when, in the prospect of the judgment-seat, I ask you to turn from all you have done and suffered as the ground of acceptance, for your good deeds can avail you nothing, to "the blood that cleanseth from all sin;" and to do all that is holy, and benevolent, and generous, being taught by the Holy Spirit, as the evidence and result of your acceptance. Thus, families so feeling and united and affectionate here, instead of being severed at the last day, the one to stand at the right hand and the other at the left of the throne, shall be made yet more united, affectionate, and beautiful, ever rejoicing before the throne of God and the Lamb.

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LECTURE XXIII.

THE GREAT WHITE THRONE.

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

"And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire."-Revelation xx. 11-15.

I THINK I do not misapprehend the meaning of the passages I have read, when I assume that the 12th verse of chapter xxii. describes the judgment of the saints of God, and of these alone; and that chapter xx. 10 describes the judgment of unbelievers, or those who are found not to be the people of God. The first passage describes the destiny of those who are in the Lamb's book of life. The second contains the doom of those whose names were not found in the Lamb's book of life. The first is a statement of the rewards of the righteous; the second, of the judgments on the unrighteous. In my last discourse upon the former, I showed you that we have many premonitory warnings of a future judgment; that the certainty of a future judgment arises from the existence of a God, the existence of a law, the necessity of obedience to that law-rewards, penalties, decisions. I showed you that we have another premonition or preintimation. of a judgment, in the existence of conscience. It is the inferior court that points upward to a superior one, by its very existence; and, as it reasons of righteousness, temperance, and judgment, it warns us of that day when these things shall be taken open and

exact cognizance of. The judgment-day is clearly predicted in the Old-Testament Scriptures. "He cometh to judge the earth." "He shall judge the world in righteousness." The day is fixed: "For that he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness." He will take cognizance in that day of all the actions of men: he will bring every work into judgment, and every secret thing, whether it be good or bad. That judgment shall be universal: "Before him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate them one from another." We read that believers shall stand in the judgment, to receive rewards, in the language of the first text, according to their works; and that those who are not found in the Lamb's book of life shall also receive judgment, and be rewarded according to their works. This judgment shall be administered by Christ. "The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment to the Son." Again: "To the Son he hath given authority to be the judge of quick and dead." Again, in Acts: "Christ, who is ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead." Again, in 2 Cor.: "We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ." I have argued from this that Christ is God; for if God be not on the throne of judgment, where can he then be? If there be a throne that demands the presence of a God, it is that throne. If there be a scrutiny that necessitates the exercise of omniscience, it is the scrutiny of that day. If the sentence then to be pronounced is to carry glorious prospects in the one direction for ever, and consuming and unending judgments in the other, it seems absolutely required by the momentous nature of the sentence, that a God should pronounce it. Christ is God, and "we believe that he will come to be our judge." I have described the persons to be judged. These are said, in chapter xx., to be "small and great." We must all-you and I, whatever be our country, our circumstances, our rank, our character, our condition —we must all appear to receive sentence according to the deeds done in our body. But we now come to consider the expression, "to reward every man according to his works." Some persons belonging to the Romish communion have built upon this idea, that there is absolute merit inherent in our works; that all that Christ does for us is to help us to do good works, which, without

him, we could not do; and that those good works will be the grounds of our acquittal at the judgment-seat of Christ. But this is impossible. We owe to God every feeling of love, of purity, of loyalty, of holiness, which we ever felt; and therefore there can be no merit in aught we feel or do. When a man pays his debts, he does his duty merely, he does not create a fund of merit, or lay his creditor under obligations. Our purest thoughts, however, are tainted, and our best deeds mingled with alloy, and both need to be forgiven; and therefore they cannot, surely, deserve to be rewarded. Besides, whatever love we cherish-whatever sympathy with the true, the beautiful, and the holy, we feel -whatever loyalty we reciprocate-whatever devotedness to God we show in our life, our conversation, and our conduct in the world, are all, not self-originated, but the inspirations of the Spirit of God. The fountain is not our own, and therefore its streams can have no merit. Our sins are our own, and they shame us: our virtues are not our own, and therefore they cannot purchase for us. We must bring all, our best and our worst things, to the throne of the heavenly grace, and ask frank forgiveness for them all, and acceptance for ourselves, only through the blood of Jesus. But, you say, still the word "reward" carries in popular apprehension the idea of merit. It has suggested to many that idea; does it really mean so? I answer, If happiness be the just and adequate reward of good works, then, of course, good works are properly meritorious in the sight of God. But if I show you that the word "reward," in Scripture, is used not in its strict sense, but in its loose or popular sense, then you will conclude with me, that it is not necessary to attach the idea of essential merit to the use of it by the Spirit of God. The word buy, for instance, is used in Scripture not in the sense of giving money as an equivalent; as in the following quotation: "Ho! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." The merely popular and forensic use of the word means, to give so much money for so much goods; but it is obviously used by the Spirit of God to denote, more sensibly, the excellency of the things we receive; and, in order to detach from it the idea of equivalent, there are ever superadded to the words, "without

money and without price." We find the word "reward" used in the same way: thus it is said of Nebuchadnezzar and his army, that "Egypt shall be their reward." Again: "Ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance." But it is plain, from this last passage, that if heaven be an inheritance," it cannot be a "reward," in the strict and literal sense of that term. We read in the final sentence, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom" now this word inherit disposes of all idea of personal desert. For instance: a nobleman dies; his son is a profligate, but still he inherits his father's coronet, not because of any thing he has done or deserved, nor by any thing he has undone, but simply because he is the son, and therefore the legal heir of his father. So we receive heaven as the sons of God and joint-heirs of Christ, and not as the reward of any merit or excellence of ours. And So, in this passage, reward does not necessarily imply receiving that which our virtues have earned, or our merit procured. Other passages of Scripture justify this interpretation, and show that no idea of merit is implied. Scripture says, "By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified." And again, "A man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Christ." And again, "By grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast." And again, “Who hath saved us and called us, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace." And again, "Being justified by His grace, we are made heirs of God, according to the hope of eternal life." Thus, these and kindred passages clearly prove that there can be nothing of merit in us, entitling us to the joy and felicity of everlasting life. And yet, while Scripture thus distinctly puts good works away from any share in our title, and separates from them every thing like merit, in the judgment of God, it insists upon them, through all its books, in the most eloquent and earnest terms. Thus, "We are created in Christ Jesus unto good works;" again, "thoroughly furnished unto all good works;" again, "rich in good works ;" again, "careful to maintain good works;" again, "prepared unto every good work;" so that we cannot fail to see perfectly consistent, what at first seems a contradiction-good works depreciated on the one page, and