VARIOUS REASONS FOR DESIRING DEATH.
DEATH may be lawfully desired for several reasons:
1st. God is our last end; and since death is the door through which we go to him, we may desire it. The more we desire it, the more we shall love God, and the less unworthy we shall be of his love.
2d. Let us consider that death liberates us from a gloomy prison. Draw me out of this prison, says the Psalmist, that I may bless thy name.
3d. Let us consider death as the end of that day, mentioned in the gospel, on which the master of the vineyard called the laborers to receive their hire. Job called the day of death, the day of recompense, after the toils of life.
4th. Let us consider death as the time of Harvest. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. Going, they went and wept, casting their seeds; but coming, they shall come joy, bearing their sheaves: — as the just carrying their good works up to heaven, after the toils, trials, and sorrows of their exile upon earth.
5th. Let us Consider death as the end of a tedious sad painful war. Job says: I will wait through the days of this sorrowful combat, till my happy change shall take place. . . . The life of man upon earth is a warfare. Life is indeed a continual war, with the world, Satan and ourselves. O day of everlasting peace and rest! when will you dawn on my soul?
6th. St. Thomas says we put off our body as a Heavy load— heavy indeed to those who wish to run in the way of holiness. Let us consider death as laying down our tabernacle of clay. What, indeed, is our body, but a tent, not given us for a dwelling, but a covering for the moment — a shelter during our journey to eternity?
7th. Let us consider death as the harbor in which the just are received, with, the riches they have gained, after they quit the deep and perilous ocean of this fife. Blessed are they who enter this harbor in safety! There storms and shipwreck are feared no more.
8th. Let us consider death as the end of a long exile from our true home and country. How indescribable is the happiness of a poor exile returning to his home, the dwelling of his family! Ah, how affectionate is the embrace of his father, and the welcome of his friends!
9th. Let us consider death as the passage from death to
