Page:MeditationsOnTheMysteriesOfOurHolyV1.djvu/179

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tibi hodie;" " Remember my judgment, for thine also shall be so; yesterday for me, to-day for thee." [1] And because the dead had two judgments, one of his body, by which he was condemned to turn to dust and to worms, the other of his soul, by which he receives sentence conformable to his merits; of both of them he would have us remember ourselves. And therefore in seeing any dead body, or the skulls and bones of the deceased, I should imagine that they say to me, " Remember that where thou seest thyself I saw myself, and where I now see myself thou shalt see thyself. Yesterday ended my life, to day peradventure thine shall be ended. Yesterday I turned into dust, to-day the like will begin for thee. Yesterday the bell tolled for me, to-day, perhaps, the same shall toll for thee. Yesterday I gave an account to God of my works, to-day thou shalt give a reckoning of thine. Yesterday I received sentence according to my merits, to-day thou shalt receive according to thine. Consider well that all this shall be 'to-day,' [2] for all the time of thy life is but as a day, and perhaps for thee this day will be thy last, and thou shalt not live until to-morrow."

Colloquy. — O my soul, hear the cry of the dead, hearken to the lecture that withered bones read thee. Consider well what judgment passed on them, for such shall be thine. Live as they wish they had lived; prepare thyself as they would that they had prepared themselves; measure often alive this course that they passed, that when thy hour approacheth thou mayest run it in such a way that thou mayest obtain life everlasting! Amen.

  1. Ecclus. xxxviii. 23.
  2. Heb.iii. 13.