Judgment







“Let these examples suffice on this head. And if the Almighty, Omniscient God, thus regards this subject, with what intense, soul - stirring, interest, ought human beings to look upon it, whose most momentous prospects of final weal or woe, hang upon its decisions?--For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are his ways higher than our ways, and his thoughts than our thoughts!   
2. What scenes of glory and of joy will the transactions of that day unfold to the Christian! Now he lives in an ungodly world, rife with trial and temptation--mourning over his own sins, his unlikeness and unfaithfulness to his Divine Lord and Master -- ''his righteous soul vexed from day to day, with the filthy conversation, and the unlawful deeds of the wicked: '' but then--how changed! it shall be announced: "Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was an hungered and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: naked and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison and ye came unto me.'' And as he utters his own sense of his unworthiness, ''When, O when, have I done so much for thee? I am verily but an unprofitable servant: and often have almost doubled even the power and willingness of a God to save so vile a sinner;'' and the King shall answer and say unto him, Verily, I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me;"--he can only turn with a grateful sense of the melting compassion and grace of his glorious Lord and Savior, and join in that song of the redeemed, which shall thrill through all heaven. ''Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing:'' ''for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth!"  
3. What a scene of solemn and awful realities will that day discover to the enemies of God!
''Great day of consternation and of dread?"   
O ye careless, ye presumptuous! suffer a word of exhortation. Prepare to meet your God. Of what avail then, will be all your vain boastings of no fear of death, or hell,--shall I add, or even of the Almighty?--no regard for the entreaties, warnings, rebukes and threatenings, of God in his word - echoed and reiterated in tones of thunder in your ears, by his ministers and people; the significant admonitions of conscience, the strivings of the Holy Spirit, and the ominous dispensation of Divine Providence? What will it avail, that you have labored all your lives, and spent all your strength, and time, and talents, to cover up hell, and pile the whole tremendous mass of curses, and threatenings, and denunciations of ''terror" and "wrath to come," from the "KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS," upon the contracted limits of old Jerusalem and its inhabitants? O the fearful responsibility of preaching "peace, peace," when God has not spoken peace; but positively declared that ''there is no peace to the wicked!''  
''Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, or a thirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment.'' It seems that they will either think they had been doing very well, -- all that was required of them; or, that they had never had an opportunity of doing those things, for the neglect of which they will be condemned. Will they then plead, in extenuation of their guilt, the fact, that they had opposed revivals of religion, the doctrines of faith and repentance, as necessary to salvation; that they supposed they were ministering to His wants when they saw their fellow - beings in trouble and distress on account of their sins, ''a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries;" and used every effort in their power to soothe and lull their disturbed consciences to sleep, and quiet their gloomy forebodings of future retribution, by cry in g ''peace, peace,'' ''ye shall not surely die;" while they charged all these apprehensions to an improper and foolish excitement, produced by the ''fanatics'' of time day, -- "the preachers of the doctrine of endless misery?'' ''O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!" May the Lord save us from such a course, and such a fate!   
4. It will be a day of the eminent display of God's glory. '' When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory." Matt. 25. 31. He will then ''come to be glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that believe.''
2 Thess. 1. 10; Eph. i. 6, 12, 14, 18.







 April 20, 1842 JVHe, HST 18