eth not good fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire." (Matt. iii. 10.)
II. Apply this parable to yourself and to your own soul. The Heavenly Husbandman has planted you as a choice vine in the vineyard of His Church. He has exposed you to the sun of divine enlightenments, and watered you with the stream of His grace. He has provided you, in fine, with everything necessary to produce plenty of excellent fruit. He may perhaps, however, justly say of you: " These three years I come seeking fruit on this fig-tree, and I find none;" that is, I find no fruit corresponding to my anxious exertions for the tree. What then must be done?
III. " Let it alone this year, also." Who knows whether God has determined that this shall be the last year of your mortal life, or that if you do not during this year yield the fruit which He wishes He will withdraw His more abundant graces from you, and not afford you so many helps as He has done of working out your salvation. " I gave her time to do penance," He says in the Apocalypse (ii. 21), but we abuse that time. He resents our carelessness and closes His hand; then "time shall be no more." (Apoc. x. 6.) The same helps which we formerly enjoyed will no longer be in our possession; and though we can, we shall not secure our last end. Make, therefore, good use of the present time, for the night of death cometh, during which " no man can work." (John ix. 4.)
THE END.
