gathered into the storehouse of the Eternal Father, who will then say to His reapers, that is, to His angels: “The wheat gather ye into My barn.”[1]
Most terrible for the wicked shall be their separation from the just. Finally, what a great change shall take place in the minds of many when the separation shall be made according to the words: “The angels shall go out, and shall separate the wicked from among the just”![2] Wicked man! the angels shall say, what are you doing here amongst the sheep of Christ? Away with you! This is no place for you! You belong to the reprobate goats. Alas, how bitter and full of confusion shall then be the saparation of one friend from another, of one acquaintance from another, of one fellow-countryman from another, of one neighbor from another, of one member of a household from another! One shall be on the right hand, the other on the left. “Then two shall be in the field,” says Our Lord in the Gospel of St. Matthew, two who have worked together their lives long; “one shall be taken, and one shall be left.”[3] Two are living in the same house; “one shall be taken and one shall be left:” one shall be on the right, the other on the left hand. Two are in the same occupation; one of them shall be on the right, the other on the left hand. Two in the same family; one of them shall be on the right, the other on the left; the wife, for instance, on the right, the husband on the left; the father amongst the sheep, the son amongst the goats; the daughter amongst the angels, the mother amongst the devils; the sister amongst the elect, the brother amongst the reprobate; the scholar amongst the pious, the teacher amongst the wicked; a layman amongst the saints, a priest amongst the accursed; the penitent amongst the blessed, the confessor amongst the damned; the hearers in heaven, the preacher in hell, or quite the reverse. Alas, I think, be this as it may, the separation will be a sorrowful one for the unlucky part, the change terrible!
Conclusion and resolution to serve God here most zealously, that we may be amongst the elect on the last day. My dear brethren, ah, where shall we be? on what side shall we stand? Shall we all be at the right hand? May God grant it! And if so, how we shall rejoice with and congratulate each other! Shall some of us be at the left hand? God save each and every one of us from such a fate! If any were so unfortunate, how pitifully they would look at their former companions from whose society they are now excluded! For my part, I am
