How comforting, indeed, then, is the thought of heaven, for then all our hopes will be realized, and our love made perfect! O you who thirst for human love! your desire is to love and be loved. Love is the object of your life, the light of your hearts; but know this: that no earthly love will ever bring you perfect happiness; and if it should so happen that you should find a joy in possessing some creature, tell me, how long will that joy last? Not long, for God sends death, and He takes away the objects of your love, the idol that you have placed between Him and your soul. {239} A mother finds the greatest joy in beholding the child to whom she gave birth. It may be her first-born; she loves it, caresses it; she spends days in caring for it, and, if at night she awakes, the first thought is of that child: but some day death comes in, and lays his icy hand on the life-strings of its tiny heart, and severs the link that binds it to this life, and it is no more. But the Christian mother willingly gives it up to God, for she knows that in heaven she will again embrace that child. It is the thought of heaven that brings her consolation. A friend has found unspeakable joy in living with his companion, they were boys together, they grew up together, they received the Holy Sacraments together, and, just as they suppose their happiness to be complete, death terminates the existence of one, and the other is left alone to learn the lesson all men must, sooner or later, learn--all persons, all things are perishable, and "the heart," as St. Augustine says, "is at unrest until it rests in God." No matter what bereavement comes over the Christian, he is animated with hope, and his joy speedily returns when he thinks of heaven as a place where he will meet and recognize his loved ones. Here, my dear brethren, we grow tired of the most costly and beautiful objects. It is impossible for us to keep up our enthusiasm for a long time, as we are creatures of change and chance. {240} In heaven, we shall never grow tired; for, in beholding Almighty God and all the glories of heaven, we shall be so entranced that nothing will be able to distract us. In heaven, time will pass away unnoticed, and its events will have no power to weary us.