and only a partial developement obtained. It will not be so at the judgment seat of Christ. The entire character and deserts of every individual will fully appear.

But it is unnecessary to suppose that all the actions of every person, will be made known to every other person; this would suppose a knowledge in the creature little less than infinite. All that is necessary to answer the ends of the judgment is, that every person be made clearly to see his own character, and also that of those with whom he has had to do. Those who have known most of each other, and had most to do with each other, on earth, will know most of each other and have most to do with each other in the judgment. Parents and children, pastors and people, masters and servants, rulers and subjects, neighbors, associates, will approach nearest and be made most fully acquainted with each other's hidden things of darkness. Especially those who have done most to help us in the way to heaven or to hell, including good angels who have succored and fallen spirits who have tempted us, will come under direct notice. So that every one will see, when judgment is pronounced upon himself or upon others, that it is righteous.

It may seem incredible that one at the judgment can be put in full possession of his past conduct, so much of it being forgotten ;-but we know that the mind under powerful pressure, as in peril of instant death, discovers a surprising ability to recall its past history. At such moments, thousands of things, long forgotten, rush like a torrent upon the mind. The awful judg

ment throne will awake the dormant energies of mind to such vivid excitement, that all its accountable actions will stare it in the face, as though literally written down with burning letters by the finger of God.

There is a material called sympathetic ink, whose written letters do not appear, until the paper is held by the fire. So the flaming presence of the judgment throne will recall and develope all forgotten and concealed deeds.

Nor is it incredible, that the same Being, who knows how to bring a man's conduct to light to himself, knows also how to bring it to light to others ;he can even make every man his own witness. He can make the guilt or the innocence darken or shine in his face; he can make his heart as manifest as a sunbeam. He can write the character of every man, like that of Cain, in his forehead. Every man who has injured me, in thought or deed, present or behind my back, and every man who has done me good, I shall then perfectly know-his deeds shall all come fully before me-and receive the reward of my everlasting frown or favor, sustained by the decisions of his own conscience and of his great Judge. So will it be with every other person at the judgment.

6. On what principles will the judgment proceed? The Scriptures inform us that the decisions of the judgment will respect our measure of light. "That every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done."

The degree of light sinned against will determine the degree of guilt. They who have sinned without

the written law, and only against the law of nature, will be judged accordingly. The heathen, who never received the gospel, will not be judged by the gospel ; the only question respecting them will be, How they treated the light they received. If saved, they must indeed be saved by the grace of the gospel, through the repentance indicated by the light of nature. If lost, they will not be condemned for rejecting the gospel, but for sinning against the teachings and refusing the repentance indicated by their own consciences and the course of divine providence."*

We who have received the gospel, shall be judged mainly by our treatment of the gospel; and on this will finally turn our everlasting destiny. The final question respecting us in the judgment will not be, whether we have sinned against the divine law-which we all have, nor yet whether we have sinned against the gospel-which also we all have-but whether we have complied with the gospel overtures. Have we that repentance towards God and faith in Christ, which unites the soul to its Saviour and clothes it with his

righteousness? This will be the great question. Though our sins be as scarlet, we shall be found white as snow, if we have that faith in Christ which works by love and purifies the heart. He that believeth, shall be saved; and he that believeth not, shall be damned. 7. What position does this judgment hold as a judicial transaction?

*Rom. i. 20.

We reply, the position of a final judgment. It is the highest court of the universe, and from it there can be no appeal. He who is found righteous here, is righteous forever; he who is found guilty here, is guilty forever. The character has been formed and proved, the probation spent, the moral position of every soul taken;-the evidence has all appeared, the Judge is omniscient, all-wise, and all-righteous ;—another and more favorable trial is impossible. Hence, beyond this judgment and forever, he that is filthy is filthy still, and he that is righteous is righteous still. The wicked shall go thence into everlasting punishment, and the righteous into everlasting life.

We have thus answered, scripturally, the most important inquiries involved in this great event.

A few concluding thoughts. The interest which each of us has in this judgment is strictly spiritual and personal. It is not the blast of the trumpet, the conflagration of the world, the approach of thronging myriads to judgment, the fleeing away of heaven and earth, that will most engage our attention. It is the all-engrossing and terrific thought that we are about to appear in the presence of our Judge, to receive our everlasting destiny. To the wicked, what a day of consternation, of conviction irresistible, of terror, and anguish! To the righteous, what a day of exultation and triumph! They will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.

This judgment will also effect a stupendous change in the relative conditions of men. The last will be

first, and the first last. The distinctions of wealth, rank, office, family, fame, will be swept away. In respect to these, all mankind will be brought upon the same level. From that level, they will rise or sink, as they shall be found righteous or wicked. Happiness and misery, no longer falling indiscriminately like rain as in this world, all the misery will concentrate upon the wicked and descend with them to the place prepared for the devil and his angels; all the happiness will concentrate upon the righteous, and ascend with them to heaven, where "the tabernacle of God will be with them, and they shall be his people."

Finally, how powerful the motives to repentance presented by this subject. Indeed it is on the strength of this subject that God commands it. He "commandeth all men every where to repent, because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness." As faithfully as God has foretold us of the glorious benediction of the righteous at this judgment, so faithfully has he also forewarned us of the dreadful doom of impenitent sinners. Found in your sins, you cannot stand in that judgment;-you will surely fall, never again to rise. In vain will you then lift your longing eyes towards heaven, and the crown of glory; in vain will you mourn the folly of wasted probation;-ages on ages will roll over you, and lose themselves in the awful deeps of eternity, but they will bring with them no change in your wretched con-. dition-not a gleam of light to revive your wearied eye, not a ray of hope to cheer your despairing spirits.