account thereof in the day of judgment." Thy sins are more in number than the hairs of thy head, than the sands of the sea, than the stars of heaven. Whither wilt thou turn ?

Turn not at any rate to false excuses, and vain fancies which cannot save thee. Say not, GoD will not judge so minutely. He hath said that He will bring every work into judgment.' It may seem to thee that such a judgment would occupy eternity, but thou art blind, and cannot see afar off.

In dreams that which appears to be a long state of suffering or joy is felt in a few moments of time. Men awake, having slept but for a minute, and they think that it was hours. So quick is thought.

It is said that drowning men sometimes see all their past life as in an instant.

Consider how swift thought is, even now whilst it is hindered by the body. In one moment thou mayest be in India in thy thoughts; and in another, here.

Think now of one of thy early sins, which cleaves to thy conscience. Behold, whilst thou hast read these words, all the scene of it has come before thee, the very place, and all the circumstances of the deed.

That which we have said or done is stored up in our memory. Sometimes illness, sometimes some grief or joy, brings to mind things which we thought we had forgotten. They were stored up in the treasury of our minds, but we could not open it.

Now then, thou canst imagine, in a faint manner truly, but in a manner sufficient to awaken thee, how, in an instant, as with a flash of lightning, God's judgment will reveal thee to thyself, and open all thy sins. Look along the whole line of sin and judgment, and see how surely the one succeeds the other. At noon Adam sinned, and in the evening was exposed, judged, and cast forth, with the sentence of death in his members. All the world save eight souls perished in the Eccles. xii. 14.

flood: none were spared but Noah and his family. The cities of the plain were warned, visited, condemned, and the smoke of the country went up as from a furnace; not one soul saved. Remember the ocean of wrath which buried Pharaoh and his army. Remember the pit which swallowed up Dathan, and the fire which consumed Korah. Remember how GoD discerned the one sin of the one sinner, Achan, in the midst of all the host. Remember the nations of Canaan cut off by the sword of Israel. Remember the end of Judas, Pilate, Herod, and the Jews; and learn to dread God's sure and fearful punishment. He will not turn aside. He will judge the world. Oh awful hour when the throne is set, and the ten thousand saints are assembled around it, and the books are opened, and men are judged out of those things which are written in the books.

"Fearful is that court of judgment, terrible that tribunal, full of fear that reckoning, a river of fire rolls along. A brother doth not redeem; shall man redeem? Remember the things told in the Gospel, the angels running round, the bride-chamber being shut, the lamps extinguished, the spirits dragging into the flames. Think of this also, that if a secret act of any of us were brought into the midst this day before the Church only, how would not a man have prayed to have perished rather, and that the earth had parted asunder for him, than that he should have so many witnesses of his wickedness. What then shall we suffer when all things are brought into the midst before all the world in such a theatre bright and manifest, whilst both those known to us, and those unknown, behold all things?" "Think not the judgment small, O man, even without punishment, to be condemned before so many. Do we not prefer to die often than to be condemned by our friends? Let us strive then earnestly, brethren, that GoD condemn us not; Who hath no need of inquiry or of proofs for condemnation. Say not, I committed fornication in the 1 S. Chrys. in Rom. Hom. 5.

night, or practised magic, or committed any other deed, and no man was there. From thine own conscience thou shalt be judged; thy thoughts meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another in the day when GoD shall judge the secrets of men. The fearful countenance of the Judge compels thee to speak the truth, and still more, if thou speakest not, convicts thee for thou wilt rise clothed in thine own sins or righteousness."'

Thus the holy Fathers expound the Scriptures, and thou feelest that their words are true; for if now thou findest it hard to confess thy sin, and art easily ashamed before men, and ready to invent all manner of excuses in order to escape blame; how wilt thou endure the overwhelming shame and reproach which will come upon thee in that day, when not one sin, but all thy sins, are laid bare before, not thy neighbour, but thy God, and the holy angels, and saints and all mankind?

And that awful saying that we shall be clothed with our own actions as with a garment, and carry our own conviction with us, is also true. For as the murderer is accused by himself, when he holds the bleeding sword in his hand, so shall sinners awaking with sinful souls and bodies be self-condemned. For every act imprints itself upon a man, and gives him a character which abides. A body full of lusts, or a soul full of worldly affections, and anger, and pride, is a book in which each sin has become a word, and in which a man may be read through and through. Like criminals caught in the very act will be those men who have to die and rise again with corrupted souls and bodies. They need but to be seen, and to see themselves. They are their own condemnation.

Oh awful words of the prophet-" The Ancient of Days did sit, Whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head like the pure wool: His throne

1 S. Cyril. Hierosol. Cat. xv.

was like the fiery flame, and His wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him: thousand thousands ministered unto Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.""

If the man in the parable was speechless, how much more wilt thou be when thou standest in such a Presence! All false excuses will melt away. They will be broken reeds, and the thought of them will pierce not thy hand, but thy soul. Then wilt thou see that thou couldest have done many righteous acts and left undone countless iniquities, which now thou sayest cannot be helped. Then wilt thou see things in their true light.

Even now when thou lookest back upon thy youth thou seest many follies of which thou once wast proud. Thou hast already begun to judge thyself. Hereafter thou shalt condemn thy present life,-thy whole life. Thy good deeds will melt away into small compass, as their false motives appear, and the evil tempers which attended them, and their great scarceness: but thy sins will swell up and up and become a mountain of iniquity.

Listen and hear how falsely men number their sins and righteous deeds until they die. The same historian, at whose words thou didst tremble a short time past, thus writes:-"In the reign of Coenred, who succeeded Ethelred, there was a layman in a military appointment, no less acceptable to the king for his worldly industry, than displeasing to him for his private neglect of himself. The king often admonished him to confess and amend, and to forsake his wicked courses, before he should lose all time for repentance and amendment by a sudden death. Though frequently warned, he despised the words of salvation, and promised he would do penance at some future time. In the meantime, falling sick, he was confined to his bed, and began to feel very severe pains. The king coming 1 Dan. vii. 9, 10.

to him (for he loved the man), earnestly exhorted him, even then, before death, to repent of his offences. He answered, He would not then confess his sins, but would do it when he was recovered of his sickness, lest his companions should upbraid him of having done that for fear of death, which he had refused to do in health.' He thought he then spoke very bravely, but it afterwards appeared that he had been miserably deluded by the wiles of the devil.

"The distemper still increasing, when the king came again to visit and instruct him, he cried out with a lamentable voice, 'What will you have now? What are ye come for? for you can no longer do me any good.' The king answered, 'Do not talk so; behave yourself like a man in his right mind.' right mind.' 'I am not mad,' replied he,' but I have now all the guilt of my wicked conscience before my eyes.' 'What is the meaning of that?' rejoined the king. 'Not long since,' said he, 'there came into this room two most beautiful youths, and sat down by me, the one at my head, and the other at my feet. feet. One of them produced a very small and most curious book, and gave it me to read; looking into it, I there found all the good actions I had ever done in my life written down, and they were very few and inconsiderable. They took back the book and said nothing to me. Then, on a sudden, appeared an army of wicked and deformed spirits, encompassing this house without and filling it within. Then he, who, by the blackness of his dismal face, and his sitting above the rest, seemed to be the chief of them, taking out a book horrid to behold, of a prodigious size, and of almost insupportable weight, commanded one of his followers to bring it to me to read. Having read it I found therein most plainly written in black characters, all the crimes I ever committed, not only in word and deed, but even in the least thought.'. . . . Thus talked that wretch in despair, and died soon after.""

Consider this also,-"The Son of Man will here be 1 Bede's Eccl, Hist. lib. v. cap. xiii.