of God: "Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return." (Gen. iii. 19.) Why should dust and ashes be proud?
II. As to your soul, what are you? Created of nothing you would return to your original non-existence, did not God preserve you every moment. Without His cooperation you could not even move a finger. 2. You were conceived in sin, and born in sin, and there is no actual crime, however heinous, which you would not commit unless supported by divine grace. 3. In regard to knowledge, how small a portion do you possess! How many objects are entirely unknown to you! And as to power, how little can you do, and how many things lie beyond your reach!
III. What are you in comparison with all mankind? What is all the human race in comparison with the angels? And what are all the angels when compared with God? "The whole world before Thee is as the least grain of the balance, and as a drop of the morning dew, that falleth down upon the earth." (Wis. xi. 23.) And yet, vile and impotent as you are, you have had the effrontery to rise up against a God of such majesty and power, and to provoke Him to indignation against you. Learn humility, do penance, and "sin no more, lest some worse thing happen to thee." (John v. 14.)
Mortal Sin. — IV. Vileness of its Object.
I. To abandon or insult a friend who deserved our affections is an offence, but to abandon him for some slight or trifling matter would be an aggravation of that offence. Now the whole world, as Isaias writes, in comparison with God, is nothing. "All nations are before Him as if they had no being at all, and are counted to
