Life of St John Vianney.pdf - the Catholic Kingdom!

"""""Andsiw. 88fall back into it again. He will feel an eternal cravingto rise, because he was created for God, the greatestand most exalted of beings, the Most High, as a birdin a room fliesup to the ceiling and falls back again.The justice of God is the ceiling which imprisons thedamned.There is no need to prove the existence of hell. OurLord speaks of it Himself in the history of the wickedrich man, who cried, Lazarus, Lazarus ! We know verywell that there is a hell ;but we live as if there were none;we sell our souls for a few pieces of money. We put offrur conversion till the hour of death; but who can assureus that we shall have time and strength at that fearfulmoment, which all the saints have dreaded, and at whichthe powers of hell, knowing that it is the decisive pointnn which eternity depends, gather themselves together fortheir last assault?There aremany who have lost faith, and never seehell tillthey enter it. They receive the last Sacraments ;but ask them whether they have committed such or sucha sin. Oh, get an answer if you can 1The elect are like the ears of corn which escape fromthe reaper s hand, and like the bunches of grapes leftafter the vintage ; the damned are like the sheaves piledup in the granary, or the grapes pressed down in thewine-vats. Theyfall into hell fast as the snow-flakes ona winter s day. A saint was asked, at the moment ofdeath, at what he was looking so fixedly." *Oh, replied he, how * terrible are the judgments ofGod!St. Hilarion said.Wherefore dost thou fear, O mysoul ? For eighty years hast thou served the Lord.we, perhaps we have never served the good