From Thence He Shall Come to Judge

Astronomers tell us that our Sun, with its attendant train of planets, is rushing through space at an inconceivable speed towards a certain star in the cluster Alcyone, still infinitely distant; and it is also true that our world and all our race are hastening forward, with a speed that no power on earth can arrest or slacken, to an event of most momentous interest, to a goal of the utmost sublimity. That event, the final judgment; that goal, the Great White Throne. This has been the universal belief of man, even apart from the Bible. The wits of Athens who scouted Paul’s doctrine of the Resurrection, offered no denial when he said that God would judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He had ordained; and when the same great apostle brought the same great theme before a profligate Roman, and reasoned of the Judgment to come, Felix trembled. In every human bosom, Christian or Pagan, savage or

civilized, there is a sense of right and wrong, 148 a feeling of moral responsibility, a foreboding of final judgment.

As we look round upon society, we meet with facts that offer the strongest presumptions in favour of a settling-time, when all the wrongs of time may be eternally rectified. The wicked prosper, whilst the righteous are persecuted; vice drives its carriage, and fares sumptuously every day, whilst Lazarus is borne each day by kindly hands to lie at the rich man’s gate. God could never allow such anomalies to exist unless a Day were coming when Time’s inequalities shall be adjusted.

Belief in the Judgment is one of the primal principles of the Gospel. Our Lord said, “The Word that I have spoken shall judge him at the last day,” and “Marvel not at this, the hour is coming in which all that are in their graves shall hear the voice of the Son of Man, and shall come forth,” and again, ‘‘ The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son.”

There is a sense, of course, in which the Judgment is always in progress. In Matt. xxv. 31, etc., the Son of Man is represented as sitting on the throne of His Glory, while before Him all nations are gathered, and judged according to their temper and spirit, their attitude towards their poor, their oppressed, their imprisoned captives, those who could not help themselves. This, of course, is always in process. Dynasty after dynasty, race after race, empire after empire, have risen from obscurity, shown themselves capable of government, have exercised imperial authority for a given term of centuries, and then, as they have been eaten through with luxury, rapacity, and cruelty, they have been condemned to the everlasting fire, which is always burning in the universe, for the destruction of institutions which have ceased to fulfil a useful purpose in the world.

It is equally certain that the judgment is constantly being exercised with reference to individual lives. Men speak of it as Nemesis. The old Mosaic saying is much more often applied to modern life than we sometimes think — ‘ Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, strife for strife.’ Ifa woman takes away a man’s affection from his wife, it is more than likely that she, too, will be tormented by jealousy in her own married life. If Jacob deceives his old father he will be deceived by his own sons. As Adonibezek treated three score and ten kings so will he be treated in his day of retribution. Sir Roger destroys the Bell of the Inchcape Rock, and on that rock his own ship goes to pieces.

There is more of this Retribution being administered in the world of to-day than we suppose. The mills of God may grind slowly, but grind they do, and that to powder.