be no longer able to avert the punishment which they deserve.
[I entreat my reader to read Sermon xliv., or the Sermon for the Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost, on the practical death, or that which practically happens at the death of men of the world. I know by experience that though it does not contain Latin texts, whenever I preached that sermon, it produced a great impression, and left the audience full of terror. A greater impression is made by practical than by speculative truths.]
SERMON XXXIX. TENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST.
On the efficacy and necessity of prayer.
"God, be merciful to me a sinner." LUKE xviii. 13.
IN this day’s gospel we read, that two men, one a Pharisee and the other a Publican, went to the temple. Instead of bowing down to beg of God to assist him by his graces, the Pharisee said: I thank thee, O Lord, that I am not as the rest of men, who are sinners. "Deus gratias ago tibi, quia non sum sicut cæteri homines." But the Publican, tilled with sentiments of humility, cried out: ” O God, be merciful to me, a sinner." St. Luke tells us, that this Publican returned to his house justified; and that the Pharisee went home as guilty and as proud as when he entered the temple. From this, most beloved brethren, you may infer how pleasing to God, and how necessary for us, are our humble petitions to obtain from the Lord all the graces which are indispensable for salvation. In this sermon I will show, in the first point, the efficacy of prayer: and in the second, the necessity of prayer.
First Point. On the efficacy of prayer.
1. To understand the efficacy and value of our prayers, we need only consider the great promises which. God has made to every one who prays. "Call upon
