be the last both for you and me; and this hour, this moment is already fixed by Almighty God; how then can we think of any thing else but of loving God, who will then be our judge? Alas! what will my death be? O my Jesus and my judge, what will become of me, when I shall have to appear before thee to give an account of my whole life? Pardon me, I beseech thee, before that moment arrive which will decide my happiness or misery for eternity. I am sorry, for having offended thee, my sovereign good. Hitherto I have not loved thee; but now I will love thee with my whole soul. Grant me the grace of perseverance. O Mary, refuge of sinners, have pity on me.
Meditation Fifth.
On the loss of all things in Death.
I. THE day of destruction is at hand. Deut. xxxii. 35. The day of death is called the day of destruction, because then is destroyed all that man has acquired, honours, friends, riches, possessions, kingdoms, all are then no more. What then doth it profit us to gain the whole world, if in death we must leave all? All is at an end at the bed side of the dying man. Is there any king, think you, — said St. Ignatius to Xavier when he sought to bring him to God, — who has taken with him into the other world even a thread of purple to mark his sovereignty? Has any rich man taken with him a single coin, or even one servant to attend him? In death all is left behind. The soul enters eternity, alone and unattended, except by her works. Woe to me! where are my works to accompany me to a blessed eternity? I can discover none but such as render me deserving of eternal torments.
