until the Day of Judgment. The holy sacrifice of the Mass and the powerful intercession of the Saints as yet restrains the Divine arm from executing vengeance.
But when mankind have filled up the measure of their iniquities, the day of wrath shall come. No one can form a conception of how awful the outpouring of the wrath of God upon sinners will be. In the Psalms we read: "Who knoweth the power of Thy anger, and for Thy fear can number Thy wrath?" (Ps. lxxxix. ii.)
Woe, then, to us poor sinners ! Then for the first time we shall appreciate aright what we have done and how deeply we have offended God by our grievous sins. The wrath of God is so boundless that neither the Mother of God, nor all the Angels and Saints have any power to diminish or restrain it; it will turn with holy zeal and mete out to every man his deserts with rigorous justice. Hear what the Judge Himself says of this, His wrath, by the mouth of the prophet Ezechiel: "Now, thou son of man, is an end come upon thee, and I will send My wrath upon thee, and I will judge thee according to thy ways, and I will set all thy abominations against thee, and My eye shall not spare thee, and I will show thee no pity" (Ezech. vii. 3, 4).
These are truly terrible words, and the threat they contain is most appalling. Oh, how unsparing will be the judgment to which God, who has been
