hope. But a day or two of pilgrimage and exile, and then I shall be with him for ever.
3. What matters it how we fare here below, provided we be with Jesus for all eternity? Can I justly complain that a never-ending happiness should cost me so little? The martyrs purchased heaven
- it the price of their blood, and thought it was given
them for nothing. Shall not I then sacrifice my corrupt will for it? O happy eternity! if men only knew what thou art worth !
[Excite within yourself a great desire of heaven; and behold the earth with a proportionable contempt. Were you filled with a proper sense of it, nothing here below could allure or disturb you.]
“I shall be satisfied when thy glory shall appear.” — Psalm xvi.
“ If the labour terrifies, the reward invites." — St. Bernard.
NINTH DAY. — ON THE PRESENCE OF GOD.
1. God at this moment beholds me as if I were alone in the world; or, rather, he is within me as an eye infinitely enlightened, which observes me constantly, and which nothing can escape. He sees me as clearly as he comprehends himself.
2. Ought I not to be infinitely more ashamed that my sins should appear in his sight, than that they should be exposed to the eyes of the whole world? Would I commit in the presence of a servant, what I dare commit before the King of kings? O what blindness ! to fear so much the eyes of men, and so little the eyes of God.
3. The most obscure darkness can never conceal me from light itself: the most distant and solitary retreats are always filled with the Divine Majesty. Let me shun, as much as I please, the sight and the company of men, I will find God everywhere.
[Put yourself in the presence of God. and see whether there be anything in you that may offend his eyes. The most, powerful.
