in whatever state death finds us, whether in the state of sanctifying grace or of mortal sin, according to that state our fate shall be decided for all eternity.
As I am prepared or not in that moment, so it shall be well or ill with me forever. Before this last moment comes, no sinner, no matter how bad he is, should despair of salvation; for he still has time to play his game well. Before this last moment comes, no just servant of God, no matter how pious and holy he has been hitherto, can be infallibly certain of winning the game; it is still possible for him to lose. And when that moment is at hand, wo to him who is not prepared! But well indeed it will be for him who is ready! “If the tree fall to the south, or to the north,” says the wise Preacher, speaking of a dying man, “in what place soever it shall fall, there shall it be.”[1] If man at his death falls to the south, that is, if he dies well and goes to heaven, he will remain there for all eternity. If he falls to the north, that is, if he dies unprepared and goes to hell, he will remain there for all eternity.
And it is but one moment that will never return. This happiness or misery of the soul depends on one single moment which comes but once. No one shall be allowed to take part twice in this decisive game; no one shall be able to make a second throw of the dice. Ah, must not then the upshot be a matter of the deepest interest to us? If death was a play that one could practise several times before putting it on the stage, then we could easily correct any faults that might be made in it. But tell me, can we, perhaps, die by way of practice, to see how the thing is to be done, and then return in order to die the second time better and happier? Or can we send one soul before us into eternity to feel the way for us, and if that goes wrong, send another soul by a better way? Oh, no! that is utterly impossible. The first soul that we send into eternity is the only one we have; we have no other; the first death we die shall also be our last; we cannot expect another.
When it has passed it will be too late to correct mistakes. We are challenged to single combat, each one for himself, alone, with the hellish Goliath. Truly a terrible combat on which infinitely more depends than on the fight that David had with the giant! On the one side will stand heaven, on the other hell; on the one side the elect, on the other the reprobate, who will be witnesses of this combat to see how it ends. Then we shall see practically the truth of the words of St. Paul to the Corinthians: “We are made a spectacle to the world, and to angels, and to
- ↑ Si ceciderit lignum ad austrum aut ad aquilonem, in quocumque loco ceciderit ibi erit.—Eccles. xi. 3.
