ways believe it to be at hand.”[1] Let no one, then, try to deceive himself, as many have done, by saying: I am still young, I shall not die yet; I am still strong and healthy I am in no danger of death; I will finish this business before I die; death will not overtake me in the public street; I shall have time to confess my sins; I am not so far gone, I have still time enough, and so forth. Ah, foolish thoughts! Believe rather what the God of infallible truth says: “I say to all: Watch.” “You know not the day nor the hour.” I say this to all without distinction of age or condition: you know not whether you will be sick or healthy, young or old, at home or abroad, in the state of sin or in the state of grace, when you are called into eternity, or whether that summons will be given to-day or to-morrow, at ten or at one o clock. Death has no consideration for the distinction that people make on account of rank, age, or condition. It is all the same to him who, where, or what it is.
Hence we must be always ready for death, and not remain a moment in sin. As we have seen in the last sermon, since we can die but once, and on the last moment depends our happiness or misery for all eternity, it follows undeniably that we must use all diligence to be prepared for this last moment so as to die well; in the same way it follows from this third truth that, since we know not when the last moment will come, we should be ready for it all the time of our lives, and therefore that it is the greatest folly to be unprepared and in the state of sin even for a single moment, because that very moment may be our last. Even now, as far as I myself am concerned, I acknowledge that when I am opening my mouth to address you and exhort you to prepare for death I may breathe my last before closing it again; can I, then, allow a moment to pass without being ready to die? In a short time, when I am leaving this church, each step I take may be my last; can I then be satisfied if I am still unprepared to take the final step into eternity? In the moment I raise my hand to take my food at table I may swallow the last morsel; can I then dare to go to table without being ready to die? In the hour when I retire to rest I may sleep my last sleep, and never wake up again, as happened to Sisara, of whom the Scripture says: “Passing from deep sleep to death, he fainted away and died.”[2] Shall I then dare to bring to bed with me a con-
