be filled with the vices of his youth, and that they shall sleep with him in the dust"?[1] Thus we see that even death does not terminate the habit of vice; its terrible effects pass into eternity. It becomes a second nature, and is so imprinted in his flesh that it consumes him like a fatal poison for which there is scarcely any remedy. This our Saviour teaches us in the resurrection of Lazarus. He had raised other dead persons by a single word, but to restore Lazarus, who had been four days in the tomb, He had recourse to tears and prayers, to show us the miracle God effects when he raises to the life of grace a soul buried in a habit of sin. For, according to St. Augustine, the first of these four days represents the pleasure of sin; the second, the consent; the third, the act; and the fourth, the habit of sin. Therefore, the sinner who has reached this fourth day can only be restored to life by the tears and prayers of our Saviour.
But let us suppose that you will not be disappointed, that you will live to do penance. Think of the inestimable treasures you are now losing and how bitterly you will regret them when too late. While your fellow-Christians are enriching themselves for Heaven, you are idling away your time in the childish follies of the world.
Besides this, think of the evil you are accumulating. We should not, says St. Augustine, commit one venial sin even to gain the whole world. How, then, can you so carelessly heap
- ↑ Job xx. 11.
