of France, as Belluacensis relates, said in his last moments: "Behold, with all my power, I cannot make death wait for a single hour." No; when the term of life has arrived, death does not wait even a moment ” Thou hast appointed his bounds, which cannot be passed." (Job. xiv. 5.)
3. We must all die. This truth we not only believe, but see with our eyes. In every age houses, streets, and cities are filled with new inhabitants: their former possessors are shut up in the grave. And, as for them the days of life are over, so a time shall come when not one of all who are now alive shall be among the living. "Days shall be formed, and no one in them." (Ps. cxxxviii. 10.) "Who is the man that shall live, and shall not see death ?" (Ps. lxxxviii. 49 ) Should any one flatter himself that he will not die, he would not only be a disbeliever for it is of faith that we shall all die but he would be regarded as a madman. We know that all men, even potentates and princes and emperors, have, utter a certain time, fallen victims to death. And where are they now? ” Tell me," says St. Bernard, "where are the lovers of the world? Nothing has remained of them but ashes and worms." Of so many great men of the world, though buried in marble mausoleums, nothing has remained but a little dust and a few withered bones. We know that our ancestors are no longer among the living: of their death we are constantly reminded by their pictures, their memorandum books, their beds, and by the clothes which they have left us. And can we entertain a hope or a doubt that we shall not die? Of all who lived in this town a hundred years ago how many are now alive? They are all in eternity in an eternal day of delights, or in an eternal night of torments. Either the one or the other shall be our lot also.
4. But, God! we all know that we shall die: the misfortune is, that we imagine death as distant as if it were never to come, and therefore we lose sight of it. But, sooner or later, whether we think or think not of death, it is certain, and of faith that we shall die, and that we are drawing nearer to it every day. ” For we have not here a lasting city, but we seek one that is to
