tion stamps on all we say and do now! We are building up an immortal nature-we are accepting impulses before which we shall move for ever-we are imbibing influences and hues fixed as our being. For heaven or hell-for happiness or misery—all things are preparing us, and every step is taking us. Every analogy or experience we become acquainted with, teaches this lesson. Habit is the act of yesterday, added to the act of to-day -an accumulating force gradually building up a character which will endure for ever. Youth makes manhood, and manhood old age; and we can read the earlier in the later, the young man in the old. The same law of continuity runs beyond the world; and in the joys of the saved, or in the miseries of the lost, we may read the character acquired and exhibited here. The one is the reproduction of the other for ever and ever. What we shall be is just what we are; and the difference is purely in degree. If holiness be the very essence of heaven-the substance of Christian character the only fitness for the presence of Godhow earnestly should we desire it!-how fervently pray for it! What should we not be ready to surrender and sacrifice, in order to have our very hearts inlaid with that holiness without which none shall see the Lord! By this test we may try all the employments and pleasures of life. What influence do they leave. on us? What improvement do they produce? What is the nature and amount of the impression they leave behind? Thus we shall look on this world in the light of the upper, and render it subservient to higher and more enduring things.

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LECTURE XXII.

THE JUDGMENT.

"And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be."-Revelation xxii. 12.

THIS announcement is the same as that described under the seventh trumpet, in Revelation xi. 18: "And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great.”

We have also delineated another division of the same great event, depicted under the striking simile, Rev. xx. 11: “ And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat upon it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away." This last occurs at the end of the Millennium, when the whole family of Adam are gathered together, and the last awful doom is pronounced upon the guilty. An allusion to this solemn ordeal is also contained in 2 Cor. v. 10: "For we must all appear before the judgmentseat 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." This last is likewise referred to in Romans ii. 6-10: "Who will render to every man according to his deeds, &c.—to the Jew first," because he had greater privileges, and therefore greater responsibility, "and also to the Gentile." It is again written, "For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father, with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works."

These are some of the prominent passages that indicate the first and last judgment of the quick and dead.

That there will be a judgment-day, may be concluded even from the light of nature. The existence of God necessarily im

plies it for the creation of the world implies the government of the world, and that government, law; and if there be law there. must be trial, and that trial followed by reward or penalty, or it is no law at all.

It is evident to every man, that in this world the good occasionally suffer, and the wicked triumph. In this dispensation, it is no less clear that this is perfectly incompatible with justice, if there be not a day to come when all wrongs shall be righted, and when all that is beautiful and holy shall have its necessary reward. We might therefore conclude, from natural reasoning alone, that there will be a day of judgment. Again, in every bosom in this assembly there is an inferior court or tribunal; and often without any outward accuser or counsel to defend, or instant judge to condemn, there is felt within a deep and corroding sense of guilt, an awful presentiment of demerit, an incipient sense of the wo pronounced at the judgment hereafter. You have, thus, in man's conscience an inferior tribunal, whose judgments and decisions are the reverberations of that proclaimed or prefelt in the higher court, telling us, in tones that we may somewhat muffle, and by sensibility that we may deaden by the opiates of the world, that there is a Judge in the future who will "give to every man according as his work shall be."

But I need not use arguments drawn from nature, and man's natural conscience, to convince you of this truth; to you who are believers in the Bible, I must use an argument far more decisive, as well as welcome, than any other: "Thus saith the Lord" is an instant and conclusive answer to every objection. It is because of this, that when I am endeavouring to substantiate a doctrine, I have a shrinking fear lest I should appear to make an attempt at proving the truth of it. If it be plainly declared in Scripture, it is already proved: it is the minister's duty, indeed, to unfold a truth clearly enunciated, and to show that it is a note from the great harmony of divine revelation; but he is never required to prove that what God has stated is true: it is absurd to attempt it; it is supererogation; it is folly. It is written, "We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ;" and this alone decides the question. God has bowed the heavens to announce it, and so ends the controversy. As far as the fact is concerned,

never shall we know, indeed, what perfect peace is in the possession of the knowledge of the gospel, until we can sit down like little children, reposing in unquestioning security and confidence upon the simple word of God. The sun may grow weary, and the moon falter in her silvery way-the stars rush out-heaven and earth may pass away; but not one jot or tittle of God's word shall pass, until all be fulfilled.

This judgment-day, so clearly enunciated in the text, is no less plainly alluded to in parts of the Old Testament. It is declared that "God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil." That deed which you do in a sequestered nook, where no eye can see, and no ear hear, God's bright eye is fixed on, and God's right hand will bring into judgment; that thought of impurity or deceit, which flits across your mind with the speed of the lightning's flash, and which has passed from your recollection, was not only seen by God, but noted down by him; and you will read it at the judgment-day, either in flame-letters, with horror and dismay, when it cannot be forgiven, or in grateful and adoring ecstasy, with these precious words written across the record"The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin." No thought, however foul-no deed, however secret-escapes his cognizance. How striking are the words, "Thou knowest our thoughts afar God knows the dim and shadowy conception, as it looms into view, before we have clearly comprehended it ourselves, or moulded it into a tangible shape.

"When the Son

All nations will be there, not one exempt. of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory; and before him shall be gathered all nations," bond and free, black and white. We read of the results of that judgment, that the unbelievers "shall be cast into a lake of fire," and suffer irretrievable ruin, but "the righteous shall shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." "It is God that justifieth: who is he that condemneth?" We therefore maintain, not by a dubious process of reasoning, but by the distinct word of God, that there will be a judgment-day; that it will extend to every thought and every

action; that all nations will be gathered to it. It is the great assize, the dawn of doom.

We must now inquire, Who is to be the Judge? We read that this judgment will be exercised by the Lord Jesus Christ; for "the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment to the Son." "It is he (Christ) who is ordained of God to be Judge of quick and dead." "We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ." Thus, he who will be our Judge is our Redeemer: the Lamb that pleads our cause before the throne will pronounce the doom of righteous retribution; his first advent was announced by angels, and his second coming, we read, will be with them too, "when the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him." How impressive will the spectacle be to man! The pillar of fire, which was splendour to Israel, but darkness to Egypt, is a striking type of this scene, as beheld by opposite parties. How terrible will be Christ's appearing to unbelievers, who have said, "We will not have this man to reign over us!"-to the skeptic, who has scoffed at the gospel, and repudiated it! How dreadful, "I am Jesus," to the sinner who has defied it! But "to them that look for him shall he appear without sin (or a sin-offering) unto salvation." If I address any who are in error-fatal error!—about the Deity of our Lord, not believing him to be, as I know he is, God, let me remind you, that if there be a work that demands the interposition of God, it is the final judgment. If the Judge be one "from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away," who can this be but God? Where can you expect to find the Deity, if not upon the throne of judgment, where a sentence is to be pronounced, carrying the issues of an eternity of happiness to some, and of everlasting wo to others? If God be not there, where can he be? He must be "very God of very God," from the fact that he has to deal with every thought and every action of each individual inhabitant of this globe, from Adam downward. Can any being, not possessed of omniscience (the attribute of Deity alone) exercise the solemn prerogative of universal Judge, which needs infinite knowledge, and exercises universal scrutiny? Can we be wrong in giving to such an one the attribute of Deity? No doubt he is man-no doubt he is also God. Such is stated to be