time of our lives on earth, and to the good or bad use we make of it. “The present time is the time for sowing,”[1] says St. Jerome. The seed is the use we make of time, “the seed of eternity,”[2] as the same Saint calls it. Alas! my dear brethren, I now must exclaim with sorrowful heart, how wantonly this seed is scattered on the wayside by countless mortals, where it will be trampled under foot and produce no fruit! For they squander in idleness, or useless occupations, or sinful pleasures, the precious time lent them by God to serve Him alone and save their souls. And they make as little account of this as if a fowl had eaten a grain of corn! But how very different, etc. Continues as above.
ELEVENTH SERMON.
ON THE VAIN HOPE OF A DEATH-BED REPENTANCE.
Subject.
The sinner who puts off repentance until the hour of death can have no hope of being then converted; because that hope is denied him: 1. by God Himself, 2. by experience.—Preached on the fourth Sunday after Pentecost.
Text.
Per totam noctem laborantes, nihil cepimus.—Luke v. 5.
“We have labored all the night, and have taken nothing.”
Introduction.
By the night we understand in a spiritual sense the state of sin, in which he lives who either does not repent of his vices or who, although he goes often to confession, does not earnestly propose to amend his life. While in that state all his works, although they may be good and holy in themselves, cannot gain for him the slightest merit for heaven, as I have shown in another sermon. O Christian! who continuest to labor in that dismal night, I beg of thee, return by true repentance and amendment to the clear light! Do not wait any longer, for it is a deceitful and treacherous hope that builds on the future, as I have also shown. Dost thou still refuse to hearken to my warning? Then learn
