misery. I say, remember Hell and have recourse to Jesus Christ and to most holy Mary, and they will deliver you from sin, which is the gate of Hell.
SERMON IX.— FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY.
Dangers to Eternal Salvation.
“And when he entered into the boat, his disciples followed him; and, behold, a great tempest arose in the sea." — Matt. viii. 23, 24.
On the greatness of the dangers to which our eternal salvation is exposed, and on the manner in which we ought to guard against them.
1. IN this days Gospel we find that, when Jesus Christ entered the boat along with his disciples, a great tempest arose, so that the boat was agitated by the waves, and was on the point of being lost. During this storm the Saviour was asleep; but the disciples, terrified by the storm, ran to awake him, and said: ”Lord, save us: we perish." (v. 25.) Jesus gave them courage by saying: “Why are ye fearful, ye of little faith? Then rising up, he commanded the winds and the sea, and there came a great calm." Let us examine what is meant by the boat in the midst of the sea, and by the tempest which agitated the sea.
2. The boat on the sea represents man in this world. As a vessel on the sea is exposed to a thousand dangers to pirates, to quicksands, to hidden rocks, and to tempests; so man in this life is encompassed with perils arising from the temptations of Hell from the occasions of sin, from the scandals or bad counsels of men, from human respect, and, above all, from the bad passions of corrupt nature, represented by the winds that agitate the sea and expose the vessel to great danger of being lost.
3. Thus, as St. Leo says, our life is full of dangers, of snares, and of enemies: “Plena omnia periculis, plena laqueis: incitant cupiditates, insidiantur illecebræ; blandiuntur lucra." (S. Leo, serm. v, de Quad.) The
