and there, and attending only to the amusements which happened to be going on? would you not esteem him mad, or a man who did not believe his impending fate? Are you not every moment advancing towards death? and what do you think of? You know that you must die, and that you can die only once: You believe that after this life another awaits you which will never end; and that this eternal life will be happy or miserable according as your accounts shall be found at the day of your judgment: and how can you believe these truths and attend to any thing else but making preparation for a good death? Enlighten me, O my God, and let the thoughts of death, and of the eternity in which I must dwell, be ever present to my mind.
III. Look at the skeletons heaped np in cemeteries: they are silently saying to you: “ What has “ happened to us, will soon overtake you.” The same is repeated to you by the portraits of your parents who are dead, by the letters of their handwriting, by the rooms, the beds, the clothes which they once possessed and used, but which they have now quitted and left behind for you. All these things remind you of death which is waiting for you. My crucified Jesus, I will not delay to embrace thee till the moment of my death, when thy crucified image will be presented to me; but I will embrace thee now and press thee to my heart. Hitherto I have frequently expelled thee from my soul, but now I love thee more than myself, and am sorry for having despised thee. For the future I will be always thine, and thou shalt be always mine. This is my hope through thy bitter passion and death. And this also do I hope for through your protection, O ever blessed Mary.
