and the day may not be far distant; nay perhaps it is just at hand. But it will certainly come at last, and however remote it may be, it will be like to-morrow; the interval yet to elapse will seem like an instant; and the only consolation you can then have will be to have made a preparation for death the study of your lives.

5. Lastly, look back to the source of these excessive fears, which render the image and the thought of death so terrible to you, and you will without doubt find it in the trouble of a guilty conscience. It is not death which you fear, it is the justice of God which awaits you beyond that period, to punish you for your unbelief and manifold transgressions; it is because you are afraid to present yourselves before him, covered with so many shameful wounds which disfigure his image in you; and because for you to die in your present situation would be to perish eternally. Purify then your consciences,-recall God to your hearts; present nothing to his view meriting his anger and his punishment; put yourselves in a condition to hope something from his infinite mercy after death; then you will see this last moment approach with less fear and amazement; and the sacrifice which you will already have made to God of the world and your passions, will not only facilitate, but render even sweet and consoling, the sacrifice which you are then to make of your lives.

Now, my brethren, what is there in death terrible to a believer? From what does it separate him? From a world, which must perish and which is the portion of the reprobate ;-from his riches, which embarrassed him, the use of which was attended with danger, and which he was forbidden to make subservient to his present interests ;-from his neighbors and friends, whom he precedes but a short time, and who will very soon follow him ;-from his body, which had been a perpetual source of sin, and an ob

stacle to his holy desires; from his masters and from his servants, the former of whom often exacted of him a criminal compliance with their wishes, and the latter rendered him responsible for many of their sins ;-from his offices and dignities, which, by multiplying his duties, augmented his dangers ;-in fine, from life, which to him was but an exile, and from which he had a desire to be delivered. What does death give him for that which it takes from him? It gives him eternal pleasures, which he will taste without fear and without bitterness ;-unfading blessings, which no one can ravish from him;-the sure and peaceable enjoyment of God, of which he can no more be deprived; a deliverance from all his passions, which had been to him a continual source of inquietude and pain ;—an unalterable peace, which he was never able to find in this world;-the dissolution of all the chains which bound him to the earth, and detained him here as a captive;-in fine, the society of holy and happy beings, instead of that of sinful men from which he is now separated.

And what is there, O my God, in this world, sufficiently agreeable to a believer to attach him to life? It is to him a vale of tears, where dangers are numerous, combats daily, victories rare, and falling into sins inevitable ;-where there must be unremitted watchfulness and engagedness;-where the bodily appetites and passions must be continually mortified; -where worldly enjoyments constantly hold out alluring temptations, and yet are forbidden ;—where that which naturally pleases the most is the most to be avoided and feared;-in a word, where, if you do not suffer, if you do not weep, if you do not resist unto blood, if you do not war incessantly, if you do not even hate yourselves, you are lost. What is there then in this life sufficiently amiable and attractive to interest the affections of a truly pious Christian? And must it not be a triumph and a gain to him to die ?

Thus, my brethren, death is the only point of view, the only consolation which can support the righteous. Do they groan under affliction? They know that their end is nigh; that the short and transitory tribulations of this life will be followed with an eternal weight of glory; and in this thought they find an inexhaustible source of patience, of firmness, and of cheerfulness. Do they feel the law of their members warring against the law of their minds, and exciting in them emotions which endanger their fidelity, and well nigh cause their feet to slip? They are not ignorant that after the dissolution of their earthly house they will be made heavenly and spiritual; and that being delivered from all these evils they will then become like the Angels of Heaven. The recollection of these things sustains and fortifies them. Are they oppressed with the weight of Christ's yoke? Is their weak faith upon the point of yielding, or sinking under the weight of the austere duties of the gospel? The day of the Lord is not far off; their blessed recompense is at hand and the end of their course, which they already see, animates them and gives them new strength. Hear how the Apostle consoled the primitive believers. "Brethren," said he to them, "the time is short, the day approaches, the Lord is at the door, and he will not long delay; rejoice then, again I say, rejoice." This was all the consolation of those men when they were persecuted, injured, proscribed, trodden under foot, considered as the offscouring of the world, the opprobrium of Jews, and the laughing stock of Gentiles. They knew that death would dry up their tears; that then there would be no more sorrow, or grief, or suffering; that every thing would be new; and this thought mitigated all their pains. Ah! If any one had told these valiant confessors of the faith, that the Lord would not make them taste death, and that he would leave them to live eternally upon earth, this would have staggered their faith,

tempted their constancy, and by taking from them the hope of future happiness, would have deprived them of all their consolation.

You will perhaps say, you are not surprised at this, because to men afflicted and unhappy as they were death must have appeared a refuge. You mistake, my brethren. It was not their persecutions and sufferings which constituted their unhappiness and grief. These were their joy, their consolation, and their glory: "We glory in tribulations," said they. It was the distance at which they still lived from Jesus Christ. This was the source of their tears, and the only thing which rendered death so desirable to them. Whilst we are in the body, said the Apostle, we are absent from the Lord; and this absence rendered the condition of those faithful men grievous and hard to be borne. True piety will lead us to wish a re-union with Christ our chief, and to sigh after the happy moment which will incorporate us with all the elect, in that mystical body which was formed from the foundation of the world, from every language, tribe, and nation; which is the end of all the designs of God, and which will glorify him with Jesus Christ for ever. True Christians, while here below, are like branches separated from their vine; like rivers at a distance from their fountain; like strangers wandering far from their country; like captives. chained in a prison waiting for their deliverance; like children banished from the house of their father; in one word, like members separated from their body. Since Christ their chief is ascended into heaven, they consider the earth as no longer the place of their abode; they wait for the blessed hope and coming of their Lord. This desire constitutes their piety and their consolation; and for a Christian not to long for this happy moment, but to fear it, and to regard it as the greatest of misfortunes, is to pronounce an anathema against his Lord;-to desire to have no part with him ;-to renounce the promises of faith, and

the glorious title of a citizen of heaven ;-to seek his happiness upon earth ;-to deny a future state;to regard religion as a dream; and to believe that death will terminate his existence.

No my brethren; death has nothing but what is sweet and desirable to a pious man. Arrived at that happy moment, he sees, without regret, a world perish which had never appeared to him but as vanity, and which he had never loved; his eyes are closed, with pleasure, on all those vain spectacles which the earth affords, which he had ever regarded as the decorations of a moment, and whose dangerous illusions he had never ceased to fear. He perceives without regret, what do I say?he perceives with pleasure, this mortal body, which had been the source of all his temptations, and the fatal cause of all his weaknesses, clothed with immortality; he regrets nothing upon earth where he leaves nothing, and from which his attachment flies with his soul; he does not even complain of being cut off in the midst of his course, and of finishing his days in an age still flourishing. On the contrary, he thanks his deliverer for having abridged his pains with his years; for not having exacted from him but the half of his debt, as the price of his immortality; and for having consummated his sacrifice in so short a time, fearing that a longer continuance in a corrupt world would have perverted his heart. His zeal, his mortification and self-denial, which had cost the weakness of the flesh so much, then afford him the greatest consolation ; he sees that every thing vanishes except what he has done for God; that every thing forsakes him, his fortune, his neighbors, his friends, his dignities,-every thing but his own actions; and he is transported with joy that he has not put his confidence in the favor of princes, in the children of men, in the vain hopes of fortune, in any thing which could perish; but in the Lord alone, who continues eternally the same, and in a near communion with whom he will