the immaculate Mother of that Son. It is not necessary to dilate on the fidelity and prudence with which Joseph fulfilled the duties of steward; with what fatherly care he looked after the Child and His Mother on the journey to Bethlehem; how he took the Child in his arms and cared for Him in the poor crib; how he brought Him by night into the pagan land of Egypt to save Him from the cruelty of Herod; with what sorrow he afterwards sought for the Child in Jerusalem; and how he supported the Holy Family by his labor in Nazareth. “Blessed is that servant whom, when his lord shall come, he shall find so doing.” Oh, truly happy is that servant at the end of his life, when the Lord shall come to call him! And who could have had a more happy or joyful death than St. Joseph, who breathed forth his blessed soul in the hands of Jesus and Mary? There is no one amongst us, my dear brethren, who does not wish and desire that when the Lord comes to take him away by death he may have a holy and a happy death. Now we can and shall have such a death if we are only faithful servants and stewards during life, and perform many good works and acquire many merits. And it is this faithful service rendered to God, and the merits we have accumulated, that will make our death happy and joyful, as I shall now show.
Plan of Discourse.
It is a great comfort for the dying just man to think: I have laid up a store of good works and merits in heaven. Such shall be the first point. It is a great comfort for the dying just man to think: the merits I have acquired are now in safety, and I shall not be in danger of losing any of them; the second point. Let us live piously, that we may have that consolation; such shall be the conclusion.
O holy St. Joseph! obtain for us from the Divine Child and thy most chaste Spouse Mary the grace to do this, that we, too, may have a happy death. Help us herein you, too, holy guardian angels.
The trader rejoices when contemplating his profits.
To represent to myself the joy which the dying just man feels at the thought of the merits he has gained, I imagine that I see a merchant who has been away in a foreign land for a whole month, has finished his business, and after much trouble, discomfort, and annoyance, has at last reached his home in the