"isted only for you, that all was created for you, and "that all hath finished from the moment that your "number was completed. Quit, then, an earth where 66 you had always been travellers and strangers; fol"low me into the immortal paths of my glory and feli"city, as you have followed me in those of my humilia❝tion and sufferings. Your toils have endured but for "an instant; the happiness you are about to enjoy "shall be without end."

Turning then to the left, with vengeance and anger in his eyes, and directing his dreadful glance, like an avenging thunderbolt, on that crowd of guilty, he shall say, with a voice which (to use the language of the prophet,) shall burst open the bowels of the abyss to swallow them up, not as when upon the cross, "Fa"ther, forgive them, for they know not what they do," but,"Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, "prepared for the devil and his angels. You were "the chosen of the earth, you are the cursed of my "Father; your pleasures have been fleeting and tran"sitory, your anguish shall be eternal." Ascending then with the Son of Man, the righteous shall begin to sing, Thou art rich in mercy, O Lord! and thou hast crowned thy gifts in recompensing our good actions. Then shall the impious curse the Author of their being, and the fatal day which brought them forth; or, rather, their anger shall be levelled against themselves, as the authors of their misery and destruction. The abyss shall open; the heavens shall bow down; the reprobate, says the gospel, shall depart into everlasting punishment, and the just into life eternal. And this dis

position of things shall change no more.

After a relation so awful, and so proper to make an impression on the most hardened heart, I cannot con

66

clude, without addressing to you the words which Moses formerly addressed to the Israelites, after having laid before them the dreadful threatenings, and the soothing promises, contained in the Book of the Law. "Children of Israel, behold I set before you this day "a blessing and a curse: a blessing, if ye obey the 66 commandments of the Lord your God, which I com"mand you this day; and a curse, if ye will not obey "the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn "aside, out of the way which I command you this day, "to go after other gods which ye have not known."

And now, my brethren, allow me to conclude my discourse with these remarks. It belongs to you to choose and to declare yourselves: the right hand and the left are before you: the promises and the threatenings; the blessings and the curses. Your destiny turns on this awful alternative: you shall either be on the side of Satan and his angels, or you shall be chosen with Jesus Christ and his saints. There is no middle way: I have pointed out the path which leads to eternal life, and that which leads to perdition. In which of these two do you now walk? And on which side do you believe that you should find yourselves, were you, at this moment, to appear before the awful tribunal? We die generally as we have lived: tremble therefore lest your destiny of this day be your everlasting destiny. Quit, from this moment, the paths of the sinful; begin to live like the just, if you wish, on that last day, to be placed at the right hand, and to mount, along with them, into the abode of a blessed immortality.

SERMON XXXI.

THE HAPPINESS OF THE JUST.

PREACHED ON ALL-SAINTS DAY, BEFORE LOUIS XIV.)

MATT. V. 4.

Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be com

SIRE,

forted.

IF the world were to address you, instead of Jesus Christ, it would undoubtedly not hold the same language.

Happy the Prince, would it say, who has never fought but to conquer; who has concluded an honourable war, by a still more honourable peace; and who has always risen superior to prosperity as well as to adversity.

Happy the Prince, who after a long and flourishing reign, enjoys at leisure, the fruits of his glory, the love of his people, the esteem of his enemies, the admiration of the universe, the hope of a numerous posterity, and the advantages arising from his conquests, from the magnificence of his work, and the wisdom of his laws; and who has nothing left to wish for, but the continuance of what he possesses.

Thus, Sire, would the world speak. But Jesus Christ speaks not the language of the world.

Happy, he tells you, not he who builds his hopes on this world, but he who looks forward to the world to come, and lives in the neglect of himself, and of every earthly thing; "for his is the kingdom of hea

ven."

Happy, not he, whose reign and actions, history shall immortalize in the remembrance of men, but he whose tears shall have effaced the memory of his sins, from the mind of God himself, "for he shall be comforted."

Happy, not he, whose conquests may have extended the boundaries of his empire, but he who shall have confined his desires and his passions within the boundaries of the law of God; "for he shall inherit the earth."

Happy, not he, who, raised by the testimony of the world, above all preceding sovereigns, tranquilly enjoys his greatness and glory, but he, who finding nothing in a throne worthy of his heart, looks for perfect happiness in this world, only in the practice of virtue and justice; for he shall be filled."

Happy, not he, to whom men have given the pompous titles of great and invincible, but he, to whom the unfortunate shall, before the tribunal of Jesus Christ, give the title of father, and merciful; "for he shall obtain mercy."

Happy, (to conclude,) not he, who, the arbiter of his enemies' fate, has more than once given peace to the world, but he, who has been able to give peace to himself, and to banish from his heart, the vices and disorderly inclinations which disturb its tranquillity; "for he shall be called, the child of God.

Such, Sire, are those to whom Jesus Christ gives the appellation of happy and the gospel acknowledges no other happiness on the earth, than virtue and innocence.

Great God! it is not then that long train of unexampled prosperity, with which thou hast favoured his reign, that can render him the happiest of kings. It is by this means, that he becomes great; but he is not thereby happy. His felicity begins with his piety. Whatever does not sanctify man, can never make man happy. Whatever does not place thee, O my God! in the heart, places there either vanities which leave it empty, or real evils which fill it with disquiet; and a pure conscience is the only source of real enjoyment.

It is to the manifestation of this truth, my brethren, that the church confines the solemnities of this day. As one of the principal artifices, employed by the world, in order to prevent us from imitating the Saints, is the vulgar error, that their lives were passed in gloom and sorrow; the church, in renewing their memory on this day, gives us to remember, at the same time, that not only do they now enjoy an immortal felicity in heaven, but also that they have been the only happy of the earth; that he who carries iniquity in his bosom, always carries terror and anxiety; and that the lot of the godly is a thousand times more tranquil and more satisfactory, even in this world, than that of sinners.

But, in what does the happiness of the just in this life consist? It consists, in the first place, In the manifestation of truth concealed from the sages of the world. Secondly, In the comforts of grace denied to the lovers of the world. In the lights of faith which soften the sufferings of the believing soul, and render