bear, to see men the cause of their own condemnation? At the present, what does our past life seem to us but a dream, a. moment? Now, what will appear to those in hell the fifty or sixty years of the life which they have lived on this earth, when they find themselves in the abyss of eternity, in which a hundred or a thousand millions of years having passed it will be seen that their eternity then begins? But why do I say fifty years of life, all, perhaps, passed in pleasure? And does the sinner by chance, who lives without God, ever delight in his sins? How long do the pleasures of sin last? They endure but moments, and all the rest of the time in which the sinner lives out of the grace of God, is a time of pains and torments. Now, what indeed will these moments of pleasure appear to the poor condemned one, and what in particular that last moment and last sin, through which he was lost? Then he will say, for a wretched animal pleasure that endured but for a moment, and which, as soon as possessed, disappeared as the wind, I shall have to continue to burn in this flame despised and abandoned by all, whilst God shall be God for all eternity.
Affections and Prayers.
Lord, enlighten me, that I may know the wrong which I have committed in offending Thee and the eternal punishment which I have deserved on this account. My God, I feel great sorrow for having offended Thee, but this sorrow consoles me: If Thou hadst sent me to hell as I deserved, this remorse would have been the hell of my hell, the thinking for how little I had condemned myself; but now this remorse consoles me, since it gives me the courage to hope for pardon from Thee, Thou Who hast promised, to pardon those who repent. Yes, my Lord, I repent of having outraged Thee. I embrace this sweet grief, I even pray Thee to increase it, and to preserve it in me till death, that so I may ever weep bitterly over the displeasure that I have caused Thee. My Jesus, pardon me. O my Redeemer, Who, though having pity upon me, hadst no pity for Thyself, condemning Thyself to die of grief to liberate me from hell, have pity upon me. Grant, then, that the remorse of having offended Thee may keep me ever sorrowful, and at the same time may inflame me wholly with
