SERMON XXXI.
THE HAPPINESS OF THE JUST.
"Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted." — Matthew v. 4.
Sire, — If the world were to speak to you in the place of Jesus Christ, it undoubtedly would not say, " Blessed are they who mourn." Happy, would it say, the prince who has never fought but to conquer, and whose mind has always been superior either to the danger or to the victory: who, during the course of a long and a prosperous reign, has enjoyed, and still continues to enjoy, at his ease, the fruits of his glory, the love of his people, the esteem of his enemies, the advantage of his conquests, the splendour of his actions, the wisdom of his laws, and the august prospect of a numerous posterity; and who has nothing left now to desire but the continuance of what he possesses.
In this manner would the world speak: but, Sire, Jesus Christ does not speak like the world.
Happy, says he to you, not him who is the admiration of his age; but he who makes his study of the age to come, and lives in the contempt of himself and of all the things of the earth; for to him is the kingdom of heaven. Not him whose reign and actions history will immortalize in the remembrance of men; but he whose tears shall have effaced the history of his sins from the remembrance even of God; for he shall be for ever consoled. Not him who, by new conquests, shall have extended the bounds of his empire; but he who has succeeded in confining his desires and his passions within the limits of the law of God; for he shall inherit a kingdom more durable than the empire of the universe. Not him who, exalted by the voice of nations above all preceding princes, tranquilly enjoys his greatness and his fame; but he who finding nothing even on the throne worthy of his heart, seeks no perfect happiness on this earth but in virtue and in righteousness; for he shall be filled. Not him to whom men have given the pompous titles of great and invincible; but he to whom the wretched shall give, before the tribunal of Jesus Christ, the title of father and of merciful; for he shall be treated with mercy. Lastly, happy not him who, always disposer of the lot of his enemies, has more than once given peace to the earth; but he who has been able to give it to himself, and to banish from his heart all the vices and disorderly inclinations which disturb its tranquillity; for he shall be called a child of God.
Such, Sire, are those whom Jesus Christ calls happy: and the Gospel acknowledges no other happiness on the earth than virtue and innocence.
Great God! it is not, then, that long train of unexampled prosperities, with which thou hast favoured the glory of his reign, that
