boasting of riches brought us? All those things are passed away like a shadow." (Wis. v. 8.) In the world we made a great figure we enjoyed abundant riches and honours; and now all is passed away like a shadow, and nothing remains for us but to suffer and weep for eternity. St. Augustine says, that the happiness which sinners enjoy in this life is their greatest misfortune, " Nothing is more calamitous than the felicity of sinners, by which their perverse will, like an internal enemy, is strengthened." (Ep. v. ad Marcellin.)
8. In fine, the words of Solomon are fulfilled with regard to all who neglect their salvation: " Mourning taketh hold of the end of joy." (Prov. xiv. 13.) All their pleasures, honours, and greatness, end in eternal sorrow and wailing. " Whilst I was yet beginning, he cut me off." (Is. xxxviii. 12.) Whilst they are laying the foundation of their hopes of realizing a fortune, death comes, and, cutting the thread of life, deprives them of all their possessions, and sends them to Hell to burn for ever in a pit of fire. What greater folly can be conceived, than to wish to be transformed from the friend of God into the slave of Lucifer, and from the heir of Paradise to become, by sin, doomed to Hell? For, the moment a Christian commits a mortal sin, his name is written among the number of the damned! St. Francis de Sales said that, if the angels were capable of weeping, they would do nothing else than shed tears at the sight of the destruction which a Christian who commits mortal sin brings upon himself.
9. Oh! how great is the folly of sinners, who, by living in sin, lead a life of misery and discontent! All the goods of this world cannot content the heart of man, which has been created to love God, and can find no peace out of God. What are all the grandeurs and all the pleasures of this world but "vanity of vanities!" (Eccl. i. 2.) What are they but " vanity and vexation of spirit?" (Ibid. iv. 16.) Earthly goods are, according to Solomon, who had experience of them, _ vanity of vanities; that is mere vanities, lies, and deceits. They are also a " vexation of spirit:" they not only do not content, but they even afflict the soul; and the more abundantly they are possessed, the greater the anguish
