Meditation Thirty-first.
On the great affair of salvation.
I. THE affair of our eternal salvation is of all others the most important. But how comes it that men use all diligence to succeed in the affairs of this world, leave no means untried to obtain a desirable situation, to gain a law-suit, or to bring about a marriage, reject no counsels, neglect na measures by which to secure their object, neither eat nor sleep, and yet do nothing to gain eternal salvation, — nothing to gain it but every thing to forfeit it, as though hell, heaven and eternity were not articles of faith, but only fables and lies? O God, assist me by thy divine light; suffer me not to be any longer blinded, as I hitherto have been.
II. If an accident happen to a house, what is not immediately done to repair it? If a jewel be lost, what is not done to recover it? The soul is lost, the grace of God is lost, and men sleep and smile! We attend most carefully to our temporal welfare, and almost entirely neglect our eternal salvation l We call those happy who have renounced all things for God; why then are we so much attached to earthly things? O Jesus, thou hast so much desired my salvation as to shed thy blood and lay down thy life to secure it; and I have been so indifferent as to the preservation of thy grace as to renounce and forfeit it for a mere nothing! I am sorry, O Lord, for having thus dishonoured thee. I will renounce all things to attend only to thy love, my God, who art most worthy of all love.
III. The Son of God gives his life to save our souls; the devil is most deligent in his endeavours to bring them to eternal ruin: and do we take no care of them? St. Philip Neri convicts that man
