invites me, but the multitude of my offences weighs me down.
Thou commandest me to approach to Thee with confidence, if I would have part with Thee; and to receive the food of immortality, if I desire to obtain life and glory everlasting. " Come to Me," Thou sayest, "all you that labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you" (Matt xi. 28). O sweet and amiable word in the ear of a sinner, that Thou, O Lord my God, shouldst invite the poor and needy to the communion of Thy most sacred body! But who am I, O Lord, that I should presume to come to Thee? Behold the heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee; and Thou sayest, "Come you all to Me." What means this most loving condescension, and so friendly an invitation? How shall I dare to approach, who am conscious to myself of no good on which I can presume? How shall I introduce Thee into my house, who have oftentimes provoked Thine indignation? The angels and the archangels stand with reverential awe; the saints and the just are afraid; and Thou sayest, "Come you all to Me." Unless Thou, O Lord, didst say it, who could believe it to be true? And unless Thou didst command it, who would dare attempt to approach?
Behold, Noe, a just man, labored a hundred years in building the ark, that he with a few might be preserved; and how shall I be able in the space of one hour to prepare myself to receive with reverence the Maker of the world? Moses, thy servant, thy great and special friend, made an ark of incorruptible wood, which he also covered with the most pure gold, that he might deposit therein the Tables of the Law; and shall I, a rotten creature, presume so easily to receive Thee, the Maker of the law and the Giver of life? Solomon, the wisest of the kings of Israel, employed seven years in building a magnif-
