keep them continually before your mind. The first is the terrible remorse which your sins will awaken in you at the hour of death; the second is how ardently, though how vainly, you will wish that you had faithfully served Him during life; and the third is how willingly you would accept the most rigorous penance were you given time for repentance. Acting on this advice, you will now begin to regulate your life according as you will then wish to have done.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE EIGHTH MOTIVE FOR PRACTISING VIRTUE: THE THOUGHT OF THE LAST JUDGMENT, THE SECOND OF THE FOUR LAST THINGS.
IMMEDIATELY after death follows the particular judgment, of which we have been treating. But there is a day of general judgment, when, in the words of the Apostle, "we must all be manifested before the judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may receive the proper things of the body, according as he hath done, whether it be good or evil."[1]
In considering this subject what strikes us as most amazing, and what filled the holy soul of Job with awe, is that a frail creature like man, so prone to evil, should be subjected to such a rigorous judgment on the part of God, by Whose command his every thought, word, and action
- ↑ 2 Cor. v. 10.
