Conclusion and resolution to be at once converted. On what, then, do you ground your hope, O sinner! you who defer repentance to the last moment? Do you think that an exception will be made in your favor contrary to the general decrees of the Almighty God and to what experience teaches us of the death of sinners? Or do you imagine that you will be the one in a hundred thousand to whom God will give the special grace of conversion at the end? Will you trust your eternity to such a desperate chance? Ah, “Delay not to be converted to the Lord, and defer it not from day to day; for His wrath shall come on a sudden, and in the time of vengeance He will destroy thee.”[1] Do not wait till the end; do penance at once, and that sincerely; at once amend your life, if you seriously intend escaping hell, and going to heaven! And when will you do penance? Next Easter or Christmas? Oh, no! That would be delaying too long! Next Sunday? Too long also. To-morrow? No, even that delay is dangerous. “If thou also hadst known, and that in this thy day,” says the Gospel, “the things that are to thy peace.”[2] Therefore on this very day, on which God calls you and offers you His grace and friendship, do not close your ears. Now, while you are in good health, free yourself from the unhappy state of sin; for you know not what day will be your last, nor when the time of grace will be past for you. Ah, my God! I tremble when I think of the years I have spent in sin! How have I dared to pass even one night with a bad conscience? How could I be so presumptuous as to spend whole months with out doing penance? Infinite thanks be to Thee, O God of mercy! that Thou hast borne with me so patiently, and given me so much time to repent. In future my greatest care shall be to avoid sin, and now in the time of Thy grace and visitation I will work out my salvation; now in the days of light I will seek Thee, O Lord! so that I may find Thee in the hour of my death, that I may not then have to say the lamentable words: “I have labored the whole night, and have taken nothing” but rather think to my consolation: I have worked during my life to obtain forgiveness of my sins and the grace and friendship of God, and now I find the reward promised by God, which I hope to enjoy forever in the abode of rest and joy. Amen.
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On the Vain Hope of a Death-bed Repentance.
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