ty and glory; it will be the city of the endless joys and glory of the almighty God. Into this city of beauty and delight then we shall make our triumphal entry with Jesus Christ. “Lift up your gates, O ye princes! and be ye lifted up, O eternal gates! and the King of glory shall enter in”[1] with His chosen flock. Then we shall be led before the throne of the Eternal Father, and a place shall be appointed for each one according to his merits. “And so shall we be always with the Lord,”[2] as the Apostle says, and rejoice with Him forever. O joy! O exultation! O infinite delight! I can no further picture to myself what thou art!
Folly of man in loving earthly things and forgetting heaven. Ah, I am forced to exclaim, with my holy Father Ignatius, as a consequence of this meditation, “how vile the earth seems to me when I look up to heaven,”[3] and consider the eternal dwelling of the elect. Poor mortals that we are in this vale of tears! We crawl about like ants in a heap of mud, and moil and toil for a handful of earth, and think so little of our heavenly country! “How ridiculous are the bounds of mortals!”[4] such are the terms in which even the heathen philosopher Seneca laughs at our vain cares and occupations. Do you know where you are, and for what you are working so hard? You are on the earth; and even if you made the whole of it your own, what better would you be? It is only a little point when compared to the heavenly sphere. Yet this point is divided amongst the people by fire and sword; for the sake of it we fight with each other, and are ready to tear one another to pieces for a garden, or farm, or vineyard, or piece of ground. We go to law for a hand’s breadth of land, or a handful of clay, as if all heaven depended on it, and meanwhile we forget heaven completely. On this little point we strut about and are puffed up with pride, and try to make ourselves great people. In this place of wretchedness we allow ourselves to be befooled by mortal beauty, so that to possess it we renounce all the beauty we could see and enjoy hereafter in heaven. For this handful of earth, this empty smoke, we bo often sell the place of everlasting joy. If there is question of choosing between a piece of money and heaven; between the point of honor and heaven; between a momentary pleasure,
