The Bill of Goods

 By Anna Von Reitz

Back in the day, a Bill of Goods was delivered, the recipient checked the list of items shipped against the goods actually received, and if all was in order, the receiver checked each item off and signed the bottom of the list as "received by" and dated it.  

The Shipper was either then paid directly by cash in hand and the Bill of Goods "canceled" by the Shipper or his Agent writing "Paid in Full" across the receipt, and returning it to the Receiver, or, the Agent took the signed receipt back to the Shipper who then applied to a Local Agent for the Receiver for payment.  

Either way, a Bill of Goods functioned to inventory and to track receipt of goods in transit, then served as a Bill for services performed, and in the end, as a Second Receipt to confirm that payment for Shipping was made. 

It was entirely routine in my youth to receive a receipt stamped "Paid in Full" in red ink whenever we contracted to receive shipped goods.  

When the goods arrived, we'd go down to the train station or wherever else the goods were delivered and warehoused, and receive the Bill of Goods (also called Bill of Lading) from the Shipping Agent.  We'd check off everything that came in undamaged, note any items that were lost or damaged in transit for insurance claims, and sign off the Bill of Goods at the bottom of the page.

 

Most of the time, we paid for the shipping in cash on the spot before taking possession of the goods, and the shipper's Agent would apply that big red rectangular stamp: "Paid in Full" and sign the Received by: line that was just underneath those nice words, and also fill in the dateline that was also part of the rectangular stamp block. 

The only exception to this system of presenting a Bill of Goods for inventory and signing it off as a Receipt due Payment, was the Collect on Delivery (C.O.D.) process, in which the Shipper acted on good faith to deliver a product that the Received was expected to pay for plus shipping upon delivery.  A C.O.D. was often more difficult to collect and so cost more for the endline Receiver.  

The shipper's name and address and contact information appeared at the top of the Bill of Goods (or Bill of Lading which was a direct reference to the Shipping Service in particular) and our name, address, and contact information was written in at the bottom of the Bill, with a space for our sign-off signature and date received right beside. 

I used to look at these "Paid in Full" receipts with something approaching joy.  It felt good to have stacks of receipts saying, "Paid in Full" blazoned in red and all punched onto a spike-like spindle that a little girl could spin almost like a paper windmill. 

I never forgot what a Bill of Goods was, how it functioned, and how it was processed, but somewhere in the late 1960's I stopped seeing Bills of Goods.  The train no longer stopped at our little town station, and soon, even the freight trains stopped running. The "Paid in Full" stamps and their red ink disappeared.  

Instead, we had receipts printed on roll paper in faint purple ink and they never said "Paid in Full" --- instead, they showed the details of a transaction -- the itemized list, the price, the total price, and the payment offered and the change received.  

It was a transaction record, but not a Bill of Goods.  Nobody signed for anything.  There was no indication that anything was actually "Paid", as in something of substantive value exchanged for something of substantive value.  

The only thing suggesting payment was that the transaction record showed nothing owing, which was, I noted, a little bit different than "Paid in Full", especially since the date on the receipt only guaranteed that nothing more was owed on that particular date.  

That is, the new receipts didn't absolutely exonerate and cancel any remaining debt resulting from the transaction.  They just said that as of that day, nothing more was owed.  

What if there was unseen interest accruing on the transactions these receipts recorded?  What if it started out with nothing owing on July10th 1968 and because of that transaction, a penny was owed on July 11th 1968?  After all, the new receipt didn't say, "Paid in Full".   

It didn't say "Paid" at all.  Maybe it wasn't that kind of transaction? 

The world had changed somehow, though as a young kid, I was at a loss to explain it.  What was apparent was that people were trading more and more on symbols --- what I would later recognize as commercial paper --- and using actual money, silver dollars and half dollars and quarters and Silver Certificates, less and less.  

Only diehards like Moe's Family Shoe Store still stamped these new receipts with red ink Paid in Full stamps, and even they didn't stop and sign the receipts.  

I began to notice that without someone's actual signature, the entity to be paid or which owed payment, either one, appeared to be just a name. Who, actually, was "Moe's Family Shoe Store"?  And as for the Receiver, there was no reference at all, nothing to show that I, Anna Maria, bought a new pair of red Keds tennis shoes.  

These new receipts didn't feel like receipts at all.  The transactions they tracked might be useful for inventory purposes, but not much else. Instead of keeping these receipts as records of payment, most people threw them away. 

The whole set up felt strange and undefined and open-ended --- and suspicious somehow.  Like a Black Market.  The sellers were identified, but not the buyers.  The transactions showed nothing owed on that day, but not that the Bill had been "Paid in Full".   That left the possibility of additional charges accruing and left the nature of the transaction in doubt.  

Was it a sale?  Or a lease?  Was I renting my new tennis shoes?  

Would I be responsible for paying damages?  

The idea that every bank and store and cash register company in America was colluding to pull some kind of Fast One seemed so far-fetched, I shrugged and went on about my business like everyone else.  

But they were pulling a Fast One.  They were leaving the receipts "open" so that they could accrue and charge interest on a "National Debt" that didn't legitimately exist.  Every one of those open-ended transactions accrued service charges and resulted in undisclosed debt. 

Who knew?  

Lately, I've been thinking about Alice Gebhardt, the woman who inspired me to be a Cancer Coach, and about Billy Carson and one of his recent rants.  

Both of them pointed out that when we arrive here on Earth, we are all sold a Bill of Goods.  

A name, a sex, a race, a religion, a nationality, and often, even a political party are all dumped on us, free gratis. The mindless Shippers of all these intellectual property interests never imagine that they are loading us down like beasts of burden with all their "gifts" serving to define and limit us, but so they are.  

They also give us all sorts of limitations. We are told overtly and by suggestion what is "appropriate" for us, what we can expect out of life, and what our limits are--- intellectually, professionally, socially, culturally, artistically --- in all ways, we are stuck like ants in amber by the time we are five years old.  

Those who cripple us are also, ironically, those who love us and protect us. They do it and don't even realize that they are doing us any harm. 

Often, we aren't swift enough to realize that, however lovingly, we've been sold a Bill of Goods about who we are, what we want, what we believe --- yes, nearly everything about us has been neatly mapped out and predetermined by others, who are reacting to life on autopilot themselves. 

Ask for the day when your eyes are opened and you don't sign the receipt, that moment when you no longer blindly accept who you are and what your limitations are --- as told to you by someone else. 

Take a good look around.  First, it's your parents and siblings and grandparents doing it to you.  Then, it's your teachers and school officials and coaches.  Then it's your drill sergeants and senior officers.  Then it's your employers and co-workers. And then, most of the time, without a thought, you become one of them, and process your own children through the same cookie cutter one-size-fits-all paradigm. 

One size doesn't fit all, and though we all know that, we contrive to ignore the Truth, sign the Bill of Goods, accept the charges.... and then one day, like Alice, we find ourselves dying on schedule, too.  

You are two and a half.  It's time you were potty trained.  You are five. Time for kindergarten.  You are eighteen.  Time to graduate from High School.  Time to join the Service or go to college or trade school.  At 22, it's time to find a mate and a job and start raising a family.  Or maybe go on to Graduate School.  And then, you are 62 or 65, and it's time you retired, Old Sod.  Have a few penurious years as the honored and largely invisible walking dead, and oh, yeah, well, you are now 80, time to kick the bucket. Gotta get out your bucket list and do it, if you can still walk. 

Alice was 85 and she had Terminal Cancer-- really bad cancer throughout her body, and yes, she was in horrific pain. The doctors burned her, cut her open, poisoned her, and left me the horrible task of taking more blood samples and more biopsies of her dying flesh simply so they could follow -- with morbid curiosity --  her long and painful slow demise. 

One day, I couldn't stand it anymore.

I refused to collect any more samples from her. I quit. I gave up on conventional medicine having the answers.  And at that point, a miracle occurred. 

Alice realized she had been sold a Bill of Goods, and she started laughing. It was all a joke.  A farce.  A bad dream she believed in, but suddenly, she didn't believe in it anymore.  

She started laughing then, and she never stopped laughing the rest of her long, long life.  It didn't matter that she was 85.  It didn't matter that she had "terminal" cancer. She wasn't ready to die, and she realized it was her choice.  So she laughed some more and her spontaneous remission began.  

Three weeks later, she walked out of the hospital on her own.  No wheelchair. No cancer.  She went home and lived on her own, very happily the rest of her days.  When she died peacefully in her sleep at almost a hundred, there was no cancer in her postmortem. 

Examine the Bill of Goods you've been given.  Is it even yours? Or does it belong to someone else?  

Just as I asked you all to step outside yourselves and observe yourself from a different corner of the room, or look down at yourself from high up in the sky, or imagine that you are flying far faster than the birds in the sky, know that you are not your body, not your mind, and certainly not what someone else thinks about you.  

Their gifted labels and limitations are not yours.  

----------------------------

See this article and over 4300 others on Anna's website here: www.annavonreitz.com

To support this work look for the Donate button on this website. 

How do we use your donations?  Find out here.

Public International Notice and Demand: The American Civil War?

 By Anna Von Reitz

We have never found any official Declaration of War by any version of Congress whatsoever related to The American Civil War.  Abraham Lincoln's declaration allowing the attack on Fort Sumter doesn't count as a Declaration of War.  Our law requires a formal Declaration from the American Congress.  And it isn't present. 

Lincoln's attack on Fort Sumter was allowed only because the Fort was located on an island in Charleston Harbor, a location within the "navigable inland waterways".  He acted in an undisclosed position as a British Admiralty Officer operating as the President of the United States of America while masquerading as The President of The United States of America. 

This farce and semantic deceit was not recognized by the General Public as a result of deliberate obfuscation and non-disclosure.  

You will also never find any series of official Peace Treaties ending The American Civil War.  You will find an Armistice of sorts signed by two Generals, followed by some declarations by President Andrew Johnson, and that's it.  

So no lasting peace was ever provided to the people of this country, though a deceitful appearance of peace was contrived and maintained.  

If you go looking for the Muster Rolls enlisting men to serve on both sides of The American Civil War conflict,  you will find that all the men who were enlisted to fight in The American Civil War were fighting for "Confederate States", both in the North and South --- which means they were fighting for States-of-States, business organizations, not actual governments.   

That makes the whole so-called American Civil War a "Mercenary Conflict" and not a "War" at all.  All the soldiers who fought in The American Civil War were unknowingly cast in the role of mercenaries as a result. 

If you go looking for evidence that The Reconstruction was ever finished, you won't find that, either.  Instead, you will find that the bulk of the Reconstruction Acts remain active and on the books, with only a couple small sections repealed in all the years from then to this.  

So the Reconstruction Era is right now.  It's still "live" and waiting to be done. 

When you dig into the Reconstruction Acts you will find a lot of bitter and venomous bits aimed at the Southern States. You will also find a lot of actions called for that have never taken place.  

And that again confirms that the Reconstruction has never happened.  

So are we to be left forever engaged in a foreign, phony, and illegal mercenary conflict masquerading as a war?  And is that "war" to be perpetually prolonged by Executive Orders issued by a foreign Municipal  corporation's "President"? 

By what logic are we existing here?  

The Northern Confederacy that deceptively called itself "the Union", combined with its British Territorial Allies, purportedly won the war and abolished slavery.  

A closer look at the Fourteenth (By-Law) Amendment they unilaterally made to their new Scottish corporation's Articles of Incorporation styled as a "Constitution" in 1868, reveals that they retained slavery and institutionalized it. 

According to them, all criminals are slaves, and all Municipal United States citizens --- called "citizens of the United States" are criminals by definition. 

Therefore, also slaves.  

The Southern Confederacy, more honestly calling itself "the Confederate States of America" never claimed to abolish slavery at all.  The Papist Municipal Corporation run by the City of Rome never abolished slavery per se; they only moved the ownership of the slaves from private sector slave ownership to public sector slave ownership.  

The Municipal United States theocracy fought as an ally of the Southern States, so all the Federal Civil Service Employees  and what we would recognize as Agency Employees today, were considered vanquished Enemies owing "war reparations" ---even though there was never any actual declared war involved in any of this mélange of deceit.

What are we left with? 

(1) The Reconstruction is left to be done by the actual States, but the actual States were never called back into Session --- until 2019 when the State Assemblies were summoned into Session. 

(2) Our country as a whole has been left occupied by the British Territorial U.S. Army usurping the position of the actual civilian government of this country; even their Northern Confederacy Allies, colleagues in the purported victory, have not been respected or provided relief. 

(3) Our country as a whole has been left in a state of "perpetual war" --- or to be more exact, perpetual predatory foreign mercenary occupation. This injury was purposeful and intentional, as evidenced by the Naval Agency and Dispositions Act passed by the British Parliament in 1864. 

(4) Our once-Honorable Soldiers have been used as cheap foreign service mercenaries for 160 years. Instead of being paid by our lawful government they have been paid by a British Crown corporation, SERCO, acting as the broker and paymaster for their services. Instead of being honored by our country and our own civilian government, men acting as our Generals and Diplomats and even as "Presidents" have been knighted by the late Queen instead.  Their services to the British Empire are obvious enough; their treason against this country is also self-evident. 

(5) A "cloak of secrecy" has been used to hide this circumstance from the unwary and uninformed American Public on the pretense that our whole population was suspect until individuals declared their own political status and made their allegiances, if any, explicit. 

(6) So everyone here in this country was assumed to be on both sides of this subterranean conflict until proven otherwise, while the General Population was left not knowing that there was any ongoing conflict to be resolved.  We have lived in the middle of an imaginary war zone -- a  suppositional battlefield created by these self-interested Principals operating in Gross Breach of Trust and in violation of their Service Contracts ---and all under color of law and conditions of willful deceit.   

(7) You can look at this as two Municipal Corporations, one operated by the City of Rome and one operated by the British Crown, secretly bashing each other and colluding by turns for 160 years, with both sides preying upon us, the clueless and trusting civilian population, the whole time. 

(8) To end this, a number of things must logically occur: 

(A) the American people, including the American military, must wake up and catch onto the Big Lies underlying this circumstance; 

(B) the civilians must make their political status known -- siding with one side or the other, or maintaining their neutrality; 

(C) having recorded and published their political status, the neutral Americans have to bring their State Assemblies back into Session, get organized, and among other things, finish the Reconstruction; 

(D) although both sides of this unending conflict owe the neutral Americans peace and non-interference with their Assemblies, both are motivated to try to control the situation and keep the Big Con going; 

(E) so Americans have to defend their prerogatives and expose the whole mess and hold the foreign Principals who are ultimately responsible for and benefiting from these warring Municipal Corporations feet first to the fire. 

Mercenary wars are illegal and unlawful and it really doesn't matter when the conflict started or how long it has been perpetuated and prolonged by foreign corporation "Presidents" declaring euphemistic wars on everything from poverty to drugs to homophobia. 

This is what we are actually, honestly, and explicitly dealing with -- the unfinished business of an illegal mercenary conflict that is now six generations old. 

Two major bank systems have been used to promote and perpetuate this grotesque crime against our country, with the Federal Reserve (now Chase Bank and JPMorgan holding interest) and the International Monetary Fund (now UN Bank / World Bank holding interest) funding the British Crown Municipal Corporation and the City of Rome Municipal Corporation, respectively. 

Both of these foreign Municipal Corporations acting as Federal Government Subcontractors housed in the District of Columbia-- which are here in this country for the explicit purpose of providing "essential government services" under service contracts established as Constitutions-- have been in Breach of Trust and acting under color of law for decades.  

Everyone and everything continuing to support this situation against the Public Interest and against the welfare of the American People is a criminal engaged in Unlawful Conversion, Entrapment, Enslavement, Inland Piracy, Kidnapping, and other Crimes of State, including conspiracy against the Constitutions that have been routinely usurped and evaded. 

Now that this has been exposed and the "Cloak of Secrecy" stripped away, everyone must choose where they stand on the issue of slavery, private, public, or none at all.  

We, the American people and Lawful Persons known as People, have been at peace since the end of the War of 1812.  We have chosen to fly the Peacetime Flag in token and declaration of our actual status as neutral parties, whose persons and assets are owed international protection as well as protection from the occupying Territorial military forces.  Our government is on the record as supporting no slavery at all. 

We call upon the Pope, the City of Rome Municipal Corporation, the British Crown, the District of Columbia Corporation, the banks responsible for funding all this corruption and violence, the British Monarch, the Roman Curia, the Universal Postal Union, the United Nations NGO, the General Secretariat, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Department of Defense doing business as DOD, INC., the British Privy Council, the British Parliaments, the Government of Westminster, the British Crown, the City of Rome Municipal Corporation, the members of the Territorial and Municipal Congress organizations, and all the other organizations, corporations, clubs, committees, agencies, commissions and institutions responsible for maintaining the peace worldwide, to put a permanent and immediate stop to all presumptions of war related to the civilian populace of our country, known nationally as The United States, and internationally as The United States of America. 

Cease and desist the illegal and unlawful conscription or our people and the illegal and unlawful confiscations of their assets and the illegal and unlawful conversion of their natural political status via registration and enfranchisement of our people, attaching foreign titles to our land, and presuming against our country as a whole --- which has all been done under conditions of fraud and deceit, via the use of unconscionable contracts created without disclosure and under color of law, in Gross Breach of Trust and in violation of The Constitution of the United States of America, our service contract issued in 1789, and all Successors thereof.

We consider that the British Monarch and their Government stands in violation of the Treaty of Paris entered in 1783 and the Treaty of Versailles issued in 1778, in series and together with their addendums and implements; we consider that the Government of Westminster stands in violation of the Treaties of Ghent and Westminster and Utrecht, in series and together with their addendums and implements; we consider the Holy Roman Empire and its Successors and the Holy See standing as a Successor in Maritime jurisdiction to be in violation of the Sacred Covenants established by Ecumenical Law, the Ecclesiastical Law requiring oversight of corporations, and the Canon Law requiring all officers of the Church to immediately yield  back property held in trust to the presumed donors and actual owners.

None of the Municipal courts nor the Magistrate COURTS nor the Territorial Courts have operated properly in compliance with the laws, treaties, constitutional service contracts, and other obligations agreed to, published, and settled upon them. 

Since May of 1865, the British Territorial Government has been operating non-consensual Military Districts and equally unapproved Military District Courts on our shores, a practice that has led to vast corruption, injustice, and illegal confiscation of assets belonging to Americans who were deliberately impersonated and mischaracterized as Municipal citizens of the United States, all based on unconscionable contracts deliberately foisted off on the victims while they were still babies in their cradles.   

If anyone reading this Notice and Demand has any other contributory or opposing information to bring forward, such as proof of a proper Declaration of War by any American Congress in support of The American Civil War, proof of a valid Peace Treaty series ending The American Civil War, or proof of non-mercenary military service in The American Civil War or at any time thereafter, you may address it to the mailing address shown below or to avannavon@gmail.com or otherwise forever hold your peace.

Owing to the extensive and prolonged Due Process already accorded to these issues and this overall circumstance, if no reply is received by the 9th of August 2023, we shall claim and consider the entire foregoing description of the circumstance and events to be established as fact for all purposes and in all venues. 

Notice to Principals is Notice to Agents; Notice to Agents is Notice to Principals. 

Issued by: Anna Maria Riezinger, Fiduciary

                 The United States of America

                 In care of: Box 520994

                 Big Lake, Alaska 99652

July 30th 2023

----------------------------

See this article and over 4300 others on Anna's website here: www.annavonreitz.com

To support this work look for the Donate button on this website. 

How do we use your donations?  Find out here.

The Truth About Vaccines Presents REMEDY

  https://remedy.film/?ref=2f3d453f-64e4-422e-8b94-060cf43cbd46

Episode 5 is playing now

Episode 5:  OVERCOMING FEAR & COERCION

DTP Vaccine * COVID Jab Genocide
Depopulation & Sterilization Agenda?
Detox Dioxin * Heal Holistically

 https://remedy.film/?ref=2f3d453f-64e4-422e-8b94-060cf43cbd46

Ninth Sunday After Pentecost

 Rev. Fr. Leonard Goffine's

The Church's Year

Implore God for help and protection against all temptations both visible and invisible, and say with the priest at the Introit:

INTROIT Behold, God is my helper, and the Lord is the protector of my soul: turn back the evils upon my enemies, and cut them off in thy truth, O Lord, my protector. (Ps. LIII.) Save me, O God, by thy name, and deliver me in thy strength. Glory be to the Father and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

COLLECT Let the ears of Thy mercy, O Lord, be open to the prayers of Thy suppliants: and that Thou mayest grant them their desires, make them to ask such things as please Thee. Through our Lord Jesus Christ Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the Unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end, Amen.

EPISTLE (I Cor. X. 6-13.) Brethren, Let us not covet evil things, as they also coveted. Neither become ye idolaters, as some of them: as it is written: The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed fornication, and there fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them tempted, and perished by the serpents. Neither do you murmur, as some of them murmured, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now all these things happened to them in figure, and they are written for our correction, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore he that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall. Let no temptation take hold on you, but such as is human: and God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able but will make also with temptation issue that you may be able to bear it.

Can we sin by thought and desire?

Yes, if we desire evil and forbidden things, or voluntarily think of them with pleasure, for God prohibits not only evil deeds, but evil thoughts and desires inregard to our neighbor's wife or goods. (Exod. XX. 17.) Christ says, (Matt. V. 28.) that he who looks upon a woman with evil desire, has already committed adultery. But wicked thoughts and imagination are sinful only when a person consents to, or entertains them deliberately. They become, however, an occasion of gaining merit, if we earnestly strive against them. For this reason God sometimes permits even the just to be tempted by them.

What is meant by tempting God?

Demanding presumptuously a mark or sign of divine omnipotence, goodness or justice. This sin is committed when without cause we desire that articles of faith should be demonstrated and confirmed by a new miracle; when we throw ourselves needlessly into danger of body or soul expecting God to deliver us; when in dangerous illness the ordinary and, natural remedies are rejected, and God's immediate assistance expected.

Is it a great sin to murmur against God?

That it is such may be learned from the punishment which God inflicted on the murmuring Israelites; for besides Kore, Dathan, and Abiron whom the earth devoured, many thousands of them were consumed by fire; and yet these had not murmured against God directly, but only against Moses and Aaron whom God had placed over them as their leaders. From this it is seen that God looks upon murmuring against spiritual and civil authority, instituted by Him, as murmuring against Himself. Hence Moses said to the Israelites: Your. murmuring is not against us, but against the Lord. (Exod. XVI. 8.)

ASPIRATION Purify my heart, I beseech. Thee; O Lord, from all evil thoughts and desires. Let it never enter my mind to tempt Thee, or to be dissatisfied with Thy fatherly dispensations. Suffer me not to be tempted beyond my strength, but grant me so much fortitude, that I may overcome all temptations, and even derive benefit from them for my soul's salvation.

GOSPEL (Luke XIX. 41-47.) At that time, when Jesus drew near Jerusalem, seeing the city, he wept over it, saying: If thou also hadst known, and that in this thy day, the things that are to thy peace: but now they are hidden from thy eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, and thy enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and straiten thee on every side, and beat thee flat to the ground, and thy children who are in thee: and they shall not leave in thee a stone upon a stone, because thou hast not known the time of thy visitation. And entering into the temple, he began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought, saying to them: It is written, My house is the house of, prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves. And he was teaching daily in the temple.

Why did our Saviour weep over the city of Jerusalem?

Because of the ingratitude and obduracy of its inhabitants who would not receive Him as their Redeemer, and who through impenitence were hastening to destruction.

When was the time of visitation?

The period in which God sent them one prophet after another who urged them to penance, and whom they persecuted, stoned, and killed. (Matt. XXIII. 34.) It was especially the time of Christ's ministry, when He so often announced His salutary doctrine in the temple of Jersualem, confirmed it by miracles, proving Himself to be the Messiah, the Saviour of the world, but was despised and rejected by this hardened and impenitent city.

Who are prefigured by this hardened and impenitent city?

The hard-hearted, unrepenting sinners who will not recognize the time of God's visitation, in which He urges them by the mouth of His preachers, confessors, and superiors, and by inward inspiration to reform their lives and seek the salvation of their soul, but who give no ear to these admonitions, and defer conversion to the end of their lives. Their end will be like to that of this impious city; then the enemy, that is, the evil spirit, will surround their soul, tempt, terrify, and drag it into the abyss of ruin. Oh, how foolish it is to squander so lightly, the time of grace, the days of salvation! Oh, how would the damned do penance, could they but return to earth! Oh, how industriously would they employ the time to save their soul! Use, then, my dear Christian, the time of grace which God designs for you, and which, when it is run out or carelessly thrown away, will not be lengthened for a moment.

Will God conceal from the wicked that which serves for their salvation?

No; but while they are running after the pleasures of this life, as St. Gregory says, they see not the misfortunes treading in their footsteps, and as consideration of the future makes them uncomfortable in the midst of their worldly pleasures, they remove the terrible thought far from them, and thus run with eyes blindfolded in the midst of their pleasure into eternal flames. Not God, but they themselves hide the knowledge of all that is for their peace, and thus they perish.

ASPIRATION. I beseech Thee, O Lord, who didst weep over the city of Jerusalem, because it knew not the time of its visitation, to enlighten my heart, that I may know and profit by the season of grace.

THE DESTRUCTION OF THE CITY AND TEMPLE OF JERUSALEM

Has our divine Savior's prophecy concerning, the city of Jerusalem been fulfilled?

Yes, and in the most terrible manner. The Jews, oppressed by the Romans their cruel masters, revolted, killed many of their enemies, and drove them out of Jerusalem. Knowing well that this would not be permitted to pass unavenged, the Jews armed themselves for a desperate resistance. The Emperor Nero sent a powerful army under the command of Vespasian against the city of Jerusalem, which first captured the smaller fortresses of Judea, and then laid siege to the city. The want and misery of the inhabitants had already reached the highest pitch; for within the city ambitious men had caused conflicts; factions had been formed, daily fighting each other, and reddening the streets with blood, while the angry Romans stormed outside. Then a short time of respite was granted to the unfortunate Jews. The Emperor Nero was murdered at Rome in the year of our Lord 68; his successor Galba soon died, and the soldiers placed their beloved commander Vespasian upon the imperial throne. He then left Jerusalem with his army, but in the year he sent his son Titus with a new army to Judea, with orders to capture the city at any price, and to punish its inhabitants.

It was the time of Easter, and a multitude of Jews had assembled from all provinces of the land, when Titus appeared with his army before the gates of Jerusalem, and surrounded the city. The supply of food was soon exhausted, famine and pestilence came upon the city and raged terribly. The leader of the savage revolutionists, John of Gischala, caused the houses to be searched, and the remaining food to be torn from the starving, or to be forced from them by terrible tortures: To save themselves from this outrageous tyrant, the Jews took the leader of a band of robbers, named Simon, with his whole gang into the city. John and Simon with their followers now sought to annihilate each other. John took possession of the temple. Simon besieged him; blood was streaming in the temple and in the streets. Only when the battle-din of the Romans was heard from without, did the hostile factions unite, go to meet the enemy, and resist his attack. As the famine increased, many Jews secretly left the city to seek for herbs. But Titus captured them with his cavalry, and crucified those who were armed. Nearly five hundred men, and sometimes more, were every day crucified in sight of the city, so that there could not be found enough of crosses and places of execution; but even this terrible sight did not move the Jews to submission. Incited by their leaders to frenzy, they obstinately resisted, and Titus finding it impossible to take the city by storm, concluded to surround it by walls in order to starve the inhabitants. In three days his soldiers built a wall of about ten miles in circumference, and thus the Saviour's prediction was fulfilled: Thy enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and straiten thee on every side.

The famine in this unfortunate city now reached its most terrific height; the wretched inhabitants searched the very gutters for food, and ate the most disgusting things. A woman, ravenous from hunger, strangled her own child, roasted it, and ate half of it; the leaders smelling the horrible meal, forced a way into the house, and by terrible threats compelled the woman to show them what she had eaten; she handed them the remaining part of the roasted child, saying.: "Eat it, it is my child; I presume you are not more dainty than a woman, or more tender than a mother." Stricken with horror they rushed from the house. Death now carried away thousands daily, the streets and the houses were full of corpses: From the fourteenth of April when the siege commenced. to the first of July, there were counted one hundred and fifty-eight thousand dead bodies; six hundred thousand others were thrown over the walls into the trenches to save the city from infection. All who could flee, fled; some reached the camp of the Romans in safety; Titus spared the helpless, but all who fell into his hands armed, were crucified. Flight offered no better security. The Roman soldiers had learned that many Jews had swallowed, gold to secure it from the avarice of the robbers, and therefore the stomachs of many were cut open. Two thousand such corpses were found one morning in the camp of the Romans. The attempts of Titus to prevent this cruelty were unavailing. Finally, when misery had reached its height, Titus succeeded in carrying the fort, Antonia, and with his army forced a passage as far as the temple which had been held by John of Gischala with his famous band. Desirous of saving the temple, Titus offered the revolutionists free passage from it, but his proposition was rejected, and the most violent contest then raged; the Romans trying to enter the temple, and being continually repulsed, at last, one of the soldiers seized a firebrand, and threw it into one of the rooms attached to the temple. The flames in an instant caught the whole of the inner temple, and totally consumed it, so that this prediction of our Lord was also fulfilled. The Romans butchered all the inhabitants whom they met, and Titus having razed the ruins of the temple and city, ploughed it over, to indicate that this city was never to be rebuilt. During the siege one million one hundred thousand Jews lost their lives; ninety-seven thousand were sold as slaves, and the rest of the people dispersed over the whole earth.

Thus God punished the impenitent city and nation, over whose wretchedness the Saviour wept so bitterly, and thus was fulfilled the prediction made by Him long before.

What do we learn from this?

That as this prediction so also all other threats and promises of the Saviour will be fulfilled. The destruction of the city and temple of Jerusalem, the dispersion of the Jews, are historical facts which cannot be denied, and testify through all centuries to the truth of our Lord's word: Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. (Matt. XXIV. 35.)

USEFUL LESSONS CONCERNING DEATH-BED REPENTANCE

Can a sinner rely upon his being converted at the end of his life?

By no means, for this would be a sin against the mercy of God which is much the same as the sin against the Holy Ghost. "God," says St. Augustine, "generally so punishes such negligent sinners, that in the end they forget themselves, as in health they forgot Him." He says: They have turned their back to me, and not their face: and in the time of their affliction they will say: Arise, and deliver us! Where are the gods whom thou hast made thee? Let them arise and deliver thee in the time of thy affliction. (Jer. II. 27-28.) And although we have a consoling example in the case of the penitent thief, yet this, as St. Augustine says, is only one, that the sinner may not despair: and it is only one, so that the sinner may have no excuse for his temerity in putting off his repentance unto the end.

What may we hope of those who are converted at the close of life?

Everything that is good if they be truly converted, but this is a very rare thing, as St. Augustine says: "It cannot be asserted with any security, that he who repents at the end has forgiveness;" and St. Jerome writes: "Scarcely one out of thousands whose life was impious, will truly repent at death and obtain forgiveness of sin;" and St. Vincent Ferrer says, "For a man who has lived an impious life to die a good death is a greater miracle than the raising of the dead to life." We need not be surprised at this, for repentance at the end of life is extorted by the fear of death and the coming judgment. St. Augustine says, that it is not he who abandons sin, but sin abandons him, for he would not cease to offend God, if life were granted him. What can we expect from such a conversion?

When should we repent?

While we are in health, in possession of our senses and strength, for according to the words of St. Augustine, the repentance of the sick is a sickly repentance. As experience proves, man while ill is so tormented and bewildered by the pains of sickness and the fear of death, by remorse of conscience, and the temptations of the devil as well as by anxiety for those whom he leaves, that he can scarcely collect his thoughts, much less fit himself for true repentance. Since it is so hard for many to do penance while they are in health, and have nothing to prevent them from elevating their mind to God, how much more difficult will it be for them, when the body is weakened and tortured by the pains of sickness. It has been made known by many persons when convalescent, that they retained not the slightest recollection of anything which occurred during their illness, and although they confessed and received the last Sacraments, they did not remember it. If then you have committed a grievous sin, do not delay to be reconciled as soon as possible by contrition and a sacramental confession. Do not put off repentance from day to day, for thereby conversion becomes more difficult, so much so that without extraordinary grace from God, you cannot repent God does not give His grace to the presumptuous scoffer.