is our life but a vapour, which a blast of wind, a fever, a stroke of apoplexy, a puncture, an attack of the chest, causes to disappear, and which is seen no more? ” For what is your life? It is a vapour which appeareth for a little while." (St. James iv. 15.) ” We all die," said the woman of Thecua to David, ” and like waters that return no more, we fall down into the earth." (2 Kings xiv. 14.) She spoke the truth; as all rivers and streams run to the sea, and as the gliding waters return no more, so our days pass away, and we approach to death.
5. They pass; they pass quickly. ” My days, ” says Job, "have been swifter than a post." (Job ix. 25.) Death comes to meet us, and runs more swiftly than a post; so that every step we make, every breath we draw, we approach to death. St. Jerome felt that even while he was writing he was drawing nearer to death. Hence he said: ” What I write is taken away from my life." "Quad scribo de mea vita tollitur." Let us, then, say with Job: Years passed by, and with them pleasures, honours, pomps, and all things in this world pass away, ” and only the grave remaineth for me." (Job xviii. 1.) In a word, all the glory of the labours we have undergone in this world, in order to acquire a large income, a high character for valour, for learning and genius, shall end in our being thrown into a pit to become the food of worms. The miserable worldling then shall say at death: My house, my garden, my fashionable furniture, my pictures and rich apparel, shall, in a short time, belong no more to me; ” and only the grave remaineth for me."
6. But how much soever the worldling may be distracted by his worldly affairs and by his pleasures how much soever he may be entangled in them, St. Chrysostom says, that when the fear of death, which sets fire to all things of the present life, begins to enter the soul, it will compel him to think and to be solicitous about his lot after death. "Cum pulsare animam incipit metus mortis (ignis instar præsentis vitæ omnia succendens) philosophari eam cogit, et futura solicita mente versari." (Serm. in 2 Tim.) Alas! at the hour of death "the eyes of the blind shall be opened." (Isa.
