peacefully my days passed, how I rejoiced in the house of my God, on the heart of my Saviour under the mantle of my dearest Mother Mary and how brightly there shone from heaven the crown of everlasting glory!
"But now everything is lost; my soul is as hideous as a moldering corpse I And I behold hell open, threatening each moment to swallow me up I Alas! who can help me, what deliverance is possible?"
2. If an angel from heaven were to appear to this wretched man and assure him that God was ready to pardon all his transgressions, and preserve him from hell, to receive him as His child and admit him to heaven, under this one condition — that he should truly and sincerely repent of his sins and penitently confess them to God's representative - with what joy, with what gratitude, would such a sinner hail the message, and do everything in his power to render himself a worthy recipient of this pardon! This gives you an idea of the pure and, at times, intense, exuberant delight which sincere penitents experience when they return from the confessional — the place of healing for souls.
3. On this point hear the testimony, not of a holy or specially favored soul, but of a soldier. Yes, it was a soldier, an officer, who had attended one of the sermons preached at a mission given in Paris by Father Brydaine, and then had made his confession to him. Afterward he followed him into the sacristy, and spoke thus before all the bystanders; "The king of France with all his treasures, and riches, and pleasures, can not be as happy and contented as I am now. Never in my whole life have I experienced such peace and contentment, such pure, such un-
