happy there with God and His elect. Now, my eternity depends on my last hour, on the state in which it finds me. Therefore, I shall always be ready for it. But, you think, these are sad and melancholy meditations. Not by any means! They are full of consolation for the soul that is determined to work out its salvation; for it must be a great consolation for such a soul to find itself prepared at all times for death. These thoughts are indeed sad and melancholy for those who are not minded to amend; but they should think of the sad and melancholy meditations they will one day make in hell, when they think: I could have been eternally happy, but I did not wish to be so!
Thus sin will be easily avoided. O my good God! if I had during my past life made such a meditation seriously for the space of even one Miserere, would it have been possible for me to act so carelessly as I have hitherto done? Could I have spent so much precious time in idleness, vanity, and dangerous company, and so little in Thy service? Could I have committed this or that grievous sin so often, and have remained whole weeks, months, and years in the miserable state of mortal sin? I am terrified now when I think of my negligence, and of the constant danger of eternal damnation in which I was day and night. For I might have died at any hour, and been summoned before Thy strict tribunal. Infinite thanks to Thee, O God of mercy, for having spared me! I now heartily condemn and detest all that I have done during my life to displease Thee.
Conclusion and resolution to be always ready for judgement.
In future I shall always keep before my mind my death and the judgment that awaits me. This will be a check on my evil inclinations and desires; it will spur on my sluggish will to zeal in Thy service; it will detach my heart and affections from earthly goods and pleasures; it will sweeten the short-lived trials of this uncertain life, so that I shall bear them with patience and resignation for Thy sake and to gain heaven; for I shall say to myself: this cross may possibly last only for an hour, and then I shall go to my God and possess Him in eternal joys. Daily, as Thomas a Kempis exhorts me, I will live as if I had daily to die, to appear before Thy judgment-seat. In the morning when I awake I will make such a resolution as I should make if I knew that at evening my body was to be lying dead in the coffin; and at night before retiring to rest I will purify my conscience as if I expected to be found dead in my bed next morning. Thus I shall be ready any moment to meet Thee, my future Judge, whenever it may please Thee to call me from the
