do nothing. I love Thee, O my Jesus, with all my heart, and I confide in Thy Blood.
Third Point.
Let us now consider the misery of a soul that is not in the grace of God; it is separated from its highest good, which is God. "Your iniquities have separated between you and your God." (Isa, lix. 2.) So that no longer it belongs to God, nor God to it. "Ye are not My people, and I will not be your God." (Hos. i. 9.) God not only does not belong to the soul, but He loathes it, and condemns it to hell. The Lord does not hate any of His creatures. " Thou lovest all things that are, and hatest none of the things which Thou hast made." (Wisd. xi. 25.) But God cannot avoid hating sinners. " Thou hatest all them that work vanity." (Ps. v. 3.) Yes, because God cannot help hating sin, which is an enemy wholly contrary to His will; and therefore in hating sin He necessarily hates the sinner also who is united to sin. " But to God the wicked and his wickedness are hateful alike." (Wisd. xiv. 9.)
O God, if any one has for an enemy an earthly prince, he can never enjoy a quiet sleep, justly fearing death in any moment; and he who has God for an enemy, how can he have peace? One can fly from the anger of an earthly prince by hiding oneself in a wood, or by going afar off into another country; but who can escape from the hands of God? " Lord," said David, " If I climb up into heaven, Thou art there; if I go down to hell, Thou art there also; . . . . even there also shall Thy hand lead me." (Ps. cxxxix. 8, 9.)
Poor sinners, they are cursed by God, by the angels, by the saints, even in this world every day by all the priests, the religious who proclaim their curse in reciting the Divine office: " Cursed are they that do err from Thy commandments." (Ps. cxviii. 21.) Moreover, the loss of God's grace, implies the loss of all merit; for. if the greatest saint or missionary commits but one act of sin, he loses all. "All his righteousness that he had done shall not be mentioned." (Ezek. xviii. 24.) Mark the ruin which the loss of God's grace brings with it - the child of
