Quesnel: Moral Reflections on the Gospels Vol 1

136 ST. MATTHEW,
goodness of God, who comes to meet him with so
much mildness, and who himself encourages him
ys firmly believe that we
under his dejection ! Let
can do, and that we merit nothing; that God can
do every thing for us and in us ; and that he de-
lights to exercise this power upon the most un-
worthy. Faith is that which a sinner must bring
along with him to repentance and to prayer.
" 23. % And when Jesus came into the ruler's
house, and saw the minstrels and the people making
a noise,"
How often, on the death of relations, do men en-
cumber and perplex themselves with vain, worldly,
tumultuous, and unprofitable ceremonies, instead of
making in silence profitable reflections upon death !
It is customary for the people of the world to seek
for comfort in their grief only from diversions.
What is a sinner, deprived of the life of God,
whom the crowd of affairs, the noise of his passions,
and the delusions of the world, hinder from thinking
of his condition, but that very thing which we see
here?
" 24. He said unto them, Give place ; for the
maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed
him to scorn."
How happy is a sinner, when God himself takes
care to remove from him all obstacles to the resur-
rection of his soul ! It is apart, and in retirement,
that one labours most profitably to this purpose, and
that Christ applies himself thereto. Death is but
a sleep, in respect of him who raises a dead person
more easily than we can awake one wlio is asleep.
Even the death of the soul is but a sleep, when