things past shall be accused of vanity?[1] For all those things have passed away like a shadow, and as a ship that passes through the waves; whereof, when it is gone by, the trace cannot be found.[2] Oh, happy are they who remember that they are as exiles and pilgrims on the earth, or rather that they are set in this world as stewards and dispensers over the goods of their Lord, who will come at an hour they think not, to take an account of his servants!
But wretched are they, alas! who, as though I were gone abroad, and were to return late, live riotously on my goods, as though forgetful of the time when I shall summon them to give an account of their stewardship! Is it thus that men, who were created by me in honour, understand not, but are compared to senseless beasts, and made like to them? as though they were to die both alike, and as though man had nothing more than a beast; whereas, I have created them to my own image and likeness, and redeemed them with my own Blood when under sentence of eternal death, that with me they might become heirs of heaven! How is it, then, that, like blind men, they run upon death, and perish for ever, though they are men bought by me at so great a price, for whose sake I came that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly?[3] Oh, how few there are who seriously consider this in their heart, and who deem it wisdom to meditate on these things! How many persons say, as though they had entered into a league with death, and made a covenant with hell: When the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come upon us?[4] Thus it is that they turn away their face, that they may not look upon their end; there is no fear of God nor care for death before their eyes. Therefore they spend their days in wealth, and in a moment they go down to hell.[5]
Man. What shall I do to thee, O keeper of men? Thy hands have made me, and fashioned me wholly round about, and is it thus that thou castest me headlong down?[6] Spare me, O Lord, for my days are as nothing. What profit is there in my blood, if I go down to corruption? Shall dust confess to thee, or declare thy truth? Shall any one in the sepulchre declare thy mercy, and thy truth in destruction? For there is no one in death that is mindful of thee, and who shall confess to thee in hell? Does it seem
