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thou didst "gather" these things; [1] for thy wretched soul, for whom thou didst provide them, can now no longer enjoy them!

2. This question I am to make to myself, examining what kind of goods I have "stored" up in this life, and saying to myself, "Then whose shall be the things that thou hast provided " when thou art dead? Will they peradventure be thy soul's, or one be thy " heir " whom thou "knowest not?" [2] If they be temporal goods, certainly they shall be none of thine; for the rich man, " when he shall die," shall take away nothing with him, nor " shall his glory descend with him [3] but if they be spiritual goods of virtues and good " works" [4] thine they will be; for these accompany those that die in our Lord, and forsake them not till they put them in the throne of His glory. Therefore, O my soul, labour to treasure up goods that in life and death may always be thine, and of which nobody can deprive thee!

3. Like this question I will make another to myself, saying, This soul that thou hast in thy body, whose shall it be? Will it perad venture be God's or the devil's? Will it be Christ's that redeemed it, or Satan's to whom it has subjected itself? If I am in mortal sin, and die in it, doubtless it will be the devil's; he will come to require it of me, and will carry it away, for it is his through sin. But if I be in the grace of Almighty God, and persevere in it, it will be God's, and He will come for it, to carry it with Him. Therefore, forthwith do penance for thy sins, that if to-day "the prince of darkness" should " come," he may "not" find " in" thy soul "anything "[5] that is his, and so may leave it.

Colloquy. — O King of heaven and of earth, "Tuus sum ego, salvum me fac," [6] "I am Thine, save

  1. Ps. xxxviii. 7.
  2. Eccles. ii. 18, 19.
  3. Ps.xlviii. 18.
  4. Apoc. xiv. 13.
  5. Joan. xiv. 30.
  6. Ps. cxviii. 94.