15.— On Confidence in God.
"This is the confidence which we have towards God: that whatsoever we shall ask according to His will, He heareth us." — i John v. 14.
[The Rev. Father Vincent Houdry was born in Tours on the 22d of January 1630, on the Feast of St. Vincent of Saragosa, hence his name.
At an early age he manifested a taste for study and piety, and at the age of thirteen, in 1644, he entered the Society of Jesus. During the thirty years of his ministry Pere Houdry distinguished himself as an eloquent preacher. His last years were passed in the library in the midst of books. Besides being the author of several learned works, he will be best known as the editor of that stupendous monument of industry, "La Bibliothlque des Prtdicateurs? and from this work many extracts have been culled and translated.
He died at the College of Louis le Grand, in Paris, on the 29th of March 1729, aged ninety-eight years and three months. Although he was continually reading and writing, he never had occasion to make use of spectacles. His age and example would lead us to believe, that longevity of life is in favour of the learned and industrious.]
FULL confidence in the goodness of Almighty God is one of the sure marks of predestination.
The most criminal, corrupt, or wicked man who sincerely wishes to do penance for his past sins, will find that confidence in God is an efficacious and sovereign remedy for all his miseries.
Let him be penitent, let him persevere in hope, he, eventually, will be saved. God has said it, God has promised it;
