benefits, and opportunities that God gave me so generously during my life, and I shall have to account for them! In that one moment sentence shall be pronounced on me, and I shall have to go either to heaven or to hell! O terrible truth that no more time than one moment should be required to decide for an eternity! one moment! O moment! if thou art unlucky for me, of what use will be to me all the worldly wealth I now possess? “Silver and gold I have none,”[1] I shall then be able to say in the words of St. Peter to the lame man: all that I had remains behind on earth, and I am going with empty hands, bare and naked, into everlasting misery. Of what use will be to me all the pleasures and joys that I now seek from creatures? They have vanished “as a dream,”[2] as the Prophet David says; the body is borne to the grave; the soul goes to eternal torments. And of what use to me will be all the dignities and honors I enjoyed on earth? They shall all disappear with the last toll of the funeral-bell.
In that moment we shall have a different opinion of earthly things. How different the judgment I shall then form of the vanity of the world! Many a one who is now high in honor will then be of the opinion of Pope Leo XL This pontiff was on his death-bed, and his confessor came to him. “Your Holiness should be comforted,” said he to the dying pope, “for you have the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” “Ah,” was the answer, “I should be more consoled if I had held in my hands, during my life, the keys of some poor convent!” Many a mighty potentate of the world will then be of the opinion of Philip III., that celebrated king of Spain, of whom it was said that he never committed a mortal sin in his life. When he was on his death bed he was asked what he thought of the royal dignity. “I wish,” he replied, “that I had been a poor monk, instead of being king of Spain.” O last and only moment, on which eternity depends! if thou art a fortunate one for me, of what harm to me will be the poverty, trouble, humiliation, crosses, and trials that I now suffer? With joy I shall then be able to say, like St. Peter of Alcantara, who appeared to St. Teresa after his death, and said to her of the penance and mortification he used to practise during life: “O happy penance, which has merited such glory for me!”[3]
Truly a terrible mo- O last and only moment, on which the twofold eternity de-
