immature, ill-flavored wine, you shall have an abundance of sweet, healthy wine that will always increase in goodness, to put in your cellar. The same I should say to him who plucks off the apples or pears before they are ripe and when they hardly have the proper shape of pears and apples; or to one who cuts his corn while the ear is still in formation: wait, put off your harvest for a time; then you shall have all and much more than you desired. So I will say to myself: this is not the time to enjoy the pleasures of sense; I will put them off to the harvest-time, when I shall rise again with those who sowed in tears and reaped an eternal harvest of joy. Yes, O Lord! “I believe to see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living,”[1] where I shall be able to say with that Saint who appeared to St. Theresa after his death: “O fortunate penance, which has merited for me such great glory!”[2] This my hope is laid up in my bosom. Amen.
TWENTIETH SERMON.
ON THE PROFIT WE CAN DERIVE FROM THE CONSIDERATION OF THE TRIALS OF THE JUST AND THE PROSPERITY OF THE WICKED, AS FAR AS THE RESURRECTION IS CONCERNED.
Subject.
First: that the pious in this world live in afflictions, while the wicked live in prosperity, should strengthen our faith in a resurrection to heaven. Secondly: it should strengthen our hope in a resurrection to heaven. Thirdly: it should inflame our love and desire for a resurrection to heaven.—Preached on the second Sunday after Easter.
Text.
Ego sum pastor bonus, et cognosco meas, et cognoscunt me meæ.—John x. 14.
“I am the Good Shepherd: and I know Mine, and Mine know Me.”
