Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

SERMON XXIII.

THE DAY OF JUDGMENT.

REV. xxii. 12.

Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.

THIS is our Lord's own description of his second Advent, of the day when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and dead. He had, while on earth, exhibited to his disciples faint, though striking pictures, of the scenes and circumstances of that momentous time; and in his revelation to his beloved apostle St. John, he has added to the awful account of that day such important particulars, and thrown such a solemn light around it, as to impress the thoughtful Christian with a deep convic

tion that the day of the Lord will indeed be great and terrible, and that it well becomes him who looks forward to such a rigid accounting, to " pass the time of his sojourning here in fear1"

In the Gospel for this day, we are presented with an impressive description of the signs and portents which shall precede and accompany the final dissolution of the world; a description which, like most of our Saviour's own prophecies, was twice to be fulfilled-once already, in the last days of the Jewish nation, and hereafter, in the destruction of the universe. The first event seems, indeed, to have been intended to be a type of the second. But in the book of Revelation, the language on this subject is even more awful, and the detail of events more minute, than the Gospels any where supply us with; and, united with the accounts in the Gospel, leave the Christian nothing to wish for, and no room for darkness or

11 Peter i. 17.

2 The Second Sunday in Advent.

doubt, when he looks forward, as every faithful Christian often does, to the time when all these things shall be dissolved, and there shall be "new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteous

[merged small][ocr errors]

"I beheld," says the apostle,-looking with the eye of faith to the things which shall be hereafter, and recording them for the warning and instruction of all ages that shall follow-" I beheld, and lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind; and the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together: and every mountain and island were moved out of their places; and the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bond-man, and every free-man, hid themselves in the dens,

1 2 Peter iii. 13.

and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand 1?" "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 his 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"."

1 Rev. vi. 12-17.

2 Rev. xx. 12-15.

The first impression which forces itself on the mind on perusing this most awful history of the last day is, that it must be true. It is a description of an event which reason itself tells us is not improbable, nay, is even required to make the present acknowledged system of things intelligible; and though reason could not by its own powers discover it, and therefore could not be its inventor, yet it assents to the truth of it as soon as presented to its notice, and confesses that this is the very event to which every thing which we see going on around us seems evidently tending. We see virtue rewarded, and vice punished, even here; and though this principle is but partially acted upon, and has not its perfect work in this scene of imperfection, yet it is sufficiently the rule by which men are governed to show that there is a Power above which can enforce the principle in its utmost extent; and which, though, for wise purposes, it may allow virtue to suffer and vice to prosper in this state of probation, can, and therefore will, establish and execute a more complete system

« AnteriorContinuar »