sin (may God save me from such a fate!), how terrible it will be to appear before Thee and to see Thee so changed and embittered towards me! How could I bear that change? I have never seen Thee as yet. Happy they who have beheld Thee as an Infant in the crib,, or as a Victim for our sins on the cross! I have not had that happiness; but I believe without seeing! My faith convinces me that Thou art my only happiness., and alone canst satiate all the desires of my heart; iny hopes and desires draw me constantly thither where I can behold my sovereign Good; and when I see Thee for the first time, must it be also for the last time for all eternity? And during the short time that I shall be in Thy presence, must I see Thee only as iny Judge and, alas! as a terrible, angry, implacable Judge who will condemn me, and as the first welcome will address to me the words, “Depart from Me;” away, accursed one, into eternal fire? Sinful soul! what are you waiting for after such thoughts as these? Are you not yet resolved to do penance, to amend your life, and to escape such a terrible judgment? Wicked desires, sinful joys of the wanton flesh, money, and temporal goods, point of honor, human respect, vanity of the world, beauty of a mortal creature, will you still so blind me that for your sake I shall commit sin and make an Enemy of my Judge? What could be more foolish or more desperate? No; meek and gentle as Thou art, Jesus, my Saviour, “I am afraid of Thy judgments,”[1] and therefore as far as my past life is concerned, I will cry out to Thee with a contrite heart, and bewail all my sins.[2] I acknowledge myself to be a poor sinner; I bow my head with shame before Thee. Pardon me, O Jesus, before Thou comest to judge me! And with regard to the uncertain time that remains to me, I shall at once begin to lead a better life, so that when I see Thee as my Judge Thou shalt not be changed towards me, but be the same meek and loving Man as Thou always art. Amen.
Another introduction to the same sermon for the second Sunday of Advent.
Text.
Tu es qui venturus es, an alium exspectamus?—Matt. xi. 3.
“Art Thou He that art to come, or look we for another?”
