THE DAY OF THE LORD.

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under condemnation? Now there is individual trial,-" After death the judgment." An indelible impression is made-permanent and absolute effect is produced-the moral destiny is fixed and realised-the awful doom hath come.

And then there is the termination of the present system, the dissolution of the earth and heaven, with all their beauty and magnificence; and the last judgment. For all this the time is fixed: it draws on. There is "a day appointed in the which God will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained." It is "the judgment of the Great Day." It is "the revelation of the righteous judgment of God." "Every man shall have to give an account of himself to God." "We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, to give an account of the deeds done in the body." The decision of this grand assize cannot be modified or reversed. It is "eternal judgment.”

And, lo! Jesus cometh, and from His face the earth and the heavens flee away. The heavens are as a scorched scroll of parchment; the earth staggers as a drunken man. Observe the unfolding pomp; nature is moved; the stars fall from heaven; the sea boils with fury; the mountains fall down before the fiery storm as shrivelled reeds; the proudest works of man crumble into dust; the judgment is set; the seat is reared; the retinue gathers; the trumpet sounds; the dead arise; the living are changed; the throne is filled. Jesus shall judge the world in "righteousness, and the people with his truth."

Oh! how unlike the nativity of that Babe of Bethlehem, encompassed with poverty and peril; the life of that Nazarene, scorned and repulsed; the death of that victim of Calvary, crucified amidst execrations, is this glorious appearing of the great God our Saviour.

Now all in your life here shall pass in review again. Every man shall be judged. Every man shall then stand apart, bearing his own burden, occupying his own lot. Every man shall then give an account for himself and not for another. Each of your idle words, each of your vain thoughts, each of your impure desires, every bias of your spirit, every movement of your heart,

must reappear. All shall germinate afresh-all develop anew. "For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil." "Be sure your

sin shall find you out."

Great God and must our eyes see these desolations, and our ears hear these distractions? Must we stand in judgment with Thee! Now, then, bring us to meet the overtures of mercy. Now redeem us from sin and unbelief, and worldliness. Now empower us to trust in the sacrifice and righteousness of the Lamb that was slain. Now refine and enoble; for, if in impurity and guilt, how dreadful to meet the final day, to witness the all-enfolding and consuming conflagration, and to go through the impartial ordeal of the judgment ! How awful to have to encounter "the wrath of the Lamb"-exhausted patience-inflamed mercy -incensed love! The Cross no more propitiates "The door is shut." Nothing now remains for the impenitent but reserved retribution. This pierces all and exasperates all. This will be a fiercer fire than the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. It is a deeper, and darker, and more agonising perdition. It is the perdition that shuts up for ever under the wrath of the Lamb.

Now, then, seek heart and power to "kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him."

"The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burned up. Seeing, then, that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness; looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot and blameless."

CHAPTER VII.

ON CONSCIENCE AND THE DEVOTIONAL SENTIMENT.

Conscience-Views of Mackintosh, Brown, Butler, of other Authors, and of Paul : Its power impaired by the Fall. Moral obligation: its origin. Elements which constitute actions right or wrong: Views of Aristotle, Plato, Zeno, Epicurus, Brown, Dwight, Paley, and other ancient and modern Authors stated and considered. Jehovah's nature and revealed will the reason of moral obligation: They constitute actions right or wrong. The redemptive system designed to restore man's original but now deteriorated principles to their proper position and sway. The conviction of a Supreme Intelligent Cause originates the feeling of obligation. An enlightened and invigorated conscience acquires power-prompts to duty-sustains under suffering. Impressions of accountableness to God instigate to great effort-Aid of conscience against temptation-Defection from right increases and desolates: Examples -Nero, Robespierre, Hazael. Religious element Recognition of a First Cause and Supreme Ruler-as revealed in the Bible-as Redeemer. Benefit of Secular Education: Its inadequacy to transform the soul. Dominion of religious principle more powerful than any other motive for good action: Examples-David, Peter, Paul, Jesus Christ.

What is conscience? Various are the replies given to this question. Mackintosh describes it as a faculty which is acquired, but universally and necessarily acquired; and traces its decisions in regard to right and wrong to certain emotions of the heart. Brown makes primary and constitutional emotions of approbation and disapprobation the grounds of our moral judgment. This is nearly allied to the preceding view. Butler speaks of conscience as the ruling power in the mental constitution of man, and represents it as unperverted, as characterised by a native love of goodness for its own sake, and a corresponding hatred of all that is evil,—as an infallible standard of right and wrong. This is somewhat akin to what Zeno meant by living according to nature. Abercrombie seems to embrace this opinion, for he exhibits conscience as the presiding and regulating power in the moral

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constitution of man; as if it had escaped the general depravation of our nature, and as still sitting the uncorrupted censor of all the other powers and passions of the soul. Payne alleges that it consists in the susceptibility of the emotions of self-complacency and remorse, consequent on the act of judgment, and is a distinct faculty from it, inasmuch as the operations of conscience do not, as those of judgment, extend to others, and judgment by itself could not originate emotion, and become a moral impulse to action. Thus he differs from Wardlaw, who regards it, not as a distinct faculty, but only as the exercise of judgment in reference to human conduct and its principles, combined with the susceptibility of certain emotions which do not determine, but arise from, the decision of judgment. Wayland says, that the office of conscience embraces a threefold character; it enables man to discover the moral qualities of action,-impels him to do right and to avoid wrong,-and is a source of pleasure when he has done right, and of pain when he has done wrong. It has thus a discriminative and impulsive power. Without attempting an examination of these different theories, conscience may, in its general aspect, be described as the moral power in man by which he discerns right from wrong, though not invariably nor always unerringly. It is his moral memory-the remembrance of the heart. It is more than mere consciousness. It performs what consciousness does not. It doubles all his feelings when they have been such as right principle inspired. It multiplies them in a much more fearful proportion when they have been such as vice awakened. Conscience seizes every moment of guilt which of itself would have passed away, and suspends it for ever before his eyes in fixed and terrifying reality. Seneca, in his Ninetyseventh Epistle, tells us that the first and greatest punishment of guilt is to have been guilty. Nor can any crime, though fortune should adorn it with all her most lavish bounty, as if protecting and vindicating it, pass unpunished; because the punishment of the base and atrocious deed lies in the very baseness or atrocity of the deed itself. dangerous thing.

Shakespeare has said that "Conscience is a It makes a man a coward. A man cannot

AN IMPARTIAL CONSCIENCE.

steal, but it accuseth him.

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A man cannot swear, but it checks him. It fills a man full of obstacles."

come.

Whether conscience be an original faculty, or only the judgment exercised on the moral qualities of actions, viewed in relation to the law of God, and the moral obligation arising from it, may not be very easily determined; but it may be said of it, at least, that it has a reference to what is morally right and wrong. In morals, certain acts lead to certain results. No seer is required to indicate the issue. When green leaves fall, the winter is at hand. When the tree puts forth its buds, the spring has When the sun sets, the night ensues. When the water swells, a boisterous storm may be anticipated. Conscience conveys certain impressions of the qualities of actions. When it conveys an impression of an action as morally right, it approves of it. When it conveys an impression of an action as morally wrong, it disapproves of it. Paul, in describing the Gentiles, says that, while they have not the written law, they "show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another." It forms decisions both in regard to man's own actions and also in regard to the actions of others.

Conscience is, indeed, impaired by the Fall. The moral constitution of man is not now found to indicate and reflect the moral character of God, and to obtain, in its natural operations, His approval, though Dugald Stewart, Thomas Brown, and even Melancthon, seem to think otherwise. It retains not its primitive purity and power. It is enfeebled. Its discernment is not perfect, and consequently its moral decisions are not free from defect. It is not an authoritative oracle that ought to be implicitly trusted. Conscience is not now faithful. Is not love of God the fundamental principle of all right action? not in man an entire absence of the love of God? conscience at all alive to the evil involved in the want of this principle? Has man, in short, anywhere, or in any condition, even the most favoured, just conceptions of the character and claims of the true God? Has he a true penitential sense of the

But is there

And yet is