Fifth Day.—On the Last Judgment.
1. I must one day appear before the tribunal of Jesus Christ, to be there judged upon the good or evil I shall have done. There is nothing more formal nor express in the gospel than this truth; I believe it as firmly as if the last trumpet had already sounded to call up all the dead to judgment.
2. What shall we say at the sight of so many bad thoughts, of so many criminal actions, of so many graces despised? O what a terrible day is the day of God's wrath! where the inmost recesses of the heart shall be openly exposed; where every fault shall be strictly examined! If the just themselves shall be hardly found just, what must become of unhappy sinners.
3. What sentence must an impenitent sinner expect from an offended and inexorable God? O tremendous condemnation! Depart ye accursed, &c, Alas! where shall these miserable wretches go, to whom you thus give your malediction? To what part of the world shall they retire when they withdraw from you? Where can there be so miserable a dwelling? To be banished from the presence of God! to be accursed of God! O what a shocking destiny!
Imagine yourself now before the tribunal of Christ. What are you most ashamed of at this very moment? Reflect seriously on it, and remember that all your secret sins shall be exposed at the day of Judgment, if you do not here efface them by a sincere repentance.
"Who shall be able to stand before the face of his wrath?"
Nahum, i.
"Wo even to the praiseworthy life, if without mercy, O God, thou shalt examine it."
St. Augustine.