His in- numerable benefits to us.
The first of these benefits is our creation , which obliges man to give himself wholly to the service of his Creator, for in justice he stands indebted to Him for all he has received ; and since he has received his body with all its senses, and his soul with all its faculties, he is obliged to employ them in the service of his Creator, or incur the guilt of theft and ingra- titude towards his gracious Benefactor. For if a man build a house, who should have the use and profit of it, if not he who built it ? To whom does the fruit of a vine belong, if not to him who has planted it ? Whom should chil- dren serve, if not the father who gave them be- ing ? Hence the law gives a father almost un- limited power over his children, so natural does it seem that he should be master of an existence of which he is the author. What, then, should be the authority of God, the sovereign Author of all being in heaven and on earth ? And if, as Seneca remarks, tho>e who receive benefits are obliged to imitate good soil and return with
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interest what they have received, what return can we make to God, when we have nothing to offer Him but what we have received from His infinite goodness ? What, therefore, must we think of those who not only make no return to their Creator, but use His benefits to offend Him ? Aristotle tells us that man can never make adequate return to his parents or to the gods for the favors received from them. How, then, can we make a suitable return to the great God, the Father of us all, for the innu- merable blessings bestowed upon us ? If dis- obedience to parents be so grievous a crime, how heinous must it not be to rebel against this gracious God ! He Himself complains of this ingratitude by the mouth of His prophet : “ The son honoreth the father, and the servant his master: if, then, I be a father, where is my honor ? and if I be a master, where is my fear ? ” * Another servant of God, filled with indignation at like ingratitude, exclaims : “Is this the return thou makest to the Lord, 0 fool- ish and senseless people ? Is He not thy father, that hath possessed thee, and made thee, and created thee ? ” f This reproach is addressed to those who never raise their eyes to heaven to consider what God is, who never look upon themselves in order to know themselves. Know- ing nothing, therefore, of their origin or the end for which they are created, they live as though they themselves were the authors of their being. This was the crime of the unfor- tunate king of Egypt to whom God said : “Be-
* Mai. i. 6. t Deut. xxxii. 6.
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hold, I come against thee, Pharao, king of Egypt, thou great dragon that liest in the midst of thy rivers and sayest : The river is mine, and I made myself.” * This is, at least practically, the language of those who act as though they were the principle of their own being, and who refuse to recognize any obligation to serve their Maker. How different were the sentiments of St. Augustine, who by studying his origin was brought to the knowledge of Him from whom he had received his being ! “ I returned to
myself,” he says, “ and entered into myself, saying : What art thou ? And I answered : A rational and mortal man. And I began to exa- mine what this was, and I said : O my Lord and my. God ! who has created so noble a crea- ture as this — who, 0 Lord ! but Thou ? Thou, 0 my God ! hast made me ; I have not made myself. What art Thou, Thou by whom I 'live and from whom all things receive being ? Can any one create himself or receive his being but from Thee ? Art Thou not the source of all being, the fountain whence all life flows ? For whatsoever has life lives by Thee, because no- thing can live without Thee. It is Thou, 0 Lord ! that hast made me, and without Thee nothing is made. Thou art my Creator, and I am Thy creature. I thank Thee, 0 my Creator ! because Thy hands have made and fashioned me. I thank Thee, 0 my Light ! for having enlightened me and brought me to the knowl- edge of what Thou art and what I myself am.”
This, then, the first of God’s benefits, is the
* Ezech. xxix. 3.
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foundation of all the others, for all other bene- fits presuppose existence, which is given us at our creation. Let us now consider the ac- knowledgment God demands of us, for He is no less rigid in requiring our gratitude than He is magnificent in bestowing His benefits ; and this is an additional proof of His love, for our gratitude results in no advantage to Him, but enables us to profit by the favors we have received, and thus merit other graces from His infinite goodness. Thus we read in the Old Testament that whenever He bestowed a favor upon His people He immediately commanded them to keep it in remembrance. When He brought the Israelites out of Egypt He com- manded them to commemorate by a solemn festival every year their happy deliverance from bondage. When He slew the first-born of the Egyptians and spared the Israelites He com- manded that the latter, in return, should con- secrate their first-born to Him. When He sent them manna from heaven to sustain them in the wilderness, He ordered that a portion of it should be put in a vessel and kept in the tabernacle as a memorial to generations of this extraordinary favor. After giving them vic- tory over Amalec He told Moses to write it for a memorial in a book, and deliver it to Josue. Since, therefore, God so rigidly requires a con- tinual remembrance of the temporal favors He grants us, what return of gratitude will He not demand for this immortal benefit ? Such we truly call the benefit of creation, because with it we receive from God the gift of an immortal
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soul. The patriarchs of old were deeply sensi- ble of this obligation of gratitude, and there- fore we read that whenever God bestowed upon them any special favor or blessing they evinced their gratitude by erecting altars to His name and by rearing other monuments to commemo- rate His mercies to them. Even the names they gave their children expressed the favors they had received, so desirous were they that their debt of gratitude to God should never be forgotten. St. Augustine, speaking on this subject in one of his soliloquies, says: “Man should think of God as often as he breathes ; for as his being is continuous and immortal, he should continually return thanks to the Author of his being.”
This obligation is so deeply graven in nature that even the philosophers and sages of this world earnestly inculcate gratitude to God. Hear the counsel of Epictetus : “ Be not un- grateful, 0 man! to this sovereign Power, but return thanks for the faculties with which He has endowed thee, for thy life itself and for all the things which sustain it, for fruits, wine, oil, and whatever advantages of fortune thou hast received from Him ; but praise Him par- ticularly for thy reason, which teaches thee the proper use and the true worth of all these things.” If a pagan philosopher teach such gratitude for benefits common to all men, what should be the gratitude of a Christian, who has received the light of faith in addition to that of reason, as well as other gifts vastly superior to those we have just mentioned ?
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But perhaps you will urge that these benefits common to all seem the work of nature rather than graces emanating from God; and why, you ask, should I be grateful for the general order which reigns in the world, and because things follow their natural course ? This objection is unworthy of a Christian, of a pagan, of any but an unreasonable animal. Hear how the same philosopher answers it : “ You will say, perhaps, that you receive all these benefits from nature. Senseless man ! in saying this you but change the name of God, your Benefactor. For what is nature but God Himself, the first and original nature ? Therefore, it is no excuse, ungrateful man, to urge that you are indebted, not to God, but to nature ; for without God there is no na- ture. Were you to receive a benefit from Lucius Seneca you would not dare to say that you were indebted to Lucius and not to Seneca. Such a subterfuge 'would change your benefactor’s name, but would by no means cancel your ob- ligation to him.”
It is not only a motive of justice which obliges us to serve God, but our necessities force us to have recourse to Him if we would attain the perfection and happiness for which we were created.
In order to understand this more clearly let us call to mind the general principle that crea- tures are not born with all their perfections. There remain many to be cultivated and de- veloped, and only He who has begun the work can perfect it. Things instinctively go back to their first cause for their development and per-
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fection. Plants unceasingly seek the sun, and sink their roots deep into the earth where they were formed. Fishes will not leave the element where they were engendered. Chickens seek vivifying warmth and shelter beneath their mother’s wings. In like manner a lamb, until it has attained its strength, clings to the side of its ewe, distinguishing her among a thousand of the same color, arguing, doubtless, with blind instinct, that it must seek what it lacks at the source whence it has received all that it is. This is apparent in all the works of nature, and if those of art could reason they would doubtless proceed in like manner. Were a painter to make a beautiful picture and omit the eyes, whither would the picture, were it sensible of its want, go to seek its completion ? Not to the palaces of kings or princes, for all their power could not give it what it sought ; no, it would seek its first cause, the master who designed it. And is not this thy position also, 0 rational creature ? Thou art an unfinished work. Many things are lacking to the perfection of thy be- ing. Thou hast naught of the beauty and lustre which are yet to be thine. Hence thy restless, unsatisfied yearning : hence those un- ceasing aspirations for a higher, a better state which arise from thy very necessities. Yes, God let thee hunger, in order that, driven by necessity, thou mightst have recourse to Him. For this reason He did not give thee perfection at thy creation, but He withheld it only through love for thee. It was not to make thee poor, but to make thee humble ; it was not to leave thee
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needy, but to compel thee to have recourse to Him.
If, then, thou art blind, poor, and in need, why dost thou not seek the Father who created thee, the Artist who designed thee, that He may satisfy thy wants and supply all that is lacking to thy perfection ? Penetrated with this truth, David cried out : “ Thy hands have made me and formed me : give me understanding, and I will learn Thy commandments.” *
Thy hands have made me, the prophet would say, but the work is incomplete. The eyes of my soul are still imperfect ; they see not what they ought to know. To whom shall I go in my necessities, if not to Him from whom I have received all that I possess ? Enlighten, then, my eyes, that they may know Thee, 0 Lord ! and that the work Thou hast begun in me may be perfected. Therefore, God only can perfect the understanding, the will, and all the faculties of the soul. It is He alone who satis- fies His creature and never fails him. With Him the creature is content in poverty, rich in destitution, happy in solitude, and though de- spoiled of all possessions, yet master of all things. Hence the wise man so justly says: “ One is as it were rich when he hath nothing, and another is as it were poor when he hath great riches.” f Eich indeed is the poor man who, like St. Francis of Assisi, has God for his inheritance, though owning naught else ; but poor would he be who knew not God, though he possessed the entire universe. What do their
*Ps. cxviii. 73. tProv. xiii. 7.
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wealth and power avail the rich and great of this world when they are a prey to anxieties which they cannot calm, a victim to appetites which they cannot satisfy ? For what comfort can costly raiment, luxurious viands, and over- flowing coffers bring to a troubled mind ? The rich man tosses restlessly on his soft couch, and his treasure is powerless to stifle the remorse which banishes sleep. Independently, there- fore, of God’s benefits to us, we are, from the necessities of our nature, obliged to serve Him, if we would attain our happiness and perfec- tion.
CHAPTER III.
THE THIRD MOTIVE WHICH OBLIGES US TO SERVE god: THE BENEFIT OF OUR PRESERVA- TION, AND THE GOVERNMENT OF HIS PROVI- DENCE.
ANOTHER motive which obliges man to serve God is the benefit of preservation . God gave you being, and still preserves it to you, for you are as powerless to sub- sist without Him as you were incapable of com- ing into existence without Him. The benefit of preservation is not less than that of crea- tion. It is even greater, for your creation was but a single act, while your preservation is a continuous manifestation of God’s abiding love. If, then, your creation demand from you
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so great a return of gratitude, who can reckon the debt you owe for the gift of preservation ? There is not a movement of your eye, there is not a step you take, which is not by His power. For if you do not believe that it is through Him you live and act, you are no longer a Christian; and if, believing it, you continue deliberately to offend your Benefactor, how can I say what you are? If a man on the top of a high tower held another suspended by a small cord over an abyss, do you think the latter would dare to address injurious words to him wTho held him thus suspended? How is it, then, that you, whose existence hangs by a thread which God can sever at any moment, dare excite the anger of this infinite Majesty by outraging Him with the very benefits He mercifully preserves to you?
The goodness of this sovereign Being is so great, says St. Denis, that while creatures are offending Him and madly rebelling against His will He continues to give them the power and strength which they use to resist Him. How, then, can you be so rash, so ungrateful as to turn against God the blessings with which He has loaded you ? Oh ! incredible blindness ! Oh ! senseless rebellion ! — that the members would conspire against their Head, for which they ought to be ready to make any sacrifice. But a time will come when God’s outraged patience shall be avenged. You have con- spired against God. It is just that He should arm the universe against you, that all creatures should rise up against you to avenge their
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Creator. They who closed their eyes to the sweet light of His mercy while it still shone upon them and allured them by so many bene- fits will justly behold it when, too late for amendment, they shall be groaning under the severity of His justice.
Consider in addition to this benefit the rich and delightful banquet of nature prepared for you by your Creator. Everything in this world is for man’s use, directly or indirectly. Insects serve as food for birds, which in their turn serve as food for man. In like manner the grass of the fields supports the animals destined also for man’s service. Cast your eye upon this vast world, and behold the abundance of your pos- sessions, the magnificence of your inheritance. All that move upon the earth, or swim in the water, or fly in the air, or live under the sun are made for you. Every creature is a benefit of God, the work of His Providence, a ray of His beauty, a token of His mercy, a spark of His love, a voice which proclaims His magnificence. These are the eloquent messengers of God con- tinually reminding you of your obligations to Him. “Everything,” says St. Augustine, “in heaven and on earth calls upon me to love Thee, 0 Lord ! and the universe unceasingly exhorts all men to love Thee, that none may exempt themselves from this sweet law.”
Oh ! that you had ears to hear the voice of creatures appealing to you to love God. Their expressive silence tells you that they were created to serve you, while yours is the sweet duty of praising your common Lord not only in your
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own name but in theirs also. I flood your days with light, the heavens declare, and your nights I illumine with the soft radiance of my stars. By my different influences all nature bears fruit in season for your necessities. I sustain your breath, the air tells you ; with gentle breezes I refresh you and temper your bodily heat. I maintain an almost infinite variety of birds to delight you with their beauty, to ravish you with their songs, and to feed you with their flesh. I maintain for your nourishment innumerable fishes, the water exclaims. I water your lands, that they may give you their fruit in due season. I afford you an easy passage to distant countries, that you may add their riches to those of your own.
But what says the earth, this common mother of all things, this vast storehouse of the treasures of nature ? Surely she may tell you : Like a good mother I bear you in my arms ; I prepare food for all your necessities ; I procure the con- currence of the heavens and all the elements for your welfare. Never do I abandon you, for after supporting you during life, I receive you in death, and in my own bosom give you a final resting-place. Thus can the whole universe with one voice cry out : Behold how my Master and Creator has loved you. He has created me for your happiness, that I might serve you, and that you in your turn might love and serve Him ; for I have been made for you, and you have been made for God. This is the voice of all creatures. Will you be deaf to it ? Will you be insensible tQ so many benefits ? You have been loaded
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with favors. Do not forget the debt yon thence contract. Beware of the crime of ingratitude. Every creature, says Richard of St. Victor, ad- dresses these three words to man : Receive , give , beware . Receive the benefit ; give thanks for it ; and beware of the punishment of ingratitude.
Epictetus, a pagan philosopher, fully appreci- ated this truth. He teaches us to behold the Creator in all His creatures, and to refer to Him all the blessings we receive from them. “ When you are warned,” he says, “of a change in the atmosphere by the redoubled cries of the crow, it is not the crow, but God Who warns you. And if the voice of men gives you wise counsel and useful knowledge, it is also God Who speaks. For He has given them this wisdom and know- ledge, and, therefore, you must recognize Hjs power in the instruments He wills to employ. But when be wishes to acquaint you with mat- ters of greater moment He chooses more noble and worthy messengers.” The same philosopher adds : 4 4 When you will have finished reading my counsels, say to yourself : It is not Epictetus the philosopher who tells me all these things ; it is God. For whence in fact has he received the power to give these counsels but from God ? Is it not God Himself, therefore, Who speaks to me through him?” Such are the sentiments of Epictetus. Should not a Christian blush to be less enlightened than a pagan philosopher ? Surely it is shameful that they who are illumined by faith should not see what was so clear to them who had no other guide than the light of simple reason.
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Since, then, every creature is a benefit from God, how can we live surrounded by these proofs of His love, and yet never think of Him ? If wearied and hungry you seated yourself at the foot of a tower, and a beneficent creature from above sent you food and refreshment, could you forbear raising your eyes to your kind benefac- tor ? Yet God continually sends down upon you blessings of every kind. Find me, I pray you, but one thing which does not come from God, which does not happen by His special Providence. Why is it, then, that you never raise your eyes to this indefatigable and generous Benefactor ? Ah ! we have divested ourselves of our own nature, so to speak, and have fallen into worse than brute insensibility. I blush, in truth, to say what we resemble in this particular, but it is good for man to hear it. We are like a herd of swine feeding under an oak. While their keeper is showering down acorns, they greedily devour them, grunting and quarrelling with one another, yet never raising their eyes to the master who is feeding them. Oh ! brute- like ingratitude of the children of Adam ! We have received the light of reason, and an upright form. Our head is directed to heaven, not to earth, which ought to teach us to raise the eyes of our soul to the abode of our Benefactor.
Would that irrational creatures did not excel us in this duty ! But the law of gratitude, so dear to God, is so deeply impressed on all crea- tures that we find this noble sentiment even in the most savage beasts. What nature is more savage than that of a lion ? Yet Appian, a
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Greek author, tells us that a certain man took refuge in a cave, where he extracted a thorn from the foot of a lion. Grateful for the kind- ness, the noble animal ever after shared bis prey with his benefactor while he remained in the cave. Some years later this man, having been charged with a crime, was condemned to be exposed to wild beasts in the amphitheatre. When the time of execution arrived, a lion which had been lately captured was let loose on the prisoner. Instead of tearing his victim to pieces he gazed at him intently, and, recogniz- ing his former benefactor, he gave evident signs of joy, leaping and fawning upon him as a dog would upon his master. Moved by this spectacle, the judges, on hearing his story, re- leased both man and lion. Forgetful of his former wildness, the lion, until his death, con- tinued to follow his master through the streets of Rome without offering the slightest injury to any one.
— A like instance of gratitude is related of an- other lion that was strangling in the coils of a serpent when a gentleman riding by came to his rescue and killed the serpent. The grateful animal, to show his devotion, took up his abode with his deliverer and followed him wherever he went, like a faithful clog. One day the gen- tleman set sail, leaving the lion behind him on the shore. Impatient to be with his master, the faithful animal plunged into the sea, and, being unable to reach the vessel, was drowned.
What instances could we not relate of the fidelity and gratitude of the horse ? Pliny, in
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bis “ Natural History,”* tells us that horses have been seen to shed tears at the death of their masters, and even to starve themselves to death for the same reason. Nor are the grati- tude and fidelity of dogs less surprising. Of these the same author relates most marvellous things. He gives, among other examples, an instance which occurred in his own time at Rome. A man condemned to death w7as allowed in prison the companionship of his dog. The faithful animal never left him, and even after death remained by the lifeless body to testify his grief. If food were given to him he imme- diately brought it to his master and laid it on his lifeless lips. Finally, when the remains were thrown into the Tiber, he plunged into the river, and, having placed himself beneath the body, struggled till the last to keep it from sinking. Could there be gratitude greater than this ? Now, if beasts, with no other guide than natural instinct, thus show their love and gratitude for their masters, how can man, pos- sessing the superior guidance of reason, live in such forgetfulness of his Benefactor ? Will he suffer the brute creation to give him lessons in fidelity, gratitude, and kindness ? Moreover, will he forget that the benefits he receives from God are incomparably superior to those which animals receive from men ; that his Benefactor is so infinite in His excellence, so disinterested in His love, overwhelming His creatures with blessings which can in no way benefit Himself ? This must ever be a subject of wonder and as-
* viii. 40.
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tonishment, and evidently proves that there are evil spirits who darken our understanding, weak- en our memory, and harden our heart, in or- der to make us forget so bountiful a Benefactor.
If it be so great a crime to forget this Lord, what must it be to insult Him, and to convert His benefits into the instruments of our offen- ces against Him ? “The first degree of ingra- titude,'5 says Seneca, “ is to neglect to repay the benefits we have received ; the second is to for- get them ; the third is to requite the benefac- tor with evil.55 But what shall we say of that excess of ingratitude which goes so far as to outrage the benefactor with his own benefits ? I doubt whether one man ever treated another as we dare to treat God. What man, having received a large sum of money from his sove- reign, would be so ungrateful as immediately to employ it in raising an army against him ? Yet you, unhappy creature, never cease to make war upon God with the very benefits you have re- — ceived from Him. How infamous would be the conduct of a married woman who, having re- ceived a rich present from her husband, would bestow it upon the object of her unlawful love in order to secure his affections ! The world would regard it as base, unparalleled treason ; yet the offence is only between equals. But what proportions the crime assumes when the affront is from a creature to God ! Yet is not this the crime of men who consume their health, and waste, in the pursuit of vice, the means that God has given them ? They pervert their strength to the gratification of their pride ;
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their beauty but feeds their vanity ; tluir wealth enables them to conceal their vices, to vie with the great, to pamper their flesh, to traffic in innocence, bargaining, even as the Jews did with Judas, for the blood of Christ ! What shall I say of their abuse of other bene- fits ? The sea serves but to satisfy their glut- tony and their ambition ; the beauty of crea- tures excites their gross sensuality ; earthly pos- sessions but feed their avarice ; and talents, whether natural or acquired, only tend to in- crease their vanity and pride. Prosperity inflates them with folly, and adversity reduces them to despair. They choose the darkness of the night to hide their thefts, and the light of day to lay their snares, as we read in Job. In a word, they pervert all that God lias created for His glory to the gratification of their inordinate passions.
What shall I say of their effeminate adorn- ments, their costly stuffs, their extravagant perfumes, their sumptuous tables groaning un- der the weight of rare and luxurious viands ? Nay, sensuality and luxury are so general that, to our shame, books are published to teach us how to sin in these respects. Men have per- verted creatures from their lawful use, and in- stead of making God’s benefits a help to virtue, they have turned them into instruments of vice. So great is the selfishness of the world that there is nothing which men do not sacrifice to the gratification of the flesh, wholly forgetful of the poor, whom God has so specially recom- mended to their care. Such persons never find
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that they are poor until they are asked for alms ; at any other time there is no extravagant luxury their income cannot afford.
Beware lest this terrible accusation be made against you at the hour of death ! The greater the benefits you have perverted the more severe the account you will have to render. It is a great sign of reprobation for a man to con- tinue to abuse the favors God has bestowed up- on him. To have received much, and to have made but small return, is, in a manner, already to have judged himself. If the Ninivites shall rise in judgment against the Jews for not hav- ing done penance at our Saviour’s teaching, let us see that the same Lord shall have no reason to condemn us upon the example of beasts that love their benefactors, while we manifest such gross ingratitude to the Supreme Benefactor of all.
CHAPTER IY.
THE FOURTH MOTIVE WHICH OBLIGES US TO PRACTISE VIRTUE : THE INESTIMABLE BENE- FIT OF OUR REDEMPTION.
LET us now consider the supreme benefit of divine love, the redemption of man. But I feel myself so unworthy, so unfitted to speak of such a mj^stery that I know not where to begin or where to leave off, or whether it were not better for me to be silent altogether. Hid not man, in his lethargy, need an incentive
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to virtue, better would it be to prostrate our- selves in mute adoration before the incompre- hensible grandeur of this mystery than vainly essay to explain it in imperfect human language. It is said that a famous painter of antiquity, wishing to represent the death of a king’s daughter, painted her friends and relatives about her with mournful countenances. In her mother’s face grief was still more strongly depicted. But before the face of the king he painted a dark veil to signify that his grief was beyond the power of art to express. Now, if all that we have said so inadequately expresses the single benefit of creation, how can we with any justice represent the supreme benefit of Bedemption ? By a single act of Ilis will God created the whole universe, diminishing there- by neither the treasures of His riches nor the power of His almighty arm. But to redeem the world He labored for thirty-three years by the sweat of His brow, He shed the last drop of His blood, and suffered pain and anguish in all His senses and all His members. What mortal tongue can explain this ineffable mys- tery ? Yet it is equally impossible for me to speak or to be silent. Silence seems ingrati- tude, and to speak seems rashness. Wherefore, I prostrate myself at Thy feet, 0 my God ! be- seeching Thee to supply for my insufficiency, and if my feeble tongue detract from Thy glory, while' wishing to praise and magnify it, grant that Thy elect in heaven may render to Thy mercy the worship which Thy creatures here below are incapable of offering Thee.
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After God had created man and placed him in the delights of the terrestrial paradise, by the very favors which should have bound him to the service of his Creator he was emboldened to rebel against Him. For this he was driven into exile and condemned to the eternal pains of hell. He had imitated the rebellion of Satan ; therefore, it was just that he should share his punishment. When Giezi, the servant of Eli- seus, received presents from Naaman the leper, the prophet said to him : “ Since thou hast re- ceived Naaman’s money, the leprosy of Naaman shall also cleave to thee and to thy seed for ever. And he went out from him a leper as white as snow.” * God pronounced a like sen- tence against man ; Adam wished to share the riches of Lucifer, that is, his pride and his re- volt, and, in consequence, the leprosy of Lucifer, that is, the punishment of his revolt, became his portion also. By sin, therefore, man be- comes like Satan, he imitates him in his guilt, and shares in his punishment.
Having brought such misery upon himself, man became the object of the Divine compas- sion, for God was more moved by the condition of His fallen creature than He was indignant at the outrage offered to His goodness. He re- solved to restore man and reconcile him with Himself through the mediation of His only Son. But how was reconciliation effected ? Again, what human tongue can express this mercy ? Through our Mediator Christ such a friendship was established between God and
* 4 Kings y. 26, 27 .
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man that the Creator not only pardoned His creature and restored him to His grace and love, but even became one with him. Man has be- come so one with God that in all creation there is no union that can be compared to this. It is not only a union of grace and love, but it is a union of person also. Who could haye thought that such a breach would be so perfectly re- paired ? Who could have imagined that two beings so widely separated by nature and sin should one day be united, not only in the same house, at the same table, and in a union of grace, but in one and the same person ? Can we think of two beings more widely sepa- rated than God and the sinner ? Yet where will we find two beings more closely united ? “ There is nothing,” says St. Bernard, “more elevated than God, and nothing more base than the clay of which man is formed. Yet God has with such great humility clothed Himself in this clay, and the clay has been so honorably raised to God, that we may ascribe to the clay all the actions of God, and to God all the suffer- ings of the clay.” *
When man stood naked and trembling before his Creator, who could have made him believe that one day his unhappy nature would be unit- ed to God in one and the same person ? This union was so close that even the supreme mo- ment of the Cross could not sever it. Death dissolved the union between soul and body, but could not separate the divinity from the humanity, for what Christ had once taken
* Super Cant. Horn. lix. et Ixiv.
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upon Himself for love of us He never aban- doned.
Thus was our peace established. Thus did God apply to us the remedy for our sovereign miseries. And we owe Him more gratitude, perhaps, for the manner of applying this reme- dy than for the remedy itself. Yes, Lord, I am infinitely indebted to Thee for redeeming me from hell, for re-establishing me in Thy grace, and for restoring my liberty ; but I should be still more grateful, were it possible, for the manner in which Thou hast wrought these •wonders. All Thy works are admirable, 0 Lord ! and when lost in wonder at a power that seems to have reached its limit, we have only to raise our eyes to behold still another marvel which eclipses all the rest. Nor is this any disparagement of Thy power, 0 Lord! but rather a manifestation of Thy glory.
But what, 0 Lord ! is the remedy Thou didst choose for my deep misery ? Innumerable were the ways in which Thou couldst have redeemed me without toil or suffering; but in Thy magnificence, and to testify Thy great love for me, Thou didst will to endure such pain and sufferings that the very thought of them bathed Thee in a sweat of blood, and at the sight of them the rocks were rent asun- der. May the heavens praise Thee, 0 Lord ! and may the angels proclaim Thy mercies ! What did our virtues avail Thee, or how wast Thou harmed by our sins? “If thou sin,5’ says Eliu to Job, “what shalt thou hurt Him ? And if thy iniquities be multiplied, what shalt
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thou do against Him ? And if thou do justly, what shalt thou give Him, or what shall He receive from thy hand ? ” *
This great God, so rich and powerful, so free from all evils, Whose wisdom and possessions can neither be increased nor lessened, Who would be equally glorious in Himself whether men and angels praised Him for ever in heaven, or blasphemed Him for ever in hell ; this great God, impelled by no necessity, but yielding to His love, came down from heaven to this place of exile, clothed Himself with our nature when we were His enemies, took upon Himself our infirmities, and even death, and to heal our wounds endured torments more ter- rible than any that had ever before been borne, or that ever again will be undergone.
It was for me, 0 Lord ! that Thou wast born in a stable, laid in a manger, and circum- cised on the eighth day after Thy birth. For me wast Thou driven from Thy country and exiled to Egypt. For my sake Thou didst fast and watch, shedding bitter tears, and sweating blood from every pore. For me Thou wast seized as a malefactor, forsaken, sold, denied, betrayed, dragged from tribunal to tribunal, buffeted, spat upon, bruised with blows, and delivered to the gibes of an infamous rabble. For me Thou didst die upon a Cross, in the sight of Thy most holy Mother, enduring pov- erty so great that even the consolation of a drop of water was denied to Thy burning lips. Thou wert abandoned by the world, and so
* Job xxxv. 6, 7.
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great was Thy desolation that even Thy Father seemed to have forsaken Thee. At such a cost, 0 God ! didst Thou restore to me my life.
Can we, without the deepest grief, behold this spectacle — God hanging as a malefactor upon an infamous gibbet ? We could not withhold our compassion from a criminal who had brought such misfortune upon himself ; and if our compassion be greater when the vic- tim is innocent, and his excellence known to us, what must have been the astonishment and grief of the Angels, with their knowledge of His perfection, when they saw Him over- whelmed wiili ignominy and condemned to die upon the cross ? The two cherubim placed by God’s command* on each side of the ark, look- ing towards the mercy-seat in wonder and ad- miration, are an emblem of the awe with which the heavenly spirits were seized at the sight of God’s supreme mercy in becoming the propitia- tion for the world on the sacred w^ood of His cross. Who. then, can contain his astonish- ment or forbear to exclaim wTith Hoses: “0 Lord God, merciful and gracious, patient and of much compassion, and true ! ” f Who would not, like Elias, J cover his eyes did he see God passing, not in the splendor of His majesty, but in the depths of His humiliation ; not in the might of His power, moving mountains and rending rocks, but as a malefactor, deliv- ered to the cruelties of a brutal multitude ? While, then, wre confess our inability to under- stand this incomprehensible mystery, will we
* Exod. xxv. 18. t Exod. xxxiv. 6. 1 3 Kings xix. 13.
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not open our hearts to the sweet influence of such boundless love, and make, as far as we are able, a corresponding return ? Oh ! abyss of charity ! Oil ! boundless mercy ! Oh ! incom- prehensible goodness ! By Thy ignominy, 0 Lord ! Thou hast purchased honor for me. By Thy Blood Thou hast washed away the stains of my sins. By Thy death Thou hast given me life. By Thy tears Thou hast deliv- ered me from eternal weeping. 0 best of Fathers ! how tenderly hast Thou loved Thy children ! 0 good Shepherd, Who hast given
Thyself as food to Thy flock ! 0 faithful
Guardian, Who didst lay down Thy life for the creatures of Thy care ! With what tears can I return Thy tears ? With what life can I repay Thy life ? What are the tears of a creature compared to the tears of his Creator, or what is the life of a man compared to that of his God ? Think not, 0 man ! that thy debt is less because God suffered for all men as well as for thee. Each of His creatures was as present to His Divine mind as if He died for him alone. His charity was so great, the holy Doc- tors tell us, that had but one man sinned He would have suffered to redeem him. Consider, therefore, what thou owest a Master Who has done so much for thee and Who would have done still more had thy welfare required it.
Tell me, 0 ye creatures ! whether a greater benefit, a more generous favor, a more binding obligation can be conceived. Tell me, 0 ye celes- tial choirs ! whether God has done for you what He has done for us ? Who, then, will refuse to
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give himself without reserve to the service of such a Master ? “I thrice owe Thee all that I am, 0 my God !” exclaims St. Anselm. “By my creation I owe Thee all that I am. Thou hast confirmed this debt by redeeming me ; and by promising to be my eternal reward, Thou dost compel me to give myself wholly to Thee. Why, then, do I not give myself to One Who has such a just claim to my service ? Oh ! insup- portable ingratitude ! Oh! invincible hardness of the human heart, which will not be softened by such benefits ! Metals yield to fire ; iron is made flexible in the forge ; and diamonds are softened by the blood of certain animals. But oh ! heart more insensible than stone, harder than iron, more adamant than the diamond, wilt thou not be moved by the fire of hell, or by the benefits of the ten derest of Fathers, or by the Blood of the spotless Lamb immolated for love of thee ? ”
Since Thy mercy and Thy love have been so powerfully manifested for us, 0 Lord ! how is it that there are men who do not love Thee, who forget Thy benefits or use them to offend Thee? To whom will they give their love, if they refuse it to Thee ? What can touch them, if they are insensible to Thy benefits ? Ah ! how can I refuse to serve a God Who has so lovingly sought me and redeemed me ? “ And I,” says our Sa-
viour, “if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to Myself.”* With what strength, Lord, with what chains ? With the strength of My love, with the chains of My
* St. John xii. 32.
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benefits. “ I will draw them,” says the Lord by His Prophet, “with the cords of Adam, with the bands of love.” * Ah ! who will resist these chains, who will refuse to yield to these mercies ? If, then, it be so great a crime not to love this sovereign Lord, what must it be to offend Him, to break His commandments ? How can you use your hands to offend Him Whose hands are so full of benefits for you, Whose hands were nailed to the cross for you ? When the unhappy wife of the Egyptian minister sought to lead Joseph into sin, the virtuous youth replied : “Behold, my master hath delivered all things to me, and knoweth not what he hath in his own house ; neither is there anything which is not in my power or that he hath not delivered to me, but thee, who art his wife. How, then, can I do this wicked thing and sin against my God ?” f Mark the words of Joseph. He does not say: “I should not, or it is not just that 1 offend Him,” but “how can I do this wicked thing ?” From this let ns learn that great favors should not only deprive us of the will, but, in a measure, even of the power, to offend our benefactor.
If, therefore, the son of Jacob felt such grati- tude for perishable benefits, what should be ours for the immortal blessings God lms bestowed upon us ? Joseph’s master entrusted him with all his possessions. God has given us not only His possessions but Himself. What is there on earth that He has not made for us ? Earth, sky, sun, moon, stars, tides, birds, beasts, fishes
* Osee xi. 4. + Gen. xxxix. 8, 9.
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— in short, all things under heaven are ours, and even the riches of heaven itself, the glory and happiness of eternity. “All things are yours, ” says the Apostle, “whether it be Paul, or Apollo, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come ; for all are yours,” * for all these contribute to your salvation. And we not only possess the riches of heaven, but the Lord of heaven. He has given Himself to us in a thousand ways : as our Father, our Teacher, our Saviour, our Master, our Physician, our Example, our Food, our Re- ward. In brief, the Father has given us the Son, and the Son has made us worthy to receive the Holy Ghost, and the Holy Ghost has united us to the Father and the Son, the Source of every grace and blessing. Again, since God has given you all the benefits you enjoy, how can you use these benefits to outrage so magnificent a Bene- factor ? If you are unmindful of the crime of your ingratitude, you are more ungrateful than the savage beasts, colder and more hardened than senseless objects. St. Ambrose, after Pliny, relates the story of a dog that had witnessed the murder of his master. All night the faithful animal remained by the body, howling most piteously, and on the following day, when a concourse of people visited the scene, the dog noticed the murderer among them, and falling upon him with rage, thus led to the discovery of his crime. If poor animals testify so much love and fidelity for a morsel of bread, will you return offences for divine benefits ? If a dog
* 1 Cor. iii. 22.
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will manifest such indignation against his master’s murderer, how can you look with in- difference on the murderers of your sovereign Lord ? And who are these murderers ? None other than your sins. Yes, your sins appre- hended Him and bound Him with ignominious fetters, loaded Him with infamy, overwhelmed Him with outrages, bruised Him with blows, and nailed Him to the cross. His executioners could never have accomplished this without the fatal aid of your sins. Will you, then, feel no hatred for the barbarous enemies who put your Saviour to death ? Can you look upon this Victim im- molated for you, without feeling an increase of love for Him ? All that He did and suffered upon earth was intended to produce in our hearts a horror and detestation of sin. His hands and feet were nailed to the cross in order to bind sin. Will you render all His sufferings and labors fruitless to you ? Will you remain in the slavery of sin when He purchased your freedom at the price of His Blood ? Will you not tremble at the name of sin, which God has wrought such wonders to efface ? Vrhat more could God have done to turn men from sin than to place Himself nailed to the cross between them and this terrible evil ? What man would dare to offend God, were heaven and hell open before him ? Yet a God nailed to a cross is a still more terrible and appalling sight. I know not what can move one who is insensible to such a spectacle.
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CHAPTER Y.
THE FIFTH MOTIVE WHICH OBLIGES US TO PRACTISE VIRTUE : THE BENEFIT OF OUR JUSTIFICATION.
TTTHAT would the benefit of Redemption 1/1/ avail us, if it had not been followed by | f that of justification, through which the sovereign virtue of Redemption is ap- plied to our souls ? For as the most excellent remedies avail us nothing if not applied to our disorders, so the sovereign remedy of Redemp- tion would be fruitless were it not applied to us through the benefit of justification. This is the work of the Holy Ghost, to whom the sanc- tification of man in a special manner belongs. It is He Who attracts the sinner by His mercy, Who calls him, Who leads him in the ways of wisdom, Who justifies him, Who raises him to perfection, Who imparts to him the gift of per- severance, to which, in the end, He will add the crown of everlasting glory. These are the dif- ferent degrees of grace contained in the inesti- mable benefit of justification.
The first of these graces is our vocation. Man cannot throw off the yoke of sin ; he can- not return from death to life, nor from a child of wrath can he become a child of God, without the assistance of divine grace. For our Saviour has declared : “No man can come to Me ex- cept the Father Who hath sent Me draw
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him.” * St. Thomas thus explains these words : “As a stone, when other forces are removed, naturally falls to the ground, and cannot rise again without the application of some extra- neous power, so man, corrupted by sin, ever tends downwards, attracted to earth by the love of perishable possessions, and cannot, without the intervention of divine grace, rise to heavenly things or a desire for supernatural perfection.” This truth merits our consideration and our tears, for it shows us the depth of our misery, and the necessity under which we labor of in- cessantly imploring the divine assistance.
But to return to our subject : who can ex- press all the benefits brought to us by justifi- cation ? It banishes from our souls sin, the source of all evils. It reconciles us to God and restores us to His friendship ; for in truth the greatest evil which sin brings on us is that it makes us the objects of God’s hatred. God, be- ing infinite goodness, must sovereignly abhor all that is evil. “ Thou hatest all the workers of iniquity,” exclaims His prophet; “Thou wilt destroy all that speak a lie. The bloody and the deceitful man the Lord will abhor.” f The enmity of God is evidently the greatest of evils for us, since it cuts us off from the friend- ship of God, the source of every blessing. From this misfortune justification delivers us, restor- ing us to God’s grace, and uniting us to Him by the most intimate love, that of a father for a son. Hence the beloved disciple exclaims : “ Behold what manner of charity the Father
t Ps. y. 7, 8c
* St. John vi. 44.
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hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called, and should be the sons of God.”* The Apostle would have us understand that we bear not only the name but are in truth the sons of God, in order that we may appreciate the liber- ality and magnificence of God’s mercy to us.
If God’s enmity be such a terrible misfor- tune, what an incomparable blessing His friend- ship must be ! For it is an axiom in philosophy that according as a thing is evil, so is its oppo- site good ; hence the opposite of that which is supremely evil must be supremely good. Now’, man’s supreme evil is the enmity of God ; therefore, his supreme good must be the friend- ship of God. If men set such value upon the favor of their masters, their fathers, their princes, their kings, how highly should they es- teem this sovereign Master, this most excellent Father, this King of kings, compared to whom all power and riches and principalities are as if they were not !
The benefit we are considering is largely en- hanced by the liberality with which it is bestow- ed. For as man before his creation was unable to merit the gift of existence, so after his fall he could do nothing to merit his justification. No act of his could satisfy the Creator, in Whose sight he was an object of hatred.
Another blessing flowing from justification is our deliverance from the eternal pains of hell. Having driven God from him by sin ; having despised His love, man in his turn is justly re- jected by God. Inordinate love for creatures
* St. 1 John iii. 1.
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led him away from the Creator, and, therefore, it is but just that these same creatures should be the instruments of his punishment. There- fore, he was condemned to the eternal pains of hell, compared to which the sufferings of this life are so light that they appear more imaginary than real. Add to these torments the undying worm which unceasingly gnaws the conscience of the sinner. What shall I say of his society, demons of perversity and reprobate men ? Con- sider also the confusion and darkness of this terrible abode, where there is no rest, no joy, no peace, no hope, but eternal rage and blas- phemies, perpetual weeping and ceaseless gnash- ing of teeth. Behold the torments from which God delivers those whom He justifies.
Another benefit of justification, more spiritual and therefore less apparent, is the regeneration of the interior man deformed by sin. For sin deprives the soul not only of God but of all her supernatural power, of the graces and gifts of the Holy Ghost, in which her beauty and strength consist. A soul thus stripped of the riches of grace is weakened and paralyzed in all her faculties. For man is essentially a rational creature, but sin is an act contrary to reason. Hence, as opposites destroy each other, it fol- lows that the greater and the more numerous our sins are, the greater must be the ruin of the facul- ties of the soul, not in themselves, but in their power of doing good. Thus sin renders the soul miserable, weak and torpid, inconstant in good, cowardly in resisting temptation, slothful in the observance of God’s commandments. It
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deprives her of true liberty and of that sove- reignty which she should never resign ; it makes her a slave to the world, the flesh, and the devil ; it subjects her to a harder and more wretched servitude than that of the unhappy Israelites in Egypt or Babylon. Sin so dulls and stupefies the spiritual senses of man that he is deaf to God’s voice and inspirations ; blind to the dreadful calamities which threaten him ; insensible to the sweet odor of virtue and the example of the saints ; incapable of tasting how sweet the Lord is, or feeling the touch of His benign hand in the benefits which should be a constant incitement to his greater love. More- over, sin destroys the peace and joy of a good conscience, takes away the soul’s fervor, and leaves her an object abominable in the eyes of God and His saints.
The grace of justification delivers us from all these miseries. For God, in His infinite mercy, is not content with effacing our sins and restor- ing us to His favor ; He delivers us from the evils sin has brought upon us, and renews the interior man in his former strength and beauty. Thus He heals our wounds, breaks our bonds, moderates the violence of our passions, restores with true liberty the supernatural beauty of the soul, re-establishes us in the peace and joy of a good conscience, reanimates our interior senses, inspires us with ardor for good and a salutary hatred of sin, makes us strong and constant in resisting evil, and thus enriches us with an abundance of good works. In fine, He so perfectly renews the inner man with all his
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faculties that the Apostle calls those who are thus justified “new men and new creatures.” *
This renewal of the inner man is so powerful, so true, that in baptism it is called regeneration, m penance resurrection ; not only because it restores the soul from death of sin to the life of grace, but because it is an anticipation of the last glorious resurrection. No tongue can ex- press the beauty of a justified soul ; only the Holy Spirit, Who is pleased to dwell therein, can tell the sweetness, loveliness, and strength with which He has enriched her. The beauty, the power, the riches of earth fade into insigni- ficance before the unspeakable beauty of a soul in a state of grace. As far as heaven is above earth, as far as mind is above matter, so far does the life of grace exceed that of nature, so far does the invisible beauty of a soul exceed the visible beauty of this world. God Himself is enamored with this divine beauty. He adorns such souls with infused virtues and the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost, imparting, at the same time, renewed strength and splendor to all her powers.
Moreover, God, in His boundless liberality, sends us the Holy Ghost Himself, whilst the three Divine Persons take up their abode in a soul thus prepared, in order to teach her to make a noble use of the riches with which she is endowed. Like a good father, God not only leaves His inheritance to His children, but also sends them a prudent guardian to administer it. This guardian is no other than God Himself,
* 2 Cor. iv. 10 and Gal. vi. 15.
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for, as Christ has declared, “If any man love Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and will make Our abode with him.” *
From these words the Doctors of the Church and theologians conclude that the Holy Spirit resides in a special manner in the soul of a just man, and, distinguishing between the Holy Spirit and His gifts, they declare that the soul not only enjoys these gifts but also the real presence of their Divine Author. Entering such a soul, God transforms her into a magnificent temple. He Himself purifies, sanctifies, and adorns her, making her a fitting habitation for her Supreme Guest. Contrast this glorious state with the miserable condition of a soul in sin, the abode of evil spirits and of every abomination, f
Still another more marvellous benefit of jus- tification is that it transforms the soul into a living member of Christ. This, again, is the source of new graces and privileges, for the Son of God, loving and cherishing us as His own members, infuses into us that virtue which is His life, and, as our Head, continually guides and directs us. How tenderly, too, does the Heavenly Father look upon such souls, as mem- bers of His Divine Son, united to Him by the participation of the same Holy Spirit ! Their works, therefore, are pleasing to Him, and meritorious in His sight, si nee it is Jesus Christ, His only Son, who lives and acts in them. Hence, with what confidence they address God in prayer, because it is not so much for them-
* St. John xiv. 23. t St. Matt. xii. 45.
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selves as for Ilis Divine Son that they pray, since to Him all the honor of their lives redounds. For as the members of the body can receive no benefit of which the Head does not partake, so neither can Christ, the Head of all the just, be separated from their virtues or merits. If it be true, as the Apostle tells us,* that they who sin against the members of Jesus Christ sin against Jesus Christ Himself, and that He regards a persecution directed against His members as directed against Himself, f is it astonishing that He regards the honor paid to His members as paid to Himself ? Pray, then, with confidence, remembering that your petitions ascend to the Eternal Father in ihe name of His Son, Who is your Head. For Ilis sake they will be heard, and will redound to His honor ; for, as is gene- rally admitted, when we ask a favor for the sake of another, it is granted, not so much to the one who receives it as to the one for whose sake it was asked. For this reason we are said to serve God when we serve the poor for His sake.
The final benefit of justification is the right which it gives to eternal life. God is infinitely merciful as well as infinitely just, and while lie condemns impenitent sinners to eternal misery, He rewards the truly repentant with eternal happiness. God could have pardoned men and ^restored them to His favor without raising them to a share in His glory, yet in the excess of His mercy He adopts those whom He pardons, jus- tifies those whom He has adopted, and makes them partaker^ of the riches and inheritance of
* 1 Cor. vi. 15. t Acts ix.
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His only-begotten Son. It is the hope of this incomparable inheritance which sustains and comforts the just in all their tribulations ; for they feel even in the midst of the most cruel adversity that “that which is at present mo- mentary and light of our tribulation worketh for us above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory.” *
These are the graces comprehended in the ines- timable benefit of justification, which St. Augus- tine justly ranks above that of creation. f For God created the world by a single act of His will, but to redeem it He shed the last drop of His Blood and expired under the most grievous torments. St. Thomas gives a like opinion in his “ Sum of Theology.”
Though it is true that no man can be certain of his justification, yet there are signs by which we can form a favorable judgment. The princi- pal of these is a change of life ; as, for example, when a man who without scruple hitherto com- mitted innumerable mortal sins would not now be guilty of a single grave offence against God even to gain the whole world.
Let him, then, who has attained these happy dispositions reflect upon what he owes the Author of his justification, Who has delivered him from the multitude of evils which are the consequen- ces of sin. and overwhelmed him with the benefits which we have attempted to explain. And as foi him who has the misfortune to be still in a state of sin, I know nothing more efficacious to rouse him from his miserable condition than
t Super Joan lxxii. 9.
* 2 Cor. iv. 17.
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the consideration of the evils which sin brings in its train, and of the blessings which flow from the incomparable benefit of justification.
The effects produced in the soul by the Holy Ghost do not end here. This Divine Spirit, not content with causing us to enter the path of justice, maintains us therein, strengthening us against all obstacles until we arrive at the haven of salvation. His love will not permit Him to remain idle in a soul which He honors by His presence. He sanctifies her with His virtue, and effects in her and by her all that is necessary to win eternal life. He dwells in the soul as a father in the midst of a family, pre- serving order and peace by his prudent author- ity ; as a master in the midst of his disciples, teaching lessons of Divine wisdom ; as a garden- er in a garden confided to his intelligent care ; as a king in his kingdom, ruling and directing all ; as the sun in the midst of the universe, enlightening and vivifying her, and directing all her movements. Possessing in an eminent degree all the good that is in creatures, He produces, but in a far more perfect manner, all the effects of which these creatures are capable. As fire He vivifies our understanding, enkin- dles our will, and detaches us from earth to raise us to heavenly things ; as a dove He ren- ders us sweet, gentle, and compassionate to one another; as a cloud He shelters us from the burning sensuality of the flesh, and tempers the heat of our passions ; as a violent wind He im- pels our wills to good and sweeps all evil af- fections from our hearts.* Hence it is that just
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souls abhor the Tices which they formerly loved, and embrace the virtues from which they formerly shrank. Witness David, who cries out: “I have hated and abhorred ini- quity: ... I have rejoiced in the way of Thy testimonies as much as in all riches. ” *
It is to the Holy Ghost that we are indebted for all our progress in wirtue. It is He who preserves us from evil and maintains us in good. It is He who is the principle of our per- severance, and who finally crowns us in Hea- ven. This it was which led St. Augustine to say that in rewarding our merits God but crowns His own gifts, f The holy patriarch Joseph, not content with giving to his brethren the corn which they came to purchase, ordered also that the money which they paid for it should, be secretly returned to them. God treats His elect with still greater liberality. He not only gives them eternal life, but furnishes them the grace and virtue to attain it. “ We adore Him,” says Eusebius Emissenus, “that He may be merciful to us, but He has already been merciful to us in giving us grace to adore Him.”
Let each one, then, glance over his life and consider, as the same holy Doctor suggests, all the good he has been permitted to do, and all the sins of impurity, injustice, and sacrilege from which he has been preserved, and he will comprehend in some measure what he owes to God. On this point St. Augustine well ob- serves that God shows no less mercy in preserv-
* Ps. cxviii. t “ Confess.,” i. 20.
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ing man from sin than in pardoning him after he has fallen.* Indeed, it is a greater proof of love. Therefore, the same saint, writing to a virgin, says : “ Man should consider that God has pardoned him all the sins from which He lias preserved him. Think not, therefore, that you may love this Master with a feeble love because" He has pardoned you but few sins. Your debt of love, on the contrary, is greater for His preventing grace which has saved you from committing many. For if a man must love a creditor who forgives him a debt, how much more reason has he to love a benefactor who gratuitously bestows upon him a like amount ? For if a man live chastely all his life, it is God AVho preserves him ; if he be converted from immorality to a pure life, it is God AVho reforms him ; and if he continue in his disorders till the end, it is also God AArho justly forsakes him.”
AVhat, then, should our conclusion be but to unite our voices with the prophet, saying : Let my mouth be filled with praise, that I may sing Tiiy glory, Thy greatness all the day long” ?f St. Augustine, commenting upon these wrords of the prophet, asks : “ AATiat means all the day long ? ” And he answers : “ Under all circum- stances and without interruption. Yes, Lord, I will praise Thee in prosperity because Thou dost comfort me, and in adversity because Thou dost chastise me. For my whole being I will praise Thee, because Thou art its Author. In my repentance I will praise Thee, because Thou
* “Conf.,” ii. 7. tPs. Ixx. 8.
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dost pardon me. In my perseverance I will praise Thee, because Thou wilt crown me. Thus, 0 Lord ! my mouth will be filled with Thy praise, and I will sing Thy glory all the day long.”
It would be fitting to speak here of the sacra- ments, the instruments of justification, particu- larly of Baptism, and the divine light and prin- ciple of faith which it imprints on our souls. But as this subject has been more fully treated in another work, we will confine ourselves, for the present, to the Eucharist, that Sacrament of sacraments, which gives to us as our daily food and sovereign remedy God Himself. He was offered once for us on the cross, but He is daily offered for us on the altar. “ This is My Body,” Christ has declared ; “ do this for a com- memoration of Me.” * Oh ! sacred Pledge of our salvation ! Oh ! incomparable Sacrifice ! Oh ! Victim of love ! Oh ! Bread of life ! Oh ! sweet and delicious Banquet ! Oh ! Food of kings ! Oh ! Manna containing all sweetness and delight ! Who can fittingly praise Thee ? Who can worthily receive Thee ? Who can love and venerate Thee as Thou dost deserve ? My soul faints at the thought of Thee ; my lips are mute in Thy presence, for I cannot extol Thy marvels as I desire.
Had our Lord reserved this favor for the pure and innocent it would still be a mercy beyond our comprehension. But in His bound- less love He does not refuse to descend into depraved hearts, or to joass through the hands
* St. Luke xxii. 19.
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of unworthy ministers who are the slaves of Satan and "the victims of their unruly pas- sions. To reach the hearts of His friends and to bring them His divine consolations He sub- mits to innumerable outrages and profanations. He was sold once in His mortal life, but in this august Sacrament He is unceasingly betrayed. The scorn and ignominy of His Passion afflicted Him only once, but in this sacred Banquet His love and goodness are daily insulted and out- raged. Once He was nailed to the cross be- tween two thieves, but in this Sacrament of love His enemies crucify Him a thousand times.
What return, then, can we make to a Muster who seeks our good in so many ways ? If ser- vants obey and serve their masters for a paltry support ; if soldiers from a like motive brave fire and s^vord, what do we not owe God, Who maintains us with this heavenly Food ? If God in the Old Law exacted so much gratitude from the Israelites for the manna, which, with all its excellence, was only corruptible food, what gra- titude will He not expect for this Divine Nou- rishment, incorruptible in Itself, and conferring the same blessing on all who worthily receive It ? If we owe Him so much for "the food which preserves our bodily life, what return must we not make Him for the Food which preserves in us the life of grace ? And, finally, if our debt of gratitude be so great for being made children of Adam, what do we owe Him for making us children of God ? For it cannot be denied, as Eusebius Emissenus observes, “ that the day we are born to eternity is infi-
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nitely greater than the day which brings us forth to this world, with all its suffering and dangers.”
Here, then, dear Christian, is another motive which should induce you to serve God, another link in that chain which should bind you ir- revocably to your Creator.
CHAPTER VI.
THE SIXTH MOTIVE WHICH OBLIGES US TO PRACTISE VIRTUE : THE INCOMPREHENSIBLE BENEFIT OF ELECTION.
TO all the benefits which we have just enume- rated we must add that of election, or pre- destination, which belongs to those whom God has chosen from all eternity to be partakers of His glory. The Apostle, in his Epistle to the Ephesians,* thus gives thanks, in his own name and that of the elect, for this inestimable benefit: “Blessed be God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in hea- venly places, in Christ ; as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and unspotted in His sight, in charity ; Who hath predestinated us unto the adoption of children through Jesus Christ unto Himself, according to the purpose of His will.” The Royal Prophet thus extols this same bene-
* Eph. i. 3, 4, 5.
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fit : “ Blessed is lie whom Thou hast chosen and taken to Thee ; he shall dwell in Thy courts.” * Election, therefore, may be justly called the grace of graces, since God, in His boundless liberality, bestows it upon us before we have merited it ; for, while giving to each one what is necessary for his salvation, He wills, as abso- lute master of His gifts, to bestow them in greater abundance upon certain souls, without any injury, however, to others less favored. It is also the grace of graces not only because it is the greatest, but because it is the source of all the others. For in predestining man to glory God determines to bestow upon him all the graces necessary to attain this happiness. This He has declared by the mouth of His prophet : “I have loved thee with an everlasting love ; therefore have I drawn thee, taking pity on thee.” f This truth is still more clearly expressed by the Apostle : “ For whom He foreknew He also predestinated to be made conformable to the image of His Son, that He might be the first- born amongst many brethren. And whom He predestinated, them also He called. And whom He called, them also He justified. And whom He justified, them also He glorified.” J A fa- ther who destines his son for a special career in life prepares and educates him from his boyhood with a view to this career. In like manner, when God has predestined a soul to eternal happiness He directs her in the path of justice, that she may attain the end f6r which He has chosen her.
* Pa. lxiv. 5. t Jeremiae xxxi. 3. X Rom, viii. 29, 30.
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All, therefore, who recognize in themselves any mark of election should bless God for this great and eternal benefit. Though it is a secret hidden from human eyes, yet there are certain signs of election, as there are of justification ; and as the first mark of our justification is the conversion of our lives, so the surest mark of our predestination is our perseverance in the good thus begun. He who has lived for a num- ber of years in the fear of God, carefully avoid- ing sin, may hope that God, in the words of the Apostle, “ will confirm him unto the end with- out crime, in the day of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” *
No man, however, can be certain of his per- severance or election. Did not Solomon, the wisest of kings, after having lived virtuously for many years, fall into iniquity in his old age ? Yet his example is one of the exceptions to the rule, which he himself teaches in these words: “ It is a proverb : A young man according to his way, even vThen he is old he will not depart from it” ;f so that if his youth has been# vir- tuous his old age will likewise be honorable. From these and similar indications to be found in the lives of the saints a man may humbly hope that God has numbered him among the elect, that his name is written in the Book of Life.
How great, then, should be our gratitude for such a benefit ! God Himself tells His Apos- tles: “ Rejoice not in this, that spirits are subject unto you ; but rejoice in this, that your
* 1 Cor. i. 8. t Prov. xxii. 6.
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names are written in heaven/5 * What, in fact, can be a greater happiness than to have been from all eternity the object of God’s love and choice ; to have had a privileged place in His Heart throughout the eternal years ; to have been chosen as the child of His adoption before the birth of His Son according to nature ; and to have been always present to His Divine Mind, clothed in the splendor of the saints !
Weigh all the circumstances of this election, and you will find that each of them is an extraordinary favor, a new motive to love and serve God. Consider first the greatness of Him Who has chosen you. It is God Himself, Who, being infinitely rich and infinitely happy, had no need of you or any other creature. Next represent to yourself the profound unworthiness of the object of this election — a miserable crea- ture exposed to all the infirmities of this life, and deserving by his sins the eternal torments of the future. Reflect, too, how glorious is this elation, by which you are raised to the dignity ofa child of God and heir to His kingdom. Consider, farther, how generously and gratui- tously this favor is bestowed. It preceded all merit on our part, and sprang solely from the good pleasure and mercy of God, and, accord- ing to the Apostle, turns “unto the praise of the glory of His grace.” f Now, the more gra- tuitous a favor is, the greater the obligation it imposes.
The origin and the antiquity of this election also merit special consideration. It did not be-
* Luke x. 20. t Ephes. i. 6. .
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gin witli this world ; it preceded the existence of the universe ; it was coeval with the very existence of God. From all eternity He loved His elect. They were ever present to Him, and His will to render them eternally happy was as fixed as His own Being. Observe, finally, what a singular benefit this is. Among the many na- tions plunged in the darkness of paganism, among the many souls condemned to perdition, you have been selected to share the happy lot of the elect. Out of the mass of perdition He has raised you, and the leaven of corruption and death He has changed into the bread of Angels and the wheat of the elect. The value of this benefit is still farther increased when we reflect how small is the number of the elect and how great is the number of the lost. Solomon says that “the number of fools” — that is, the re- probate— “ is infinite.” * But if none of these considerations move you, be touched at least by the sight of all that it has cost God to confer this immortal benefit on you. He purchased it for you with the Life and Blood of His only Son ; for He resolved from all eternity to send Him into this world to execute His loving and merciful decree. Who, then,, would be so base as to wait until the end of his life to love God, Who has loved him from eternity ? “ For- sake not an old friend,” we are told in Scrip- ture, f “for a new one will not be like him.” Who, then, will forsake this Friend Whose love for us had no beginning, and Whose claim to our love is likewise from eternity ? Who will
* Eccles. i. 15. t Ecclus. ix. 14.
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not give up all the goods of this world, who will not bear all the evils of this world, to share in this blessed friendship ? How great would be our respect for the poorest beggar were we as- sured by divine revelation that he was predes- tined to share God’s glory ! Would we not kiss the ground upon which he trod ? “ 0 happy
soul ! ” we would cry. “ 0 enviable lot ! Is it possible that thou art surely to behold God in all the splendor of His majesty ? Art thou to rejoice with the angels for ever ? AYjII thy ears be ravished with sweet music for all eternity ? Art thou to gaze upon the radiant beauty of Christ and His blessed Mother? Oh ! happy day when thou wast born ! .But happier still the day of thy death, which will introduce thee to eternal life. Happy the bread thou eatest and the ground upon which thou dost tread ! Hap- pier still the pains and insults thou endurest, for they open to thee the way to eternal rest ! For what clouds, what tribulations, can over- come the power and joy of such a hope as thine ? ”
We would doubtless break out into such transports as these did we behold and recognize a predestined soul. For if people run out to see a prince, the heir to a great kingdom, as he passes through the street, marvelling at his good fortune, as the world esteems it, how much more reason have we to marvel at the happy lot of one who, without any previous merit on his part, has been elected from his birth, not to a temporal kingdom, but to reign eternally in heaven !
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You may thus understand, dear Christian, the gratitude the elect owe to God. And yet there is no one, provided he do what is necessary dor salvation, who may not consider himself of this happy number. “ Labor, therefore, the more,” as St. Peter tells yon, “ that by good works you may make sure your calling and election.” * We should never lose sight, therefore, of our end, for God’s grace is never wanting to us, and we can do all things in Him Who strengthens us.
CHAPTER VII.
THE SEVENTH MOTIVE FOK PRACTISING VIRTUE : THE THOUGHT OF DEATH, THE FIRST OF THE FOUR LAST THINGS.
A INTY one of the motives we have just \ enumerated should be sufficient to j induce man to give himself wholly to the service of a Master to Whom he is bound by so many ties of gratitude. But as the generality of men are more influenced by personal interest than by motives of justice, we will here make known the inestimable ad- vantages of virtue in this life and the next.
We will first speak of the greatest among them : the glory which is the reward of virtue, and the terrible punishment from which it delivers us. These two are the principal oars which propel us in our voyage to eternity. For
* 2 St. Peter i. 10.
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this reason St. Francis and our holy Father St. Dominic, both having been animated by the same spirit, commanded in their rules the preachers of their orders to make vice and virtue, reward and punishment, the only subjects of their ser- mons, in order to instruct men in the precepts of the Christian life and to inspire them with courage to put them in practice. Moreover, it is a common principle among philosophers that reward and punishment are the most powerful motives for good with the mass of mankind. Such, alas ! is our misery that we are not con- tent with virtue alone ; it must be accompanied with the fear of punishment or the hope of reward.
But as there is no reward or punishment so worthy of our consideration as those that never end, we will treat of eternal glory and eternal misery, together with death and judgment, which precede them. These are the most powerful incentives to love virtue and hate vice, for we are told in Scripture: “In all thy works re- member thy last end, and thou slialt never sin.”*
The first of these is death. Let us, then, consider it, for it is a truth which of all others makes most impression upon us, from the fact that it is so undisputed and so frequently brought before our minds. Especially do we realize this when we reflect on the particular judgment which each one must undergo as soon as his soul is separated from his body. The sentence then passed will be final ; it will endure
*Ecclu8. vii. 40.
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for all eternity. Since, then, death is such a powerful motive to turn us from sin, let us bring this terrible hour more vividly before us.
Bear in mind, therefore, that you are a man and a Christian. As man, you must die ; as a Christian, you must, immediately after death, render an account of your life. The first truth is manifest in our daily experience, and the second our faith will not permit us to doubt. No one, whether king or pope, is exempt from this terrible law. A day will come of which you will not see the night, or a night which for you will have no morning. A time will come, and you know not whether it be this present day or to-morrow, when you who are now reading my words, in perfect health and in full posses- sion of all your faculties, will find yourself stretched upon a bed of death, a lighted taper in your hand, awaiting the sentence pronounc- ed against mankind — a sentence which admits neither delay nor appeal.
Consider, also, how uncertain is the hour of death. It generally comes when man is most forgetful of eternal things, overturning his plans for an earthly future, and opening before him the appalling vision of eternity. Therefore, the Holy Scriptures tell us that it comes as a thief in the night ; that is, when men are plunged in sleep and least apprehensive of danger. The forerunner of death is usually a grave illness with its attendant weariness, sufferings, and pains, which weaken the powers of the body and give entrance to the king of terrors. Just as an enemy who wishes to take a citadel destroys the
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outer fortifications, so death with its vanguard of sickness breaks down the strength of the body, and, as it is about to fall before the re- peated assaults of its enemy, the soul, no longer able to resist, takes its flight from the ruins.
Who can express the anguish of the moment when the severity of the sickness, or the declara- tion of the physician, undeceives us and robs us of all hope of life ? The parting from all we hold dear then begins to rise before us. Wife, children, friends, relations, honors, riches are fast passing, with life, from our feeble grasp. Then follow the terrible symptoms which pre- cede the awful hour. The coldness of death seizes our members ; the countenance becomes deathly pale ; the tongue refuses to perform its duty ; all the senses, in fine, are in confusion and disorder in the precipitation of this supreme departure. Strange resemblance between the beginningand the end of our pilgrimage ! The mystery of suffering seems to unite them both. The terrified soul then beholds the approach of that agony which is to terminate its temporal existence. Before the distracted mind rise the horror and darkness of the grave, where the pampered body will become the prey of worms. But keener still is the suffering which the soul endures from the suspense and uncertainty of what her fate will be when she leaves her earthly habitation. You will imagine that you are in the presence of your Sovereign Judge, and that your sins rise up against you to accuse you and complete your condemnation. The heinousness of the evil you committed with so much indif-
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ference will then be manifest to you. You will curse a thousand times the day you sinned, and the shameful pleasure which was the cause of your ruin. You will be an object of astonish- ment and wonder to yourself. “ How could I,” you will ask, “for love of the foolish things upon which I set my heart, brave the torments which I now behold?” The guilty pleasures will have long since passed away, but their terrible and irrevocable punishment will con- tinue to stare you in the face. Side by side with this appalling eternity of misery you will see the unspeakable and everlasting lnrppiness which you have sacrificed for vanities, transitory and sinful pleasures. Everything you wiil behold will be calculated to fill you with terror and remorse. Life will have been spent ; there will be no time for repentance. Nor will the friends you have loved or the idols you have adored be able to help you. On the contrary, that which you have loved during life will be the cause of your most poignant anguish at the hour of death. What, then, will be your thoughts at this supreme hour ? To whom will you have recourse ? Whither will you turn ? To go forward will be anguish. To go back im- possible. To continue as you are will not be permitted. “ It shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, that the sun shall go down at mid-day, and I will make the earth dark in the daylight.”* Terrible words! Yes, the sun shall go down at mid-day, for the sinner at the sight of his sins, and at the approach of God’s
* Amos yiii. 9.
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justice, already believes himself abandoned by the Divine Mercy ; and though life still remains, with its opportunities for penance and recon- ciliation, yet fear too often drives hope from the heart, and in this miserable state he breathes his last sigh in the darkness of despair.
Most powerful is this passion of fear. It magnifies trifles and makes remote evils appear as if present. Now, since this is true of a slight apprehension, what will be the effect of the terror inspired by a danger so great and im- minent ? The sinner, though still in life and surrounded by his friends, imagines himself al- ready a prey to the torments of the reprobate. His soul is rent at the sight of the possessions he must leave, while he increases his misery by envying the lot of those from whom he is about to be separated. Yes, the sun sets for him at mid-day, for, turn his eyes where he will, all is darkness. No ray of light or hope illumines his horizon. If he think of God’s mercy he feels that he has no claim upon it. If he think of God’s justice it is only to tremble for its execution. He feels that his day is past and that God’s time has come. If lie look back upon his life a thousand accusing voices sound in his ears. If he turn to the present he finds himself stretched upon a bed of death. If he look to the future he there beholds his Su- preme Judge prepared to condemn him. How can he free himself from so many miseries and terrors ?
If, then, the circumstances which precede our departure are so terrible, what will be those
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which follow ? If such he the vigil of this great day, what will be the day itself ? Man’s eyes are no sooner closed in death than he ap- pears before the judgment-seat of God to ren- der an account of every thought, every word, every action of his life. If you would learn the severity and rigor of this judgment, ask not men who live according to the spirit of this world, for, like the Egyptians of old, they are plunged in darkness and are the sport of the most fatal errors. Seek, rather, those who are enlightened by the true Sun of justice. Ask the Saints, and they will tell you, more by their actions than by their words, how terrible is the account we are to render to God. David was a just man, yet his prayer was : “ Enter not, 0 Lord ! into judgment with Thy servant, for in Thy sight no man living shall be justified.”* Arsenius was also a great saint, and yet at his deatli he was seized with such terror at the thought of God’s judgment that his disciples, who knew the sanctity of his life, were much astonished, and said to him: “Father, why should you now fear?” To this he replied: “My children, this is no new fear which is upon me. It is one that I have known and felt during my whole life.” It is said that St. Aga- tho at the hour of death experienced like terror, and having been asked why he, who had led such a perfect life, should fear, he simply an- swered : “The judgments of God are different from the judgments of men.” St. John Clima- ehus gives a no less striking example of a holy
* Ps. cxlii. 2.
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monk, which is so remarkable that I shall give it as nearly as possible in the Saint’s own words: “A religious named Stephen, who lived in the same desert with us, had a great desire to embrace a more solitary life. He had already acquired a reputation for sanctity, hav- ing been favored with the gift of tears and fast- ing and other privileges attached to the most eminent virtues. Having obtained his supe- rior’s permission, he built a cell at the foot of Mount Horeb, where Elias was honored by his marvellous vision of God. Though his life here was one of great sanctity, yet, impelled by a desire for still harder labors and greater per- fection, he withdrew to a place called Siden, in- habited by holy anchorites who lived in the most complete solitude. Here he continued for some years in the practice of the severest penance, cut off from all human intercourse or comfort, for his hermitage was seventy miles from any human habitation. As his life ap- proached its term he felt a desire to return to his first cell at the foot of Mount Horeb, where dwelt two disciples, natives of Palestine. Shortly after his arrival he was attacked by a fatal illness. The day before his death he fell into a state resembling ecstasy. He gazed first at one side of his bed, then at the other, and, as if engaged in conversation with invisible beings who were demanding an account of his life, was heard crying out in a loud voice. Sometimes he would say : ‘It is true, I confess it ; but I have fasted many years in expiation of that sin ’ ; or, ‘ It is false ; that offence cannot be
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laid to my charge5 ; or, again, ‘Yes, but I have labored for the good of my neighbor so many years in atonement thereof.5 To other accusa- tions he was heard to tay : ‘ Alas ! I cannot deny it; I can only cast myself upon God’s mercy.5
“ Surely this was a thrilling spectacle,55 con- tinues the Saint. “I cannot describe the terror with which we assisted at this invisible judg- ment. 0 my God ! what will be my fate, if this faithful servant, whose life was one long penance, knew not how to answer some of the accusations brought against him ? If after forty years of retirement and solitude, if after having received the gift of tears, and such com- mand over nature that, as I am credibly in- formed, he fed with his own hand a wild leop- ard which visited him, the saintly monk so trembled for judgment, and, dying, left us in uncertainty as to his fate, what have we not to fear who lead careless and indifferent lives ? 55 If you ask me the cause of this terror with which the Saints are filled, I will let St. Gregory an- swer for me : “ Men aspiring to perfection,55 says the holy Doctor, “constantly reflect upon the justice of the Sovereign Judge Who is to pronounce sentence upon them in the dread hour which terminates their earthly career. They unceasingly examine themselves upon the account they are to render before this supreme tribunal. And if happily they find themselves innocent of sinful actions, they still ask with fear whether they are equally free from the guilt of sinful thoughts. For if it be compara- tively easy to resist sinful actions, it is more
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difficult to conquer in the war which we must wage against evil thoughts. And though the fear of God's judgment is always before them, yet it is redoubled at the hour of death, when they are about to appear before His inflexible tribunal. At this moment the mind is freed from the disturbances of the flesh; earthly desires and delusive dreams fade from the im- agination ; the things of this world vanish at the portals of another life ; and the dying man sees but God and himself. If he recall no good which he has omitted, yet he feels that he can- not trust himself to give a correct and impartial judgment. Hence his fear and terror of the rigorous account to be exacted of him.”* Do not these words of the great Doctor prove that this last hour and this supreme tribunal are more to be dreaded than worldly men imagine ? If just men tremble at this hour, what must be the terror of those who make no preparation for it, whose lives are spent in the pursuit of vanities and in contempt of God’s command- ments ? If the cedar of Lebanon be thus shaken, how can the reed of the wilderness stand ? “And,” as St. Peter tells us, “if the just man shall scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear ?” f
Deflect, then, on the sentiments that will be yours when you will stand before the tribunal of God, with no defenders but your good works, with no companion but your own conscience. And if then you will not be able to satisfy your Judge, who will give expression to the bitter-
* “ Moral.,” xxiv. 16, 17. 1 1 St. Peter iv. 18.
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ness of your anguish ? For the question at issue is not a fleeting temporal life, but an eternity of happiness or an eternity of misery. Whither will you turn ? What protection will you seek ? Your tears will be powerless to soften your Judge ; the time for repentance will be past. Little will honors, dignities, and wealth avail you, for “riches,” says the Wise Man, “ shall not profit in the day of vengeance, but justice shall deliver a man from death.” * The unhappy soul can only exclaim with the prophet: “ The sorrows of death have encom- passed me, and the perils of hell have found me.”f Unhappy wretch! How swiftly this hour has come upon me ! What does it now avail me that I had friends, or honors, or dig- nities, or wealth ? All that I can now claim is a few feet of earth and a winding-sheet. My wealth which I hoarded I must leave to be squandered by others, while the sins of injus- tice which I here committed will pursue me into the next world and there condemn me to eternal torments. Of all my guilty pleasures the sting of remorse alone remains. Why have I made no preparation for this hour ? Why was I deaf to the salutary warnings I received ? “ Why have I hated instruction, and my heart consented not to reproofs, and have not heard the voice of them that taught me, and have not inclined my ear to my masters ?” J
To preserve you, my dear Christian, from these vain regrets, I beg you to gather from what has been said three considerations, and to
* Prov. xi. 4. t Ps. cxiv. 3. $ Prov. v. 12, 13.
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keep them continually before your mind. The first is the terrible remorse which your sins will awaken in you at the hour of death ; the second is how ardently, though how vainly, you will wish that you had faithfully served Him during life; and the third is how willingly you would accept the most rigorous penance were you given time for repentance. Acting on this ad- vice, you will now begin to regulate your life according as you will then wish to have done.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE EIGHTH MOTIVE FOR PRACTISING VIRTUE: THE THOUGHT OF THE LAST JUDGMENT, THE SECOND OF THE FOUR LAST THINGS.
IMMEDIATELY after death follows the par- ticular judgment, of which we have been treating. But there is a day of general judgment, when, in the words of the Apostle, “we must all be manifested before the judg- ment-seat of Christ, that every one may receive the proper things of the body, according as he hath done, whether it be good or evil.” *
In considering this subject what strikes us as most amazing, and what filled the holy soul of Job with awe, is that a frail creature like man, So prone to evil, should be subjected to such a rigorous judgment on the part of God, by Whose command his every thought, word, and action
* 2 Cor. v. 10.
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are inscribed in the book of life. In his aston- ishment Job cries out: “ Why hidest Thou Thy face, and thinkest me Thy enemy ? Against a leaf, that is carried away with the wind, Thou showest Thy power, and Thou pursuest a dry straw. For Thou writest bitter things against me, and wilt consume me for the sms of my youth. Thou hast put my feet in the stocks, and hast observed all my paths, and hast con- sidered the steps of my feet: who am to be con- sumed as rottenness, and as a garment that is moth-eaten.55* And returning to the same subject, he continues: “ Man born of a woman, living for a short time, is filled with many mis- eries ; who cometli forth like a flower and is de- stroyed, and fleeth as a shadow, and never con- tinueth in the same state. And dost Thou think it meet to open Thy eyes upon such a one, and to bring him into judgment with Thee? 'Who can make him clean that is born of un- clean seed ? Is it not Thou who only art ?55 f Thus does holy Job express his astonishment at the severity of the Divine Justice towards frail man, so inclined to evil, who drinks up iniquity like water. That He should have ex- ercised such severity towards the Angels, who are spiritual and perfect beings, is not a matter of so much surprise. But it is truly amazing that not an idle word, not a wasted moment, in man’s life shall escape the rigor of God’s justice. “ But I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall render an account of it in the day of judgment.55 J If we must
* Job xiii. 24-28. t xiv. 1-4. $ St. Matt. xii. 36.
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render an account of idle words which harm no one, how severe will he the account exacted of us for impure words, immodest actions, sinful glances, blood-stained hands, for all the time spent in sinful deeds ? We could hardly credit the severity of this judgment, did not God Him- self affirm it. Oh ! sublime religion, how great are the purity and perfection thou teachest!
What shame, then, and what confusion will overwhelm the sinner when all his impurities, all his excesses, all his iniquities, hidden in the secret recesses of his heart, will be exposed, in all their enormity, to the eyes of the world! AYhose conscience is so clear that he does not blush, does not tremble, at this thought ? If men find it so difficult to make known their sins in the secrecy of confession ; if many prefer to groan under the weight of their ini- quities rather than declare them to God’s min- ister, how will they bear to see them revealed before the universe ? In their shame and con- fusion “ they shall say to the mountains: Cover us ; and to the hills: Fall upon us.” *
Consider also the terror of the sinner when this terrible sentence resounds in his ear: “ De- part from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his an- gels.” f How will the reprobate bear these ter- rible words ? “ Seeing,” says holy Job, “ that
we have heard scarcely a little drop of His word, who will be able to behold the thunder of His greatness ? ” % When this dread sen- tence will have gone forth, the earth will open
* Osee x. 8. + St. Matt. xxv. 41. $ Job xxvi. 14.
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and swallow in its fiery depths all those whose lives have been spent in the pursuit of sinful pleasures. St. John, in the Apocalypse, thus describes this awful moment: “1 saw another Angel come down from heaven, having great power ; and the earth was enlightened with his glory. And he cried out with a strong voice, saying: Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every unclean spirit, and the hold of every unclean and hateful bird.” * And the holy Evangelist adds: “And a mighty Angel took up a stone, as it were a great miil-stone, and cast it into the sea, saying: With such violence as this shall Babylon that great city be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.”f In like manner shall the wricked, rep- resented by Babylon, be cast into the sea of darkness and confusion. What tongue can ex- press the torments of this eternal prison ? The body will burn with a raging fire which will never be extinguished ; the soul will be tortured by the gnawing, undying* worm of conscience. The darkness will resound with despairing cries, blasphemies, perpetual weeping and gnashing of teeth. The sinner, in his impotent rage, will tear his flesh and curse the inexorable jus- tice which condemns him to these torments. He will curse the day of his birth, crying out in the words of Job: “Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said: A man-child is conceived. Let that day be turned into darkness, let not God re-
* Apoc. xviii. 1, 2. t Apoc. xviii. 2L
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gard it from above, and let not the light shine upon it. Let darkness and the shadow of death cover it, let a mist overspread it, and let it be wrapped up in bitterness. Let a darksome whirlwind seize upon that night, let it not be counted in the days of the year, nor numbered in the months. Why did I not die in the womb, why did I not perish at once when 1 came out of the womb ? Why was I placed upon the knees ? Why was I suckled at the breasts ? ” * Unhappy tongues which wd) hence- forth utter only blasphemies ! Unhappy ears to be for ever filled with sighs and lamenta- tions ! Unhappy eyes which will never gaze upon anything but misery ! Unhappy flesh consumed in eternal flames ! Who can tell the bitter remorse of the sinner who has spent his life in pursuit of new pleasures and new amusements ? Oh ! how fleeting were the joys that brought such a series of woes ! 0 sense-
less, unhappy man ! What do your riches now avail you ? The seven years of abundance are past, and the years of famine are upon you. Your wealth has been consumed in the twink- ling of an eye, and no trace of it remains. Your glory has vanished ; your happiness is swallowed up in an abyss of woe ! So extreme is your misery that a drop of water is denied you to allay the parching thirst with which you are consumed. Not only is your former pros- perity of no avail, but rather increases the tor- ture of your cruel sufferings. Thus shall the imprecation of Job be verified: “May worms
* Job iii. 3-6 and 11, 12.
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be liis sweetness,” * which St. Gregory thus ex- plains : “ The remembrance of their past plea- sures will make their present sufferings more keen ; and the contrast of their short-lived happiness with this endless misery will till them with rage and despair. ”f They will recognize too late the snares of the evil one, and will exclaim in the words of the Book of Wisdom : “ We have erred from the way of truth, and the light of justice hath not shone unto us, and the sun of understanding hath not risen upon us. We have wearied ourselves in the way of iniquity and destruction, and have walked through hard ways, but the way of the Lord we have not known/’ J The contem- plation of this terrible truth cannot but rouse us from our indifference and excite us to practise virtue. St. John Chrysostom frequently uses it as a means to exhort his hearers to virtue. “ If you would labor effectually/’ he says, “ to make your soul the temple and the abode of the Di- vinity, never lose sight of the solemn and awful day when you are to appear before the tribunal of Christ to render an account of all your works. Represent to yourself the glory and majesty with which Christ will come to judge the living and the dead. Consider the irrevocable sentence which will then be pronounced upon mankind, and the terrible separation which will follow it. The just will enter into the possession of inef- fable joy and happiness; the wicked will be precipitated into exterior darkness, where there
t “ Moral.,” xv. 26 and xvi. 31.
X Wisdom v. 6, 7.
* Job xxiv. 20.
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will be perpetual weeping and gnashing of teeth. They will be gathered like weeds, and cast into the fire, where they will remain for all eternity.” Ah ! then, before it is too late, let us save ourselves from this terrible misfortune by an humble and sincere confession of our sins — a favor that we will not receive on that day, for, as the Psalmist asks : “ Who shall confess to Thee, 0 Lord! in hell ?”*
Another thought which should here impress us is that God has given us two eyes, two ears, two hands, and two feet, so that if we lose one of these members we still have one left. But He has given us only one soul, and if we lose that we have no other with which to enjoy eternal happiness. Our first care, therefore, should be to save our soul, which is to share with the body either eternal happiness or eter- nal woe. It will avail no man at this supreme tribunal to urge : “I was dazzled by the glitter of wealth ; I was deceived by the promises of the world.” The inexorable Judge will answer : “ I warned you against these. Lid I not say : ‘What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul ’ ? ” f Nor can you plead that the devil tempted you. He will remind you that Eve was not excused when she urged that the ser- pent had tempted her. The vision of Jeremias teaches us what our Lord’s treatment of us will be. The prophet beheld first “ a rod watching,” and then “a caldron boiling.” This is a figure of God’s dealings with men. First He warns
* Ps. vi. 6. t St. Matt. xvi. 26.
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them, and if they do not heed He punishes them ; for he who will not submit, to the correction of the rod will be cast into the caldron of fire. As you read of God’s punishments in Scripture, have you ever observed that no one pleads for those whom God condemns ? Father does not plead for son, nor brother for brother, nor friend for friend. Yes, even God’s privileged servants, Noe, Daniel, Job, would seek in vain to alter the sentence of your Judge. At the wedding-feast no voice is raised to intercede for him who is driven from the banquet. No one pleads for the slothful servant who buried the talent entrusted to him by his Master. No one makes intercession with the Bridegroom for the five foolish virgins who, after despising the plea- sures of the flesh and stifling in their hearts the fire of concupiscence, nay, after observing the great counsel of virginity, neglected the precept of humility and became inflated with pride on account of their virginity. You know the his- tory of the avaricious maji of the Gospel, and how vainlyjie pleaded with Abraham for a drop of water to quench his burning thirst.
Why, then, will we not help one another while we can ? Why will we not render glory to God before the sun of His justice has set for us ? Better let our tongues be parched with privation and fasting during the short space of this life, than by sinful indulgence expose our- selves to an eternal thirst. If we can hardly endure a few days of fever, how will we bear the parching thirst and burning torments of that fire which will never die ? If we are so appalled
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at a sentence of death pronounced by an earthly judge, which, at most, deprives us of but forty or fifty years of life, with what feelings will we hear that sentence which deprives us of an im- mortal life and condemns us to an eternity of misery ? With what horror we read of the tor- tures inflicted by executioners upon malefac- tors ; yet the most cruel are only shadows com- pared to the eternal torments of the life to come. The former end with this life ; but in hell the worm of conscience shall never die, the executioner shall never grow weary, the fire shall never be extinguished. What, then, will be the feelings of the wicked when suddenly transported from the midst of earthly happi- ness to this abyss of unspeakable miseries ? In vain will they denounce their blindness and be- wail the graces they refused. What can the pilot do when the ship is lost? Of what use is the physician when the patient is dead ? Whither will we turn, on that terrible day, when the heavens and the earth, the sun, moon, and stars, when all creatures, will raise their voices against us to testify the evil we have committed ? But even were these silent, our own consciences would still accuse us.
These reflections, dear Christian, we have gathered chiefly from the writings of St. John Chrysostom. Do they not prove the necessity of living with the fear of this supreme judg- ment constantly before us ? This fear was never absent from the heart of St. Ambrose, notwithstanding the vigilant fervor of his life. “ Woe is me,” he exclaims in his commentary
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on St. Luke — “ woe is me if I weep not for my sins ! Woe is me, 0 Lord ! if I rise not in the night to confess and proclaim the glory of Thy name ! Woe is me if I do not dissipate the errors of my brethren and cause the light of truth to burn before their eyes, for the axe is now laid to the root of the tree.” Let him, therefore, who is in a state of grace bring forth fruits of justice and salvation. Let him who is in a state of sin bring forth fruits of penance, for the time approaches when the Lord will gather His fruit ; and He will give eternal life to those who have labored courageously and profitably, and eternal death to those whose works are barren and useless.
CHAPTER IX.
THE NINTH MOTIVE FOR PRACTISING VIRTUE: THE THOUGHT OF HEAVEN, THE THIRD OF THE FOUR LAST THINGS.
A MOTIVE no less powerful than those we have enumerated is the thought of Hea- ven. This is the reward of virtue, and in it we must distinguish two things : the excellence and beauty of the abode pro- mised us, which is no other than the empyreal heavens, and the perfection and beauty of the Sovereign King Who reigns there with His elect.
But though no tongue can fully express the splendor and riches of the heavenly kingdom.
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we will endeavor to describe its beauty as well as our limited capacities will allow. Let us, there- fore, first consider the grand end for which it was created, which will enable us to conceive some idea of its magnificence. God created it to manifest His glory. Though “ the Lord has made all things for Himself,” * yet this is par- ticularly true of Heaven, for it is there that His glory and power are most resplendent. We are told in Scripture that Assuerus, whose king- dom included one hundred and twenty-seven provinces, gave a great feast, which Tasted one hundred and fourscore days, for the purpose of manifesting his splendor and power. So the Sovereign King of the universe is pleased to celebrate a magnificent feast, which continues, not for one hundred and fourscore days only, but for all eternity, to manifest the magni- ficence of His bounty, His power, His riches. His goodness. It is of this feast that the pro- phet speaks when he tells us : “ The Lord of hosts shall make unto all peoples in this moun- tain a feast of fat things, a feast of wine, of fat things full of marrow, of wine purified from the lees.” f By this we are to understand that He will lavish upon His elect all the riches of the heavenly country and inebriate them with unutterable delights. Since this feast is pre- pared to manifest the greatness of God’s glory, which is infinite, what must be the magnifi- cence of this feast and the variety and splendor of the riches He displays to the eyes of His elect ?
* Prov. xvi. 4.
t Isaias xxv. 6.
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We will better appreciate the grandeur of Heaven if we consider the infinite power and boundless riches of God Himself. His power is so great that with a single word He created this vast universe, and with a single word He could again reduce it to its original nothingness. A single expression of His will would suffice to create millions of worlds as beautiful as ours, and to destroy them in one instant. Moreover, His power is exercised without effort or exertion ; it costs Him no more to create the most sublime seraphim than to create the smallest insect. With Him to will is to accomplish. Therefore, if the power of the King who calls us to His kingdom be so great ; if such be the glory of His holy Name ; if His desire to manifest and communicate this glory be so great, what must be the splendor of the abode where He wills to display in its fulness His divine magnificence ?
Nothing can be wanting to its perfection, for its Author is the Source of all riches, all power, and all wisdom. What must be the beauty of that creation in the formation of which are combined the almighty power of the Father, the infinite wisdom of the Son, the inexhaustible goodness of the Holy Spirit ?
Another consideration no less striking is that God has prepared this magnificence not only for His glory, but for the glory of His elect. “Whosoever shall glorify Me, him will I glorify.”* “ Thou Hast subjected all things under his feet,” cries out the Psalmist ;f and this we see verified in the most striking manner
* 1 Kings ii. 30. t Ps. viii. 8.
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among the Saints. Witness Josue, whose word arrests the sun in his course, thus showing us, as the Scripture says, “ God obeying the voice of man.” * Consider the prophet Isaias bidding King Ezechias choose whether he will have the sun go forward or backward in his course, for it was in the power of God’s servant to cause either. f Behold Elias closing the heavens, so that there was no rain but at his will and prayer. And not only during life but even after death God continues to honor the mortal remains of His elect ; for do we not read in Scripture that a dead body which was thrown by highwaymen into the tomb of Eliseus was brought to life by contact with the bones of the prophet ? J Did not God also honor in a marvellous manner the body of St. Clement ? On the day that this generous defender of the faith suffered, the sea was opened for a distance of three miles to allow the people to pass to the place of martyrdom to venerate the sacred remains. Is it not from a like motive that the Church has instituted a feast in honor of St. Peter’s chains, to show us how God wills to honor the bodies of His ser- vants, since we are to reverence their very chains? A still more marvellous proof of this was the power of healing the sick communicated to the shadow of the same Apostle. Oh ! admirable goodness ! God confers upon His Apostle a power which He Himself did not exercise. Of St. Peter alone is this related. But if God be I pleased thus to honor the Saints on earth, though but a place of toil and labor, who can tell the
* Joeue x. 14. 1 4 Kings xx. 9. $4 Kings xiii. 21.
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glory which He has reserved for them in His kingdom, where He wills to honor them, and through them to glorify Himself ?
The Holy Scriptures teach us also with what liberality God rewards the services we render Him. We are told that when Abraham wTas about to sacrifice his son in obedience to God’s command, an angel of the Lord appeared to him and said : “ By My own self have I sworn, saith the Lord: because thou hast done this thing, and hast not spared thy only-begotten son for My sake, I will bless thee, and I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is by the sea-shore ; thy seed shall possess the gates of their enemies ; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed My voice.”* Was not this a reward befitting such a Master ? God is sovereign in His rewards as well as in His punishments. We read also that David, reflecting one night that while he dwelt in a house of cedar the Ark of the Covenant was kept in a poor tent, resolved to build it a more fitting habitation ; and the next day the Lord sent the prophet Nathan to promise in His name the following magnificent reward : “Because thou hast thought of build- ing Me a house, I swear to thee that I will build one for thee and thy posterity which shall have no end, nor will I ever remove My mercies from it.”f We see how faithfully His promise was fulfilled, for the kingdom of Israel was governed by the princes of the house of David until the coming of the Messias, Who from that
* Gen. xxii. 16, 17, 18. + 2 Kings vii.
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time has reigned, and shall reign for all eternity. Heaven, then, is that superabundant reward which the faithful will receive for their good works. It is the manifestation of the Divine munificence, and of its greatness and glory we ought to have a lively appreciation. Another consideration which will help us to form some idea of the eternal beatitude promised us is the price which God, Who is so liberal, required for it. After we had forfeited Heaven by sin, God, Who is so rich and magnificent in His rewards, would restore it to us only at the price of the Blood of His Divine Son. The death of Christ, therefore, gave us life ; His sorrows won for us eternal joy ; and, that we might enter into the ranks of the celestial choirs, He bore the ignominy of crucifixion between two thieves. Who, then, can sufficiently value that happiness to obtain which God shed the last drop of His Blood, was bound with ignominious fetters, overwhelmed with outrages, bruised with blows, and nailed to a cross ? But besides all these God asks on our part all that can be required of man. He tells us that we must take up our cross and follow Him ; that if our right eye offend us we must pluck it out; that we must renounce father and mother, and every creature that is an obstacle to the Divine will. And after we have faithfully complied with His commands the Sovereign Re- munerator still tells us that the enjovment of Heaven is a gratuitous gift. “Iam Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End,” He says by the mouth of St. John ; * “ to him that thirsteth
*Apoc. xxi. 6.
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I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely.” Since God so liberally bestows His gifts upon the sinner as well as the just in this life, what must be the inexhaustible riches re- served for the just in the life to come ? If He be so bountiful in His gratuitous gifts, how munificent will He be in His rewards ?
It may further help us to conceive a faint image of this eternal glory to consider the nobility and grandeur of the empyreal Heaven, our future country. It is called in Scripture the land of the living, in contrast, doubtless, to our sad country, which may truly be called the land of the dying. But if, in this land of death inhabited by mortal beings, so much beauty and perfection are found, what must be the splendor and magnificence of that heavenly country whose inhabitants will live for ever ? Cast your eyes over the world and behold the wonders and beauties with which it is filled. Observe the immensity of the blue vault of heaven ; the dazzling splendor of the sun ; the soft radiance of the moon and stars ; the verdant heauty of the earth, with its treasures of precious metals and brilliant gems ; the rich plumage of the birds ; the grandeur of the mountains ; the smil- ing beauty of the valleys; the limpid freshness of the streams ; the majesty of the great rivers ; the vastness of the sea, with all the wonders it contains ; the beauty of the deep lakes, those eyes of the earth, reflecting on their jdacid bosoms the starry splendor of the heavens ; the flower- enamelled fields, which seem a counterpart of the starlit firmament above them. If in this
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land of exile we behold so much beauty to en- rapture our soul, what must be the spectacle which awaits us in the haven of eternal rest ?
Compare the inhabitants of the two countries, if you would have a still stronger proof of the superiority and infinite grandeur of the heavenly country. This earth is the land of death, Heaven is the land of immortality. Ours is the habita- tion of sinners, Heaven the habitation of the just. Ours is a place of penance, an arena of combat; Heaven is the land of triumph, the throne of the victor, “the city of God.” “Glorious things are said of thee, 0 City of God ! ” * Immeasurable is thy greatness, incom- parable the beauty of thy structure. Infinite thy price; most noble thy inhabitants, sublime thy employments ; most rich art thou in all good, and no evil can penetrate thy sacred walls. Great is thy Author, high the end for which thou wast created, and most noble the blessed citizens who dwell in thee.
All that we have hitherto said relates only to the accidental glory of the Saints. They possess another glory incomparably superior, which theologians call the essential glory. This is the vision and possession of God Himself. For St. Augustine tells us that the reward of virtue will be God Himself, the Author of all virtue, Whom we will untiringly contemplate, love, and praise for all eternity.” f What reward could be greater than this ? It is not Heaven, or earth, or any created perfection, but God, the Source of all beauty and all perfection. The
* Ps. lxxxvi. 3. t “ De Civitate Dei,” xxii. 30.
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blessed inhabitants of Heaven will enjoy in Him all good, each according to the degree of glory he has merited. For since God is the Author of every good that we behold in creatures, it follows that He possesses in Himself all perfec- tion, all goodness, in an infinite degree. He possesses them, because otherwise He could not have bestoAved them on creatures. He possesses them in an infinite degree, because as His Being is infinite, so also are His attributes and His perfections. God, then, will be our sovereign beatitude and the fulfilment of all our desires. In Him we will find the perfections of all creatures exalted and transfigured. In Him we will enjoy the beauty of all the seasons — the balmy freshness of spring, the rich beauty of summer, the luxurious abundance of autumn, and the calm repose of winter. In a word, all that can delight the senses and enrapture the soul will be ours in Heaven. “ In God,” says St. Bernard, “ our understandings will be filled with the plenitude of light ; our wills with an abundance of peace ; and our memories with the joys of eternity. In this abode of all perfec- tion the wisdom of Solomon will appear but ignorance ; the beauty of Absalom deformity ; the strength of Samson weakness ; the longest life of man a brief mortality ; the wealth of kings but indigence.” Why, then, 0 man !' will you seek straws in Egypt ? Why will you drink troubled waters from broken cisterns, when inexhaustible treasures, and the fountain of living water springing up into eternal life, await you in Heaven ? Why will you seek vain
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and sensual satisfactions from creatures, when unalterable happiness may be yours ? If your heart crave joy, raise it to the contemplation of that Good which contains in Itself all joys. If you are in love with this created life, consider the eternal life which awaits you above. If the beauty of creatures attract you, live that you may one day possess the Source of all beauty, in Whom are life, and strength, and glory, and im- mortality, and the fulness of all our desires. If you find happiness in friendship and the society of generous hearts, consider the noble beings with whom yon will be united by the tenderest ties for all eternity. If your ambition seek wealth and honors, make the treasures and the glory of heaven the end of all your efforts. Finally, if you desire freedom from all evil and rest from all labor, in Heaven alone can your desires be gratified.
God in the Old Law ordained that children should be circumcised on the eighth day after birth, teaching us thereby that, on the day of the general resurrection which will follow the short space of this life, He will cut off the miseries and sufferings of those who for love of Him have circumcised their hearts by cutting off all the sinful affections and pleasures of this world. Now, who can conceive a happier exis- tence than this, which is exempt from every sorrow and every infirmity? “In Heaven/*’ says St. Augustine, “ we shall cease to feel the trials of want or sickness. Pride or envy will never enter there. The necessity of eating or drinking will there be unknown. The desire
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for honors will never disturb our calm repose. Death will no longer reach body or soul, united as they will be with the Source of all life, which they will enjoy throughout a blessed im- mortality.” * Consider, moreover, the glory and happiness of living in the company of the angels, contemplating the beauty of these sub- lime spirits ; admiring the resplendent virtue of the Saints, the rewards with which the obe- dience of the patriarchs and the hope of the prophets have been crowned ; the brilliant dia- dems of the martyrs, dyed with their own blood, and the dazzling whiteness of the robes with which the virgins are adorned. But what tongue can describe the beauty and the majesty of the Sovereign Monarch who reigns in their midst? “If by daily endur- ing fresh torments,” says St. Augustine, f “and even suffering for a time the pains of hell, we were permitted for one day to con- template this King in all His glory and enjoy the society of His elect, surely it would be a happiness cheaply purchased.” What, then, can we say of the happiness of pos- sessing these joys for all eternity ? Conceive, if you can, the ravishing harmony of the celestial voices chanting the words heard by St. John: “Benediction, and glory, and wis- dom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and pow- er, and strength to our God for ever and ever. Amen.”J If the harmony of these voices will cause us such happiness, how we will rejoice at the unity that we will
* “ Soliloq.,” xxxv. t “ Manual.,” xv. X Apoc. vii. 12.
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behold between soul and body ! And this concord will be still more marked between an- gels and men, whilst between God and men the union will be so close that we can form no ade- quate idea of it. What glory, then, will it be for the creature to find himself seated at the banquet of the King of kings, partaking of His table — that is, of His honor and His glory ! Oh ! enduring peace of heaven ; oh ! unalter- able joy ; oh ! entrancing harmonies ; oh ! tor- rents of celestial delight, why are ye not ever present to the minds of those who labor and combat on earth ?
If such be the happiness which faith tells us is the reward of the just, how great is your blindness if you are not moved thereby to practise virtue !
CHAPTER X.
THE TENTH MOTIVE FOR PRACTISING VIRTUE : THE THOUGHT OF HELL, THE FOURTH OF THE FOUR LAST THINGS.
THE least part of the happiness we have en- deavored to portray should be sufficient to inflame our hearts with a love of vir- tue. Nevertheless wre shall also consider the terrible alternative of misery reserved for the reprobate. The sinner cannot comfort himself by saying : “ After all, .the only re- suit of my depraved life will be that I shall
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never see God. Farther than this I shall have neither reward nor punishment.” Oh ! no ; we are all destined to one or the other — either to reign eternally with God in Heaven or to burn for ever with the devils in hell.
This happiness and misery, either of which must inevitably be our portion, are represented by the two baskets of figs which Jeremias saw in the vision, one containing “ very good figs, like the figs of the first season, and the other basket very bad figs, which could not be eat- en.”* God willed thus to represent to His prophet the two classes of souls, one of which forms the object of His mercy, and the other of His justice. The happiness of the first is unequalled, and the misery of the second is also incomparable ; for the just enjoy the perpetual vision of God, which is the greatest of all bless- ings, while the wicked are for ever deprived of this vision, and thereby suffer the greatest of all evils.
If men who sin so rashly would weigh this truth they would know the terrible burden that they lay upon themselves. Those who earn their living by carrying burdens first estimate the weight they are to bear, that they may know whether it is beyond their strength. Why, then, 0 rash man ! will you for a passing pleasure so lightly assume the terrible burden of sin without considering your strength to bear it ? Will you not reflect on the heavy weight you thus condemn yourself to bear for all eternity ? To help you do this I shall offer
* Jeremias xxiv. 1, 2,
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you a few considerations which will enable you to realize in some measure the greatness of the punishment reserved for sin.
Let us first reflect on the almighty power of God, Whose justice will chastise the sinner. God’s greatness is apparent in all His works. He is God, not only in Heaven, earth, and sea, but in hell and in every other place. He is God in His wrath and in the justice with which He avenges the outrages offered to His divine majesty. Therefore, He Himself exclaims by the mouth of His prophet: “Will you not, then, fear Me, and will you not repent at My presence ? I have set the sand a bound for the sea, an everlasting ordinance, which it shall not pass over ; and the waves thereof shall toss themselves, and shall not prevail ; they shall swell, and shall not pass over it.” * In other words, will you not fear the almighty power of that Arm which controls the elements, which sustains the universe, and which no power can resist ? If the works of His mercy excite us to love and praise Him, we have no less reason to fear the greatness of His justice. Hence the prophet Jeremias, though innocent, and even sanctified in his mother’s womb, was deeply penetrated with this salutary fear. “Who,” he cries out, “shall not fear Thee, 0 King of na- tions ?”f And again : “I sat alone, because Thou hast filled me with threats.” J Doubtless the prophet knew that these threats were not uttered against him ; yet they filled him with terror. The pillars of heaven, we are told,
* Jerem. v. 22. + x. 7. * xv. 17.
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tremble before the majesty of God, and the powers and principalities prostrate themselves in awe before His throne. If these pure spirits, confirmed in bliss, and in no manner doubting of their happiness, but only through admira- tion of the Divine Perfections, tremble before His power, what should be the terror of the sin- ner who has made himself the object of His wrath ? It is the power of our Sovereign Judge which is most appalling in the punishment of sin. Speaking of God’s punishments, St. John says : “ Babylon’s plagues shall come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine, and she shall be burnt with fire, because God is strong, Who shall judge her.”* The great Apostle, filled with awe of this power, exclaims : “It, is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the liv- ing God.” f We have not such reason to fear the hands of men, from whom we can escape, and who at least cannot thrust the soul into hell. Hence our Saviour tells His disciples : “And fear ye not them that kill the body and are not able to kill the soul. But rather fear Him who can destroy both soul and body into hell.” J The author of Ecclesiasticus, impressed with the might of this power, thus warns us : “Unless we do penance we shall fall into the hands of the Lord, and not into the hands of men.”§ This united testimony proves, as we have said, that as God is great in His mercy and rewards, so will He be great in His justice and punishments.
* Apoc. xviii. 8. t St. Matt. x. 28.
+ Heh. x. 31.
§ Ecclus. ii. 22.
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This truth is still more apparent in the ter- rible chastisements inflicted by God which are related in Scripture. Witness the punishment of Dathan and Abiron, who, witli all their ac- complices, were swallowed alive into the earth and thrust into the depths of hell for rebelling against their superiors.* Who can read un- moved the threats against transgressors recorded in Deuteronomy ? Among others equally ter- rible, here is one which the sacred writer puts in the mouth of God: “ Thou shalt serve thy enemy, whom the Lord will send upon thee, in hunger, and thirst, and nakedness, and in want of all things ; and he shall put an iron yoke upon thy neck till he consume thee. And thou shalt eat the fruit of thy womb, and the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the Lord thy God shall give thee, in the distress and ex- tremity wherewith thy enemy shall oppress thee.” f We can scarcely imagine punishments more dreadful than these ; yet they, as well as- all the sufferings of this life, are but a shadow when compared to the terrible torments of the life to come. If His justice be so rigorous in this world, though always tempered by His love, what will it be in eternity when exercised with- I out mercy ? For the sinner who has despised God’s mercies in this life will feel only the ef- fects of His justice in the life to come.
Another consideration which may help us to appreciate the rigor of these sufferings is the greatness of the mercy which the sinner has de- I spised. What is there more astonishing than
* Num. xii. + Deuter. xxviii. 48, 53.
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that mercy which caused God to clothe Him- self in human flesh, to endure innumerable suf- ferings and humiliations, to take upon Himself the transgressions of the world, and for these transgressions to expire as a malefactor on an infamous gibbet ? God is infinite in all His at- tributes ; and, therefore, the justice with which He will punish man will equal the boundless mercy with which He redeemed him.
When God first came upon earth there was nothing in us to excite His mercy ; but at His second coming our every sin will be an addi- tional reason for Him to exercise His justice. Judge, therefore, how terrible it will be. 66 At His second coming,” says St. Bernard, “God will be as inflexible and as rigorous in punish- ing as at His first coming He was patient and merciful in forgiving. There is now no sinner living who is cut off from His reconciliation ; but in the day of His justice none will be re- ceived.” These words of St. Bernard are con- firmed by the royal prophet, wrho tells us : “ Our God is the God of salvation ; and of the Lord, of the Lord are the issues from death. But God shall break the heads of His enemies ; the hairy crown of them that walk on in their sins.”* Behold, then, how great is God’s mercy to those who are converted to Him, and how great is the rigor with which He punishes obdurate sinners.
The same truth is manifested by God’s pa- tience wfith the world, and with the vices and disorders of every sinner in particular. How
* Ps. lxvii. 21, 22.
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many there are who, from the age of reason to the end of their lives, continually offend Him and despise His law, regardless of His promises, His benefits, His warnings, or His menaces ! Yet God does not cut them off, but continues to bear with them, unceasingly exhorting them to repentance. But when the term of His pa- tience will come, and His wrath, which lias been accumulating in the bosom of His justice, will burst its bounds, with what terrible violence it will be poured out upon them! “ Knowest thou not,” says the Apostle, “that the benignity of God leadeth thee to penance ? But according to thy hardness and impenitent heart, thou trea- surest up to thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the just judgment of God, Who will render to every man according to his works.” *
The meaning of these words is not difficult. A treasure of ivrath is a terrible figure. Just as the miser adds coin to coin, riches to riches, so the wrath of God is daily and even hourly increased by the transgressions of the sinner. Were a man to let no day or hour pass without adding to his material fortune, consider what an immense amount he would have accumulated at the end of fifty or sixty years. Alas ! then, for thee, unhappy sinner, for there is hardly an hour in which thou dost not add to the trea- sures of God’s wrath which thy sins are accumu- lating against thee. Thy immodest glances, the evil desires of thy corrupt heart, and thy scandalous words and blasphemies would alone
*Rom. ii. 4, 5, 6.
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suffice to fill a world. If to these are added the many other grievous crimes of which thou hast been guilty, consider the treasure of vengeance and wrath which a long life of sin will heap up against thee.
If to the considerations already given we add a brief reflection on the gratitude of men, it will help us realize, in some measure, the severity of the punishment inflicted upon the sinner. Contemplate God’s goodness to men ; the bene- fits He has heaped upon them ; the means He lias given them to practise virtue ; the iniquities He has forgiven them ; the evils from which He has delivered them. Consider, moreover, the ingratitude of men for all these blessings ; their many treasons and rebellions against God ; their contempt of His laws, which they trample under foot for a paltry interest, and often through malice or mere caprice. What, then, can they expect who have thus outraged God’s mercy, who, in the words of the Apostle, have “trod- den under foot the Son of God, and have es- teemed the blood of the testament unclean by which they were sanctified” ?* God is a just Judge, and their punishment wTill be propor- tioned to their crimes. Remember the majesty of Him Who has been offended, and consider the sufferings of that body and soul which must offer satisfaction for such an outrage. If the Blood of Christ were needed to make reparation for man’s offences, the dignity of the Victim supplying what was lacking in the severity of His sufferings, how terrible will be those suffer-
* Heb. x. 29.
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mgs which sinners must endure, and which must supply by their rigor what is wanting in the merit of the victim !
If the thought of the Judge impress us so deeply, what ought to be our feelings when we consider who it is that will be the executioner ! The executioner will be the devil. What, then, may we not expect from the malice of such an enemy ? If we would form some idea of his cruelty, consider his treatment of the holy man Job, whom God delivered into his hands. He destroyed his flocks ; laid waste his lands ; over- threw his houses ; carried ofl his children by death ; made his body a mass of ulcers, and left him no other refuge but a dunghill and a pot- sherd to scrape his sores. In addition to his suffering he left him a scolding wife and cruel friends, who reviled him with words which tor- tured him more keenly than the worms which preyed upon his flesh. Thus was Job afflicted by Satan, but it is impossible to describe in human language his treatment of our Blessed Saviour during the night in which He was the Victim of the powers of darkness.
Seeing, then, how cruel are the devil and his angels, will you not tremble with horror at the thought of being delivered into their hands ? They will have power to execute upon you the most terrible inventions of their malice, not for a day, or a night, or a year only, but for all eternity. Read the appalling picture of these evil spirits given by St. John : “ I saw a star,” says the Apostle, “fall from heaven upon the earth, aud there was given to him the key of
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the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottom- less pit ; and the smoke of the pit arose as the smoke of a great furnace ; and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke of the pit. And from the smoke of the pit there came out locusts upon the earth. And power was given to them, as the scorpions of the earth, have power. And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but only the men who have not the seal of God on their fore- heads. And it was given to them that they should not kill them, but that they should tor- ment them five months : and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion when he striketh a man. And in those days men shall seek death, and shall not find it ; and they shall desire to die, and death shall fly from them. And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses pre- pared unto battle ; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold ; and their faces were as the faces of men. And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions ; and they had breast-plates as breast- plates of iron, and the noise of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. And they had tails like to scorpions, and there were stings in their tails.”* Does not the Holy Ghost design to teach us by these terrible figures the fearful effects of God’s jus- tice, the awful instruments of His wrath, and the appalling tortures of the reprobate ? Does He not wish that the fear of these evils should
* Apoc. ix. 1-10,
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save us from the lot of the sinner ? What is that star which fell from heaven, and received the key of the bottomless pit, but that bright angel who was precipitated from Heaven to reign for ever in hell ? Do not the locusts, so well equipped for battle, represent the ministers of Satan ? And are not the green things which they were commanded To spare, the just who flourish under the dew of God’s grace and bring forth fruits of eternal life ? Who are they who have not the seal of God upon their foreheads but men who have not His Spirit, which is the mark and seal of His faithful ser- vants ? It is against these unhappy souls that the ministers of God’s vengeance will work. Yes, they will be tormented in this life and in the next by the devils whom they willed to serve, just as the Egyptians were tormented by the various living creatures which they had adored. What terrible pictures are given us in Scripture of the monsters of this eternal abyss ! What can be conceived more horrible than the behemoth, “that setfeth up his tail like a cedar, whose bones are like pipes of brass, who drink- eth up rivers and devoureth mountains ” ? *
The considerations already given are certainly sufficient to inspire us with a horror for sin ; but to strengthen this salutary fear let us reflect upon the duration of these terrible torments. Try to realize what a comfort it would be to the damned if at the end of millions of years they could look forward to any term or alleviation of their sufferings. But no ; their sufferings shall
* Job xl.
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be eternal ; they shall continue as long as God shall be God. If one of these unhappy souls, says a Doctor of the Church, were to shed, one tear every thousand years, and if these tears accumulated to such a flood as to inundate the world, he would still be as far as ever from the end of his sufferings. Eternity would only be at its beginning. Is there anything worthy of our fears but this terrible fate ? Truly, were the pain of hell no more than the prick of a pin, yet if it must continue for ever there is no suf- fering in this world which man should not en- dure to avoid it.
Oh! that this eternity, this terrible foe ever, were deeply graven in our hearts ! We are told that a worldly man, giving himself to serious reflection upon eternity, made use of this simple reasoning : There is no sensible man who would accept the empire of the world at the expense of thirty or forty years spent upon a bed, even were it a bed of roses. How great, then, is the folly of him who for much smaller interests in- curs the risk of being condemned to lie upon a bed of fire for all eternity! This thought wrought such a change in his life that he became a great saint and most worthy prelate of the Church. What consideration will be given to this by the soft and effeminate, who complain so much if the buzzing of a mosquito disturbs their night’s repose ? What will they say when they will find themselves stretched upon a bed of fire, surrounded by sulphurous flames, not for one short summer nigh't, but for all eternity ? To such the Prophet addresses himself when he
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says : “ Which of you can dwell with devouring fire ? Which of you shall dwell with everlast- ing burnings ? ” * 0 senseless man ! will you
continue to allow yourself to be deceived by the arch-enemy of your soul? How can you be so diligent in providing for your temporal welfare, and yet be so careless of your eternal interests?
If you were penetrated with these reflections, what obstacle could turn you from the practice of virtue ? Difficult as it may appear, is there any sacrifice you would refuse to escape these eternal torments ? Were God to allow a man to choose whether he would be tormented while on earth with a gout or toothache which would never allow him a moment’s repose, or embrace the life of a Carthusian or a Carmelite, do you think there is any one who would not, purely from a motive of self-love, choose the state of a religious rather than endure this continual suf- fering ? Yet there is no pain in this life which can be compared to the pains of hell, either in in- tensity or in duration. Why, then, will we not accept the labor God asks of us, which is so much less than the austerities of a Carthusian or a Carmelite ? Why will we refuse the restraint of His law, which will save us from such suffer- ing ? What will add most keenly to the suffer- ings of the damned will be the knowledge that by a short penance and self-denial upon earth they might have averted these terrible pains which they must fruitlessly endure for all eternity. We see a figure of this awful truth in the furnace which Nabuchodonosor caused to
* Isaias xxxiii. 14.
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be built in Babylon,* the flames of which mount- ed forty-nine cubits, but could never reach fifty, the number of the year of jubilee, or gen- eral pardon. In like manner the eternal flame of this Babylon, though it burns so fiercely, fill- ing its unhappy victims with pain and anguish, will never reach the point of mercy, will never obtain for them the grace of pardon of the heavenly jubilee. Oh ! unprofitable* pains ! Oh ! fruitless tears ! Oh ! rigorous and hope- less penance! If borne in this life, the smallest portion of them might have saved the sinner from everlasting misery. Mindful of all these, send forth your tears and sighs, remembering the prophet who “lamented and howled, who went stripped and naked, making a wailing like the dragons, and a mourning like the ostriches, because her wound was desperate.” f
If men were ignorant of these truths, if they had not received them as infallible, their negligence and indifference would not be so as- tonishing. But have we not reason to wonder, since men have received them on the word of Him who has said: “ Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My word shall not pass away ” ? J Yet behold in what forgetfulness of their duty and their God they continue to live.
Tell me, blind soul, what pleasure you find in the riches and honors of this world which is a compensation for the eternal fire of hell. “If you possessed the wisdom of Solomon,” says St. Jerome, “the beauty of Absalom, the strength of Samson, the longevity of Henoch,
* Dan. iii. + Micheas i. 8, 9. X St. Luke xxi. 33.
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the riches of Croesus, the power of Caesar, what will all these avail you at death, if your body becomes the prey of worms, and your soul, like the rich glutton’s, the sport of demons for all eternity ? ”
9 CHAPTER XI.
THE ELEVENTH MOTIVE FOR PRACTISING VIR- TUE : THE INESTIMABLE ADVANTAGES PRO- MISED IT EVEN IN THIS LIFE.
WITH such powerful reasons for embracing virtue, I know not what excuse men can make for refusing to practise it. That pagans, who are ignorant of its value, do not prize it is not astonishing. A pea- sant digging in the earth and finding a precious stone Avill probably throw it away, because he does not know its worth. But that Christians, who have been taught the value and beauty of virtue, continue to live in forgetfulness of God and wedded to the things of this world, as if there were no such thing as death or judgment, \or heaven or hell, is a continual subject of sor- rowful wonder. Whence this blindness, whence this folly ?
It has several causes, the principal of which is the mistaken opinion of the generality of men, who believe that no advantages are to be reaped from virtue in this life, that its rewards are re- served for the life to come. Men are so power-
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fully moved by self-interest, and present ob- jects make such an impression upon them, that they think very little of future rewards and seek only their immediate satisfaction. The same was true even in the days of the prophets; for when Ezecliiel made any promise or uttered any threat in the name of the Lord, people laughed at him and said to one another: “The vision that this man seeth is for many days to come; and this man prophesieth of times afar off.”* In like manner did they ridicule the prophet Isaias : “ Command, command again, command, command again; expect, expect again, expect, expect again.” f Solomon teaches us the same when he says : “ Because sentence is not speedily pronounced against the evil, the chil- drenof men commit evils without any fear. . . . And because all things equally happen to the just and the wicked, to him that offereth vic- tims and to him that despiseth sacrifices, the hearts of the children of men are filled with evil, and with contempt while they live, and afterwards he shall be brought down to hell.” J Yes, because the wicked seem to prosper in the world they conclude that they are safe, and that the labor of virtue is all in vain. This they openly confess by the mouth of the prophet Malachias, saying : “ He laboreth in vain that serveth God ; and what profit is it that we have kept His ordinances, and that we have walked sorrowful before the Lord of hosts ? Wherefore now we call the proud
* Ezech. xii. 27. t Isaias xxviii. 10.
X Eccles. viii. 11 and ix. 2, 3.
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people happy, for they that work wickedness are built up, and they have tempted God and are preserved.” * This is the language of the reprobate, and is the most powerful motive which impels them to continue in sin; for, in the words of St. Ambrose, “ they find it too difficult to buy hopes at the cost of "dangers, to sacrifice present pleasures to future blessings.” To de- stroy this serious error I know nothing better than the touching words of our Saviour weep- ing over Jerusalem: “If thou also hadst known, and that in this thy day, the things that are for thy peace ; but now they are hidden from thy eyes.” f Our Divine Lord considered the ad- vantages which this people had received from Him; the happiness He had reserved for them; and the ingratitude with which they rejected Him when He came to them in meekness and humility. For this they were to lose not only the treasures and graces of His coming, but even their temporal power and freedom. This it was which caused Him to shed such bitter tears and to foretell the unhappy fate that was in store for His people. His words apply with great force to our present subject. Consider the inestimable riches, the abundant graces, which accompany virtue ; yet it is a stran- ger, a wanderer on earth. Men seem to be blind to these divine blessings. Have we not, therefore, reason to weep and to cry out : 0 man , if thou also hadst Tcnown ? If thou hadst known the peace, the light, the strength, the sweetness, and the riches of virtue, thou wouldst
* Malach. iii. 14, 15. t St. Luke xix. 42.
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have opened thy heart to it, thou wouldst have spared no sacrifice to win it. But these bless- ings are hidden from worldlings, who regard only the humble exterior of virtue, and, having never experienced its unutterable sweetness, they conclude that it contains nothing but what is sad and repulsive. They know not that Christian philosophy is like its Divine Founder, who, though exteriorly the humblest of men, was nevertheless God and sovereign Lord of all things. Hence the Apostle tells the faithful that they are dead to the world, that “ their life is hid with Christ in God.” * Just as the glory of Christ was hidden by the veil of His humanity, so should the glory of His faithful followers be concealed in this world. We read that the ancients made certain images, called Silenes, which were rough and coarse exteriorly, but most curiously and ingeniously wrought within. The ignorant stopped at the exterior and saw nothing to prize, but those who un- derstood their construction looked within and were captivated by the beauty they there beheld. Such have been the lives of the Prophets, the Apostles, and all true Christians, for such was the life of their Divine Model.
If you still tell me that the path of virtue is rugged, that its duties are difficult, I beg you to consider the abundant and powerful aids which God gives you. Such are the in- fused virtues, interior graces, the gifts of the Holy Ghost, the sacraments of the New Law, with other divine favors, which are to us like
* Coloss. iii. 3
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sails to a ship, or wings to a bird, to help us on our voyage to eternity. Reflect upon the very name and nature of virtue. It is a noble habit, which, like all other habits, ought to make us act with facility and pleasure. Remember also that Christ has promised His followers not only the riches of glory, but those of grace: the former for the life to come, the latter for this present life. “ The Lord/’ says the prophet, “ will give grace and glory.” * The treasures of grace are for this life, and the riches of glory are for the next. Consider further with what care God provides for the necessities of all creatures. How generously He supplies even the smallest creatures with all that is necessary to the end for which they were created ! Is it not unrea- sonable, then, to think that He will disregard the necessities of man, the most important of which is virtue, and leave him a prey to his weak will, his darkened understanding, and his corrupt nature ? The world and the prince of darkness are most assiduous in procuring vain pleasures and joys for those who serve them. Canyon doubt, then, that God will grant refresh" ment, light, and peace to His faithful in the midst of the labors performed for Him ? What did God wish to teach us by the words of the prophet ? “ You shall return, and shall see the difference between the just and the wicked, and between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not.”f Was it not that if we would be converted we would see and know, even in this life,