have to say: I know not; I had thought I was on my way to a foreign country, to this or that town; I had no idea that death would overtake me on my way. I know not where I am going! I thought I should return from that foreign country in good health and spirits to my friends; I never imagined that I should die on the road. I know not where I am going! I thought I should recover from this illness; but now I see that it will be my last. I know not where I am going! When I was young and strong, I thought I had many years to live; I never suspected that I should die a premature death. I know not where I am going! I thought I was going to get married, or to take possession of the new charge conferred on me, or to the feast to which I was invited, to that garden, that company, that ball, to enjoy myself; but now I see that I was wrong, for I am going to death before my time. I was going and knew not where. So, my dear brethren, we are all of us on our way to the grave every day, and we cannot say when we shall come to our journey’s end.
Hence we should often ask ourselves: whither goest thou? Therefore, lest I should fall into the grave unprepared, I will often ask myself this question: where go thou? Your body to the grave! Before I leave my house in the morning I will ask myself, where go thou, if not nearer to death every day? and therefore I will be careful not to bring back any sin with me. In the evening before retiring I will ask myself, where go thou? Is not my bed the image of the grave, sleep the brother of death; and may not both come upon me together this night? Therefore I will first examine my conscience and bewail my sins with true contrition. In all my actions I will ask myself: where go thou? And since I am continually approaching nearer to the grave, I will say with the Apostle in truth: “I die daily;”[1] that is, not only do I go nearer to death every day, but daily I see clearer how transitory are all earthly things; daily does my heart become more detached from the vain joys and pleasures of earth; daily do I raise my mind and my desires with more earnestness to heaven; daily do I so live that I may be ready daily to die. Where go thou? Your body shall go to the grave. But what of the soul? It shall go into eternity. This we shall briefly consider in the
Second Part.
He who has The wise Ecclesiastes, after having written a whole book de-
- ↑ Quotidie morior.—I. Cor. xv. 31.
