3. Death but once, and if a bad death the calamity is irreparable; therefore we should omit no endeavours to secure a happy death. A few words of exhortation in accordance with these conclusions, ending with our Lord's words. Matt. xxiv. 44.

PIOUS ANECDOTE.

Relate the particulars of the happy death of St. Galla, as told by Pope Gregory the Great, 2nd nocturn of her office, which is to be found 5th October in the supplement.

After losing her husband at an early age, she remained a widow, and gave herself to God as a nun, in a convent adjoining St. Peter's in Rome, where she edified the community by her piety, and the practice of all kinds of good works, especially charity to the poor. It pleased God to afflict her with a cancer on the breast, which gave her an occasion of practising patience, and conformity to God's holy will, and thereby earning great merit. In her illness, she kept two candles burning at night in her cell, and it happened on a particular night, as she was suffering more than usual, that St. Peter appeared to her, standing between the two lights. She was not frightened, but, as the Pope mentions, taking courage on account of the benignant looks of the Apostle, she accosted him, saying with a heavenly smile, "Well, my Lord, are my sins forgiven me?" The Apostle immediately replied with a gracious nod, "Yes, they are forgiven, come along with me." At the moment, Galla thought of another holy nun in the convent, for whom she had great affection, and she said to the Apostle, "May I beg, O Lord, that sister Benedicta will come with me?" "No,"

replied St. Peter, "but such a sister (naming her) may come, and Benedicta will be sent for in thirty days' time," whereupon the vision disappeared. Immediately, Galla called the reverend mother of the convent, and told her the whole fact, and in three days she died, and with her the other sister; sister Benedicta following them in thirty days, according to the words of the Apostle. The Pope adds, that the tradition of this extraordinary fact was as fresh in the convent in his day, as if it had been witnessed by the nuns living at the time, so great was the interest, with which the memory of it was preserved amongst them.

"The death of the wicked is very evil.”—Ps. xxxiii. 22.

Recapitulate preceding subject on death, setting forth, Ist, that death is certain; therefore it is certain that we should prepare for it: 2ndly, that it is uncertain as to time, place, and other circumstances; therefore we should be prepared for it at all times, in all places, and under all circumstances: and 3rdly, that death occurs but once, and it is impossible to repair the calamity of a bad death; therefore we should do all that is in our power to secure a good and avert a bad death. Whence proceed to say, that these considerations apply to death in a general view of the subject, but that there are special considerations applicable to a bad death of a more thrilling importance, which furnish matter for a particular discourse.

[Here announce the subject, invite attention, adding a short invocation.]

BODY OF SUBJECT.

1. Show the death of the sinner to be very evil from the declarations of God Himself; quote text, and enlarge on it;

quote Jeremias, vii. 13, xxxv. 17; Prov. i. 24, to show how God complains, that he frequently calls upon the sinner to be converted during life, but the sinner is deaf to His warnings, on which account He in His turn will be deaf to the voice of the sinner, when he calls for mercy. Quote for this Gal. vi. 7, 8; Prov. i. 28; Isai. lxv. 12, and lxvi. 4. Add, that whilst thus abandoned by God the dying sinner is held in bondage by the devil, who now more than ever endeavours by every effort to accomplish his eternal ruin. Quote Apoc. xii. 12; Council of Trent, Sess. 14, c. ix. "Nullum tamen tempus est," &c. Infer how dreadful the situation of the dying sinner, " encompassed with the sorrows of death, and overtaken by the perils of hell." (Ps. cxiv. 3.)

2. "The death of the wicked is very evil," because they are liable as well as others, nay more than others, to be carried off by a sudden death. How many sudden deaths do we hear and read of! Many a sinner goes to bed in perfect health, and is a cold corpse before morning. How many go out, in all the vigour of robust manhood, in the morning, and are struck down, in one or other of the thousand ways in which death smites her victims, before evening! Here go through a detail of the various accidents that may cause a sudden death (See Imit. B. 1, chap. xxiii. 1.) Who amongst us has not had narrow escapes from a sudden death, some of which we noticed, and many of which we have never known, but which were no less real and imminent? &c Ask, what is the death of a sinner called suddenly out of life in any of these ways? It is described by Holy Job: "In a moment they go down to hell." (xxi. 13.) And our Divine Lord, speaking of Satan, in order to inspire His disciples with a holy fear, says: "I saw Satan like lightning falling from heaven." (Luke, x. 18.) Such is the death of the sinner when his soul is suddenly separated from his body. Like lightning it is cast into hell. This moment he may be seated at the pleasant festive board, next moment in a region of fire, where he cannot have a drop of water to cool his burning thirst. Amplify by a series of contrasts occurring all in a moment; after which apply the point by asking, who is this sinner? Is he a notorious malefactor? a public scandal-giver in the face of the parish?

Go into detail, and reply: "no," adding, when you say a sinner, you mean a person guilty of even one mortal sin, in act, word, or inward thought, &c.

Appeal, to excite fear and trembling at the idea of remaining, a single day, in the state of mortal sin.

3. How the sinner dies. Raise the point, by objecting that it may be said you take an undue advantage of a sinner, by threatening him with a sudden death. May he not, and does he not, get notice like others of his approaching end by some previous illness? Exclaim-Alas! what a delusion, &c.

Admit that he may get time, but deny that he will make proper use of it; he may get warning by sickness beforehand, but he will not take this warning. What is the experience of the world? Is it not, that as men live so do they die? Why? Because, among other reasons, to die a good death the sinner must be sincerely converted to God. And is this the case ordinarily? The proof should be an amendment of life, in case he recover. Insist on this being rare, and that the general rule is, that which the Imitation of Christ asserts, that "few are corrected as they recover from sickness," and, therefore the pious author of that most excellent book warns us, "that we can do many good works, whilst we are in health and well, but," says he, "when we get ill, we can do very little, if anything at all." (B. 1. chap. xxiii.) Go on to say: Let us consult experience upon this matter. If we had before us a priest who had spent forty years in the ministry, attending the sick and dying all that time, we might ask him the question, how many sinners did he know, who, escaping the jaws of death by recovering from a dangerous illness, were reclaimed on their recovery. What would be his reply, think

you ? We may well suppose that he had attended

ten such cases every year, during the forty years of his ministry, that is four hundred in all. Now, if we asked him how many of these four hundred sinners were reclaimed on their recovery, would he say fifty? No, not fifty. Well, would he say five less than fifty? No, not so many. Well, would he say forty? No, not even so many out of the four hundred. Well, let us diminish the number still more, and ask if he had known thirty, &c., &c., ending with asking,