you wallow like a swine in the filth of impurity, although you are certain that you must pay for your wickedness in a short time in the fire of hell! Where is your common sense? Leave those joys and pleasures to us who are not in danger of ever losing them and of having to render an account to a strict Judge; prepare for death; order your life so that you may not lose eternal joys. Such is the advice you would give that man. But is it not the same that every one of us is bound to take and act upon? for we are all sure and certain that in a short time we shall die and appear before the divine Judge, who will send us to heaven or hell for all eternity.
Conclusion and resolution to prepare well for death. Therefore, I will take this advice to myself, and never forget that it is I who must die, that another will come after me and succeed to my place. Ah, why then do I live so careless of my soul? Why do I think so little of the long eternity of happiness or misery that awaits me? But I will now begin to prepare for the approach of death, and to disregard everything that could prevent me from dying a happy death. Let each one of you, my dear brethren, often say to himself the words:
“Thou shalt die and shalt not live;” it is I who must die, and that perhaps soon; I cannot send another in my place into eternity; I myself must journey thither, and leave behind all that I ever possessed or shall possess in the world. Why, then, should I be so concerned for temporal things, since I cannot take them with me? Why do I desire, seek, and love that which God has forbidden me to seek and to love? Why do I long for that which will keep me from heaven, embitter my death, and precipitate me into the flames of hell forever? Why do I not at once try to purify my conscience from the filth of sin, to serve my God more zealously, and to ensure my eternal salvation? Am I not mad and foolish to have ever grievously offended the Lord God and exposed my soul to the greatest danger? “Thou shalt die and shalt not live;” it is I who must die; should I not then begin at once to prepare for death as well as I know how? Truly it is so, and I will prepare myself.
How to do this.
But in what manner? I must now at once do that which I shall have to do in my last illness if I wish to die well, but which I shall then possibly not be able to do properly. To square our accounts with God, to bewail all the sins of our past lives with a contrite heart, and candidly confess them in the holy sacrament of penance, to form the earnest purpose of never