The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-10-18

lew hours were III the SILlUIetSS VI uSShNA4-
The great majority die suddenly. Read
the papers of the accounts of death, OF
| the unexpected ones. Let us suppose you
| die a natural death. You are told by
! friends during your sickness that you
are recovering and you believe it even up
| to the very time of death. Then you say,
| ooh, I viii repent of my sins some day {,
1 will make my peace with God" How
do you know you will? VIII God give
to you that He would be reconcied to
| you on your death bed? This is the
! temptation of the devil and you heed
! it, and then you die. without having
repented. Even you might recover and
then fall into mortal sin, and finally die
unreconciled to God. Christ gives us a
warning. He tells us the way to pre-
pare for death. 1t is to be prepared al
ways. He says, BE prepared always,
for you know not of death, nor the hour,
1 for death shall come like a thief in the
night" At that moment that you shall
hear you are to stand before God you
will cry out, my God, is it possible?
am not prepared for DEATH" Death is
terrible; it is a kind of humiliation. II
is the destruction of the individuality of
man. 1t Is the separation of the soul
from the body. 1t necessarily brings
with it a great deal of agony. It Is
therefore that animals have a horror of
| death. When enc of a prairie herd of
cattle dies, the others circle about, paw
ing the ground, believing and moaning.
and show in every way their horror of
it. Man has reason, and we know why
death is SO terrible, so horrible. Take
some of the circumstances that accom-
pany it.
! How many people in this world think
of anything but their bodies; they do not
think of their souls What are these
bodies? Nothing but earth and ashes,
nothing but a handful. In 1889 Charles
V, after many triumphs, gave a great
| fete at Toledo at which hundreds Of
thousands were present. During the fete
| the Empress Isabella, his wife, died. She
was most beautiful woman in Europe.
! They sealed her body in a metallic cas-
/ ket and the emperor gave orders to bury
her in Granada. He called Francis Bor-
! gia, grandee, and told him to convey
the body there. and to write to him that
upon arrival he identified the body. In
the midst of the concourse the lid was
lifted after five days, and the result was
so horrible in the cncc beautiful empress
| that he wrote back that he knew that
no other body had taken the place of
! that of the empress, but that he could
not identify it. He then took an oath
that if God could work such terrible
things in the body, that he would never
|
he would serve God, the King OF tn,.
world. He did so, gave away his vast
lands and Is now one of the saints of the
church. Catholics die here every dav.
! Let Us suppose tonight We witness the
death of a reckless man, a Catholic man
| We can find Catholics in this city, no
doubt, who have gene astray men who
have led bad, wicked lives. Let us sup
pose one is dying tonight. few friends
are gathered around him.
LOOK at the dying mans face: you
would not wish to touch him. You may
be stricken with horror; then comes the
death rattle, that last sign of mortality.
Then begins the agony of the soul. The
soul is spirit; 1T acts quickly This
man, dying, is beginning to see all his
FORMER life before him. He has led wick
ed life, but he said 81 will be recouciled
on my death bed; there is plenty of time.
AS long as l am capable of grasping any
pleasure In life 1 viii do so, and the re-
malnder throw to God and He win take
II. Gcd will not accept it. The man
says: L see my whole life Before me-
every circumstance; 1 sinned again and
again. l lived a life of wicked thoughts
L remember the first night I ever took q
step into hell; in that certain place / de-
filed my body and soul; there / see the
place, the night, where and when / made
beast of myself with drink; L degraded
-. -
the money of which I defrauded that
man; said then I would make restitu-
ton, but l never old. That Is blood on
my soul; 1t was a serious sin against
God / am dying now; what can ] do7
See how l treated the church of God
1 laughed at my wife and children when
they tried to get me to go to mass. and T
see when l went to the altar of God and
trampled upon the body of Jesus Christ
An. this woman reminds me of a sin for
winch God damned me- / have been
even more guilty than a pagan, for when
the pagan kills the living child for a sac
ritce. l have killed the child that never
saw the blue of heaven"
And so he rambles on; his body Is al
most separated from the soul; his mind
is wrecked. Then a spirit comes into
the room; you cannot see it; the devil
is spirit, and he knows that now is his
last chance; the devil says: "Ah YOU
nave no chance to go to heaven; look
at that life of yours; you have made n
fatal mistake; you have not repented:
don't think your priest can save
YOU The devil says: Now l have
you The man sinks back on his pillow
dead Then will the devil say to Christ,
demand his soul. Look at the life of
that man; he has broken the laws of the
church and he died as he had lived -,
SIN, and l demand that that soul be Civ
en- 10 me L was condemned for only one
SIN and am not to be judged
And Christ will say: Satan, thou
speakest the truth now. He has defied
God he has led wicked life: take that
SOUL And to that condemned soul. he
will say: Depart from me- We cursed
into everlasting fire, prepared for Satan
and his angels; let him take your soul
and sink 1t to the lowest Depths He
has received his just deserts.
We cannot mock God; He is a God OF
Infinite mercy; He will forgive all that
want to be forgiven; those who want to
repent There is just sense in US that
tells US that unless We repent God viii
punish us with eternal hell. There Is
heaven that awaits you; go to it: 1t is
for those who are willing to pay for it.
Ii you are lost in hell. you can never
say that God IS cruel. You will say, ct
was wicked; defied Him and now / am
III hell" Let us all remember the words
Of Christ: BE prepared always" Re
pent tonight: promise God your will keep
His commandments.
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