SERMON III.

ON THE DAY OF JUDGMENT..

Part Second.

2 CORINTHIANS V. 10.

FOR WE MUST ALL APPEAR BEFORE THE JUDGMENT-SEAT OF CHRIST; THAT EVERY ONE MAY RECEIVE THE THINGS DONE IN HIS BODY, ACCORDING TO THAT HE HATH DONE, WHETHER IT BE GOOD OR BAD.

HAVING in a previous discourse taken a view of the proofs afforded us by nature and revelation as to the certainty of a day of retribution, I shall devote the present to inquiring, as far as we are permitted to inquire, into the manner and time of this awful distribution of eternal happiness or misery, which must always form the leading object, the guiding principle in the researches, the reflections, and the pursuits of a christian.

Before we enter on this examination, it may be desirable to make one preliminary observation, which, though sufficiently obvious to any one at all conversant with the holy scriptures, it may be useful to mention here, as it will be necessary we should carry it along with us in our present investigation. With that providential care for the happiness of his creatures, which so strikingly marks his every dispensation, our Almighty Father has wisely decreed that, in the different doctrines contained in the sacred volume composed under the direction of his Holy Spirit, some things should be destitute of that perspicuity and clearness which is to be found in others; and whilst the moral precepts which are to direct our conversation in this world are inculcated in such plain and undisguised language, that “he who runs may read ;" his infinite wisdom has thrown a veil over those sacred mysteries which are too high for man's understanding. It is therefore the duty of a christian not to reject the declarations of scripture because they are above his limited comprehension, or audaciously attempt to remove the cloud in which it has seemed good to his all-wise Creator to shadow his glories; but humbly endeavour to make the

best use of the intelligence vouchsafed to him, and bow with religious awe to those sublimer truths the eye of faith can at present contemplate but at a distance.

The day of judgment is one of those mysterious subjects on which our information is partial, the manner of it is not laid before us in a regular detail, but from different passages we may collect considerable intelligence: we are told the son of man shall come in power and great glory; that the trumpet shall sound, that its awful sound shall summon all that ever lived to judgment; that the graves shall be opened, and the sea yield up her dead; that a fearful investigation shall take place of all that has been done, or said, or thought since time began; "that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad."

scene.

Can human imagination conceive so awful a Even the criminal who is brought to the bar of an earthly tribunal shrinks not less in the idea of being made a public spectacle to gazing multitudes, than in the idea of that discovery

which human penetration may be enabled to make of his guilt, and of the consequences which must follow its detection. With what feelings of horror then must the guilty await that hour when, before assembled millions, every secret crime which, hidden from the eye of men, was noticed by God alone, shall stand in dread array against them ; when the dreadful sentence shall be pronounced, to which all earthly misery shall be as small, in comparison, as time is to eternity.

The more the mind contemplates this tremendous picture, the more must it feel its own incapacity to form an adequate idea of its grandeur or solemnity; let us not then waste our enquiries on this mysterious subject, but rest assured in the conviction that all we can conceive of the glories which, on that day, will crown the labours of the good and faithful servant of his Lord, or the horrors which shall overwhelm the shuddering victim of Almighty wrath, must fall infinitely short of the reality; and this conviction, if we give it that due consideration it so imperiously demands, will furnish ample subject to incite the virtuous and appal the wicked, without our daring further. If our

information as to the manner of the great judgment be limited, the knowledge we are enabled to acquire of the time appointed for it, is of a still more confined nature. The untutored reflections of the peasant are, in this case, equally successful with the speculations of the philosopher, and the researches of the scholar. The utmost stretch of human wisdom can know but this, that each succeeding enquiry only serves still more strongly to convince us of the truth of our Lord's expression (Matt. xxiv. 36)—"But of that day and hour knoweth no man; no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only." Wherever this subject is hinted at in the gospel, the same character of mystery is attached to it. It is represented as the coming of a thief in the night, as the return of the master of a household at an hour when he is not looked for, and we are told "Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when he cometh shall find watching." We may then be satisfied, that whether the sun which rose this day is now, for the last time, lending us his light, or whether days, years, and centuries shall still roll on in harmonious order, can be known to God alone.