FALSE CONFIDENCE OF SALVATION by Fr. Buckley, 1891
Dearly Beloved
Brethren:--We were sent into this world for no other end than that we
might labor in the vineyard of the Lord; that we might work for the
promotion of His glory, and thus earn our eternal reward. Reason as you
will on the condition of man; account as you please for his position in
life; argue on the past, and conjecture on the future, as wisdom or
fancy may suggest; at the end of all this intellectual struggle for
truth, an inward voice ever rings out clear and convincing within your
soul--you were placed in the world for no other object than that you
might labor in the vineyard of the Lord. Everything proclaims it: the
shortness of life; the vanity of earthly pursuits; the emptiness of
human pleasures; the fate of millions who have lived since the world
began, and of whom there is now no trace; their ambition thwarted: their
hopes deceived; their schemes baffled; their theories disproved; God's
Providence vindicated, and His Gospel taught and revered, unchanged and
unchangeable, by the infallible Church, which ever reigns triumphant
amid the ruins of man's works and speculations.