opposed to the maxims of the Gospel and the doctrine and example of Christ. Oh! how many ignorances of that kind shall we not find in the great account-book, and how deeply they shall be scored therein!
And omitted. Give an account; answer for all that you have omitted during your life, that you could and should have done. It is not enough to abstain from what God has forbidden; one is also obliged to do what He has commanded, and will be questioned about the one as well as about the other. For instance, the Judge will not condemn you for having robbed your neighbor and stolen his property, but He will condemn you for not having helped the poor according to your means: “I was hungry and you gave Me not to eat: I was thirsty and you gave Me not to drink.”[1] He will not condemn you for having taken away your neighbor’s reputation, but He will condemn you for having encouraged uncharitable remarks by your silence or your approval, and for not having stopped them when you might have done so. He will not condemn you for having given scandal to your domestics in many things, but He will condemn you for having tolerated faults in them, and for not having punished them for those faults. There are many parents whom He will not condemn for having brought up their children to vanity and luxury, and given them bad example in that respect, but He will condemn many because they have not brought up their children to virtue, and kept them from evil; for not having procured religious instruction for them in due time; for not having watched over them carefully; for having allowed them to run about the streets in all sorts of company, as is unfortunately the case with some, who thus grow up like heathens and gypsies. There are many superiors whom He will not condemn for having oppressed their subjects by unjust burdens, but He will condemn many for not having, as they were in duty bound to do, examined into the vices and bad habits of their subjects, or when they have known of such vices, for having tolerated and not at once prohibited and abolished them.
And how we have employed our time, and other natural and su- Give an account; answer for all the years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, moments that you have lived on earth. Every year has three hundred and sixty-five days; every day twenty-four hours; count the minutes if you can. Now you have
- ↑ Esurivi, et non dedistis mihi manducare: sitivi, et non dedistis mihi potum.—Matt. xxv. 42.
