strength, and then shall I be able to do all things. " I can do all things through Christ, Who strengthened me." (Phil. iv. 13.) Give me, then, grace through Thy merits, O my Jesus, to commend myself ever to Thee, and to implore Thy help in my needs. I love Thee, O Highest Good, amiable above every good, and Thee only will I love; but give Thou help to me.
Third Point.
" My son, hast thou sinned? do so no more; but, for thy former sins, also pray that they may be forgiven Thee." (Ecclus. xxi. I.) Behold, O Christian, how that good Saviour advises you, since He desires your salvation, " My son, do not return to offend Me, but from this day henceforth be mindful to ask pardon for your sins." My brother, the more you have offended God, so much the more you ought to fear to offend Him further, since the other sin which you commit will sink the scale of Divine justice, and you will be condemned. I do not say positively, that after another sin there will be no more pardon for you, since I know not this; but I say that this can be so. Therefore, when you are tempted, say, "Who knows whether God will not further pardon me, and I shall be condemned? " Of your favour, tell me, if there were a likelihood that poison were in some food, would you take it? If with probability you believed that your enemies lay in wait in a certain road, would you go along that road, having another way more secure? And thus, what security, what probability even, have you, that if you again sin, you will afterwards have a true sorrow, and not return again to sin; or that in the act of sinning, God will not strike you dead, and that He will not abandon you after it?
O God, if you buy a house even, you take every care to obtain the legal securities, and not to waste your money; if you take medicine, you seek to be well assured that it cannot harm you; if you pass a stream, to seek to secure yourself from falling into it and yet for a wretched gratification, for an animal pleasure, you are willing to risk your eternal salvation; and you say, " I will repent of it tomorrow." And who promises you this tomorrow? S. Augustine says: " Do you hold fast to a day, who canst not
