SIXTEENTH DAY. — USE OF DIVINE GRACE.
1. Whatever grace we have was dearly purchased. Our Saviour gave his blood for it. Wherefore, to reject a pious thought, to resist a holy inspiration, is, in fact, to undervalue the merits of Christ, and to frustrate, to a certain extent, the ends he proposed to himself in dying for us.
2. We are accountable to God, not only for the graces we have received, but also for those he intended to confer on us, provided we ourselves had not put an obstacle to them. His sun shines, but we shut our eyes against it. Are we the less indebted to him for its light? No; for we may, if we please, make use of it.
3. Many years, perhaps, has God been inviting us in vain; soliciting, reprehending, and threatening us, to no manner of purpose. But let us remember that he is a creditor who will not be thus put off, and that the longer our debt is unpaid, the heavier will become our obligation. There is possibly a measure of sins, which may force him at last to abandon us.
[Thank the Almighty now for all his gifts and graces. Beg pardon for having been unfaithful to them, and resolve to correspond with docility to all the suggestions of his graces forth© future.]
“ From him, to whom much hath been given, much will be required.” — St. Luke xii.
"Grace Is followed by judgment.”— St. Basil.
SEVENTEENTH DAY. — GOOD USE OF TIME.
1. The loss of time is one of the greatest misfortunes in the world. This life so short! all its moments so precious ! yet we live as if it were never to end, or as if we had nothing to fear hereafter.
2. Alas! if a damned soul had but one single moment of the time we now squander away, what good use would he make of it? Every instant of
