speaks — to the faith of many nominal Christians, whose belief and conduct are in direct opposition? O Lord! from thee I received my faith, even before I was capable of feeling the value of that precious gift: to thee I must now owe its increase: give it, 1 beseech thee, all the strength and efficacy thou requirest.
Second point. — Consider that there is no sacrament so calculated to excite most tender and unbounded confidence in God as the Holy Eucharist. It is the precious pledge of eternal life; the greatest of God’s gifts; therefore He, who is bountiful enough to give such a blessing, cannot refuse any favour, since all others are less than that which is offered to us in one Communion. O consolatory thought! O solid foundation for hope and confidence ! To-morrow I shall receive my God; to-morrow that compassionate Saviour will visit me, whose mortal life was a series of mercies — who never ref used to pardon a repentant sinner — who received all who approached his sacred person — who deigned, with his own divine hands, to touch and heal the lepers themselves, and to whom no one was ever known to apply in vain. He is more anxious to grant me favours, than I could be to receive them. Ah ! if the poor of this world could become rich, by only relying with confidence on the liberality of a powerful benefactor — if the sick had a certainty of receiving health, by resigning themselves to the care of a physician — if the afflicted could be consoled by confiding in a friend, who would be found indigent, weak, or dejected, throughout the world? But the liberality or kindness of creatures is always limited and insufficient, whereas that of the Almighty has no bounds, except those limits which we ourselves too often put to it by distrust.
