way to heaven but the way of the cross, of penance, of mortification, of self-denial, of humiliation. Oh, with what joy will you be able to think on your death-bed: now I have suffered what God willed me to suffer, and how small it was! it is all over now, and I am going into heavenly, eternal joys that shall never end!
To sinners. Sinners—if any of you here, as I trust not, deserve that name—you who are still in the state of sin, do you think you will be able to say the same on your death-bed at the end of your years? Truly you will then know how small is that which you now esteem so highly, for the sake of which you leave your God. But what will remain to you of it all? Nothing. What am I saying? It would be well for you if you had nothing to expect after death, if your souls were capable of crumbling into dust with your bodies! But where shall you go then? Alas! into poverty with out end, into hunger and thirst without end, into wailing and gnashing of teeth without end, into hell without end, into that lake of burning pitch, into everlasting fire amongst the demons! See, that will infallibly be the end of your years, if you finish your lives in the state in which you are now. Will you persist in that state? Ah, no! Rather make with me quite a different resolution.
Conclusion to work for a happy end. No, O God of goodness and mercy! I am not so far gone as that yet! I acknowledge that I have deserved a bad end a hundred, a thousand times. I have to thank Thy goodness and mercy alone that Thou hast not called me away in my sins, while during those years that I have been Thy enemy so many others have been carried off by an unhappy death! Now that I still have time, and I know not how long that time may be, without further delay I will return to the lap of Thy fatherly mercy, I will repent of and detest my sins and confess them. With the beginning of the new year I shall begin to lead a new life, one in which I shall not cease to serve Thee until I shall have arrived at the happy end of it. Now, my dear brethren, is not such the resolution you all make with me? Then I can confidently promise you and myself what I wish from my heart; a happy end of our years! Amen.
