Ah! my brethren, God could not be seen in former times without instant death being the consequence. A whole people of Bethshemites was exterminated for having only too curiously examined the ark: the angel of the Lord covers Heliodorus with wounds, because he had dared to enter into the sanctuary of Jerusalem: the Israelites in the desert were not permitted even to approach the holy mountain from whence the Lord gave out his law; the thunders of heaven defended its access; terror and death every where preceded the face of the God of Abraham. What! because whirlwinds of fire no longer burst forth to punish the intruders and the profaners of our sanctuaries, respect and dread no longer accompany us there! Weak men, over whom the senses have such dominion, and who are never religious but when the God whom they worship is clothed in terror! for, say, were we to discern the body of the Lord, — did the faith of his presence make those grand impressions upon us, which it would undoubtedly do were we openly to see him, ah! would we tranquilly and almost unfeelingly come to seat ourselves at this table? Should a few moments employed in reciting, with a languid heart and an absent mind, some slight formula, prepare us for an action so awful? Should a communion be the business of an idle morning, perhaps gained from a customary slumber or the vain cares of dress? Ah! the thoughts of it should long previously occupy and affect us; time should even be necessary to strengthen us, if I may venture to say so, against our feelings of respect, and against the idea of his majesty: the days previous to this sacred festival should be days of retirement, of silence, of prayer, and of mortification: every day which brings us nearer to that blessed term, should witness the increase of our anxieties, our fears, our joy. The thoughts of it should be mingled with all our affairs, all our conversations, all our meals, all our relaxations, and even with our sleep itself: our mind, filled with faith, should feel its inability to pay attention to any thing else; we should no longer perceive but Jesus Christ: that image alone should fix all our attention. Behold what is meant by discerning the body of the Lord.
I know that a worldly soul experiences inward agitations at the approach of a solemnity in which decency, and perhaps the law, require his presence at the altar. But, O my God! thou who fathomest these troubled hearts, are such those religious terrors of faith which should accompany a humble creature to thy altar? Ah! it is a sadness which operates death; these are inquietudes which spring from the embarrassments of a conscience which requires to be cleared. They are gloomy and sad, like the young man of the Gospel whom thou orderedst to follow thee: they dread these blessed days as fatal days: they look upon as dark and gloomy mysteries, all the solemnities of Christians; the delights of thy feast become a fatigue to them; they only partake of it like the blind and the lame of the Gospel: that is to say, that the laws of thy church must drag these faithless souls, as if by force, from the public places, from the pleasures of the age, and from the
