Is there not, O my God! felicity enough in the sweetness of loving thee? Is there not misery enough in living deprived of thy blissful friendship? Yes, dear Lord! thou knowest that, and this was the only cause that moved thy goodness to court our affections. Thou knowest we should cast ourselves away, by running after the follies of this deceitful world. Thou knowest the danger to which we are exposed; and therefore dost thou strive, By the proposal of fear and hope, and all the expedients of love and bounty, to draw us to thyself and enrich us with thy kingdom. Unhappy we! whose waywardness required so extraordinary a proceeding, to force upon us our own salvation. Happy we! whose wants have been supplied by a hand, that needed but our emptiness to prompt the effusions of its beneficence. Happy yet more! that our Lord, who thus will at last bestow upon us his favors us now, own infinite perfection. Glory be to the Father. &c. Ant. What is man, O Lord! that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou shouldst visit him? Ant. Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity, but the love of God, and the hope of enjoying him forever. Psalm XVII. LORD! without thee, what is all the world to us but a passing dream? It promises indeed a paradise of bliss, but all it performs is to amuse us for a moment. Thine only are the joys that produce real contentment, and constitute permanent happiness. Without thee, O Lord! what are we, but the wretched causes of our own ruin? Till thou gavest us being, we were purely nothing; more removed from happiness than the most miserable of thy creatures. Now thou hast made us, we wholly depend on thee, and perish immediately if thou forsake us. Thou, without us, art the same all glorious Deity, ever bright in thy own eternal felicity. Without us thy royal throne stands firm forever, and all the powers of heaven obey thy will. Pity, O gracious Lord! our imperfect nature, which is so far beneath thy supreme excellence. Thou dwellest above in the mansions of glory; and we below in houses of clay. Thou art immortal, and thy day outlives all time; we every moment go downwards to the grave. Thou art immense, and thy presence fills the heavens; but the greatest of us, alas! how little are we! A few cubic feet of air contain us while we live, and a few spans of earth suffice us at our death. When, O my God! shall these distances meet together? when will these extremes come nearer to each other? We know they were once miraculously joined in the sacred person of thy eternal Son; When the king of heaven stooped down to earth, and grafted into his own person the nature of man. We hope they once again shall be happily united, in the blissful vision of thy glorious self: When the children of the earth shall be exalted to heaven, and made partakers of thy divine nature. But are there no means for us here below, O thou infinitely high and glorious God! Is there no way to approach thee, and diminish, at least this remote separation from thee? None but the way of holy love, which he only can follow who is drawn by thy gratui tous mercy. Draw us, therefore, into the path of charity; let us love thee, who art so many ways worthy of more than our hearts. Never shall we be happy, O Lord! until we are thus intimately united to thee. For what have we in heaven? and besides thee, what can we desire upon earth? For thee our flesh and our hearts have fainted away; thou art our God, and our portion forever. They who depart from thee, shall perish; because thou destroyest them who are disloyal to thee. But for us, we will adhere to thee; that we may sing thy praises during this transitory life, And prepare ourselves for the still more fervent and enrapturing performance of this office, in the society of the blessed who will love and glorify thee during eternity. Glory be to the Father, &c. Ant. Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity, but the love of God, and the hope of enjoying him forever. Our Father, &c. LESSON 1.-Eccli. 18. He that liveth forever created all things together. God only shall be justified, and he |