to his remembrance. They accordingly set out together, and the vicar pointed out every particular place to the stranger. "There," said he, with tears in his eyes, "is the alley in which the excellent prelate used to walk "with us there is the arbour in which he used to sit "and read-this is the garden he took pleasure in cul"tivating with his own hands." Then they entered the house; and when they came to the room where Massillon died, "this," said the vicar, "is the place where we "lost him:" and as he pronounced these words, he fainted. The ashes of Titus, or of Marcus Aurelius, might have envied such a tribute of regard and affection. SERMON I. ON SALVATION. JOHN Vii. 6. My time is not yet come; but your time is always ready. THE reproach which is here directed by Jesus Christ, against his relations according to the flesh, who pressed him to show himself to the world, and to go up to Jerusalem, in order to acquire those honours which were due to his great talents, may be applied with propriety to the greatest part of this audience. The time which they give to their fortune, to their advancement, to their pleasures, is always ready; there is always time for the acquirement of wealth and glory, and to satisfy their passions;-that is the time of man: but the time of Jesus Christ, that is to say, the time of working out their salvation, is never ready; they delay, they put it off; they always expect its arrival, and it never arrives. Vol. I. The slightest worldly interests agitate them, and make them undertake every thing; for what is the world itself, whose deceitful ways they follow, but a scene of constant agitation, where the passions set every thing in motion; where tranquility is the only pleasure unknown; where cares are honourable; where those who are at rest think themselves unhappy; where all is toil and affliction of spirit; in a word, where all are in motion, and all are deceived? Surely, my brethren, when we see men so occupied, so interested, so patient in their pursuits, we would suppose them labouring for everlasting ages, and for riches which ought to secure their happines: How can we comprehend, that so much toil and agitation has nothing in view, but a fortune whose duration scarcely equals that of the labours which have gained it; and that a life so rapid is spent with such fatigue, in the search of wealth which must perish with it? Nevertheless, a mistake, which the slightest investigation is sufficient to expose, has become the error of the great majority. In vain does religion call us to more necessary and more important cares; in vain it announces to us, that to labour for what must pass away, is only amassing, at a great expense, heaps of sand, which fall upon our heads as fast as we raise them; that when we reach the highest point of elevation to which we can attain here below, we are on the eve of death, and at the gate of eternity; and that nothing is worthy of man, but what will endure as long as man. The cares of the passions are always weighty and important: The steps which we take for heaven, are weak and languid: It is only salvation we consider as an amusement: We toil for frivolous riches, as if we laboured for eternal posses |