Page:Meditations For Every Day In The Year.djvu/46

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carry nothing out." (1 Tim. vi. 7.) The author of Ecclesiasticus then justly exclaims, "O death, how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man who has peace in his possessions." (Ecclus. xli. 1.) Divest yourself, therefore, of worldly affections in time, that there may be nothing which you will have to leave with regret at the hour of death.

III. Consider the anguish and perplexity of mind which every one will experience at the hour of death, in consequence of his uncertainty in regard to the future. The moment in which their irrevocable doom will be pronounced is at hand, "and yet man knoweth not whether he be worthy of love or hatred." (Eccles. ix. 1.) The devil will be there to tempt you to despair. Consider what, at that moment, you would wish to have done during life, and do it, before it be too late.

On Death.— III. The Horror of a Corpse.

I. What will become of the body after death — that body which you indulge and adorn with so much care and attention. 1. A dead body lies senseless and motionless; it sees nothing, it hears nothing; it cannot even shake off the worms that crawl around it. 2. It loses its color and becomes deformed; it is soon a prey to corruption, in such a manner, that the dearest friends of the deceased are struck with horror and avoid it. This horror was the cause of St. Francis Borgia's sanctity; for being obliged by his office to inspect the corpse of the queen of Spain, who had been a great beauty, and seeing her beauty so soon and so suddenly fled, and succeeded by the most loathsome corruption, he is said to have exclaimed, " How long shall we love vanity and seek after sin." (Ps. iv. 3.) " How long shall we neglect solid