preceded by a few days' illness, or by a long wasting away of our powers,-whether in short we shall have any time for special preparation or not. It follows, then, that our only safety lies in being always prepared, always living in expectation of death. O my soul art thou prepared? Thou knowest that

if thou art the way of death is easy, for Jesus has died. Thou knowest that to the Christian to die, is but to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. Why then dost thou shrink? Why dost thou cry out for a little more time, when thou hearest in the distance the flutter of the dread angel's wings? What is there in thy present life to make thee fear? Whatever it is, it must be taken away at once. Resolve then, O my Soul, that thou wilt from henceforth seek to live in a state of daily preparation for death,-that thou wilt never do anything which thou wouldest be afraid to be found doing at the moment of death.

JUDGMENT.

I. The Earthly Tribunal.

Let us try to place ourselves, in thought, before an earthly tribunal. We are accused, it may be, of some dreadful crime: and we are placed there in the dock

Let us suppose

But our innocence

to prove our innocence if we can. first of all that we are innocent. is not known to the Judge; he is only a man like ourselves, and must judge by the evidence placed before him. It may be appearances are against us. It may be that we shall have difficulty in proving our innocence. Can we realize at all what our feelings would be if placed in such a position?

Was

1. Shame at being placed there-a feeling of degradation at even being accused of such a crime. not this one of the severest trials of our Blessed Lord ?-being dragged before the judgment seat of short-sighted man, and there being accused of the crime which in His Soul of Souls He most loathed. "Shame hath covered My Face." We stand there with all eyes upon us,-some full of curiosity, some

mocking at our misery, others pitying us with the pity which is akin to suspicion. Oh, if we could only put ourselves out of sight-if we could escape from it all. But no, we are helpless, we must bear it as well as we can—we must wait till the sentence is pronounced -till we hear the doom of acquittal or condemnation.

2. Secondly, there is Fear. What, if in spite of our innocence, we should be found guilty. The judge and jury are but men. They may be mistaken, they may give a wrong judgment, and if so we shall have to bear not only a sentence we have not deserved, but the bad opinion of all those who have hitherto loved and respected us. Innocent men have suffered before now,-perhaps it may be our case. Oh! how full of anxiety are we to know the result! Oh! the torture of that suspense as the jury retire to consider their verdict, and minute after minute passes by and they return not!

Next, let us suppose that we who stand in that dock on our trial are guilty. True, we may not be condemned, the evidence may not be enough to convict us, and we may get off. What are our feelings? There is the same shame and the same fear, but intensified. There is the secret conviction of guilt to weigh us down. There is no honest pride of conscious innocence to support us. We feel that we are found out that we who have so long deceived

B

our neighbours by the outward respectability of our conduct can deceive them so no longer. If we are acquitted we slink out of court self condemned and feel unable any longer to look honest men in the face. If we are condemned we must bear the sentence with the additional burden of knowing that it is deserved.

Let us draw from these thoughts the following lessons:

1. If the judgment of our fellowmen is thus terrible to us, what must be that of God, who knows us so well? Our faults are not hid from Him. He knows the very secrets of our hearts, and if these will not bear the scrutiny of our fellows what must we be in His sight before whom the very Heavens are unclean! If our hearts condemn us God is greater than our hearts and knoweth all things."

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2. Are we not hypocrites? The secret of our fear of the judgment of our fellows is that we are not what we seem to be. The fair outward face which we are able to put on is not an honest indication of the darkness within? Let us seek then above all things to be honest and open, never to be otherwise than we seem-never to seem otherwise than we are. There are few better tests of the reality of our spiritual life than the knowledge that we are always acting up to this rule.

II. The Heavenly Tribunal.

"When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory."-S. MATTHEW XXV. 31.

"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."-REVELATION Xx. 11.

Let us place ourselves in thought before that awful white Throne of Judgment which these passages refer to. The Great Day, the Day of the Lord has come. It has been long it may be as men count time since we lay down in the sleep of death and our souls went forth from their homes of clay. We have been waiting in the Resting place of the Blessed, in the Paradise of Jesus, as prisoners of hope, our prayers ever mingling with those of thousands of saints who have never ceased in their cry, "How long, O Lord, how long, Holy and True,"-longing with a ceaseless longing for the coming of that time which shall give to them a consummation of their bliss in bringing them face to face with Him whom they have loved better than life itself, to be for ever with Him:-or as