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every principle of aggregation, heaving all into chaos and heaping all into ruin?

The volcano is solemn: when its cone of fire shoots to the heavens; when from its burning entrails the lava rushes, to overspread distant plains and to overtake flying populations. But what is that to the conflagration, in which all the palaces and temples and the citadels of the earth shall be consumed; of which the universe shall be but the sacrifice and the fuel?

Great God! must our eyes see our ears hear these desolations? Must we look forth upon these devouring flames! Must we stand in judgment with thee? Penetrate us now with thy fear; awaken the attention, which thy trump shall not fail to command; surround our imagination with the scenery of that great and terrible day. Let us now come forth from the graves of sin, of unbelief, of worldliness, to meet the overture of thy mercy, as we must perforce start then from our sepulchres to see the descending Judge. Judge us now, that thou mayest not condemn us then. Let thy terror persuade, that it may not crush us.

Yes, it is no illusion. The heavens shall be as the shrivelled scroll of parchment; this solid earth shall stagger as the drunken man, and cry as the travailing woman. The period is long since determined, when time shall have completed its course, when probation shall have run its measure, and when all the signs in the present system shall be fulfilled when "the stars shall fall" as the leaves of autumn, when "the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat," and "all these things shall be dissolved."

It is the day of God. It is "the judgment of the great day.”— "And I saw," says the prophet of the New Testament, "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."

I. LET US CONSIDER THE SCENERY WHICH SHALL ATTEND THIS SUBLIME EVENT.

Let us consider the scenery which shall attend this august assize the multitude that shall be summoned to it: the process which must adjudicate it.

The "throne" is the emblem of royal dignity. "Only," said Pharaoh to Joseph, "on the throne will I be greater than thou." It is the symbol of Divine supremacy. "The Lord hath established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom ruleth over all."

"His throne is as a fiery flame,

Rolling on wheels of burning fire."

It is a "throne of glory," which he will "not disgrace." It is a "throne of holiness," which he will remember. It is a throne of mercy, to which we have access. It is a throne which "is for ever and ever." It is a throne which is "high" and which is "lifted up." Sometimes he holdeth back the face of this throne. Sometimes" clouds and darkness are round about him; ""righteousness and judgment," however, are alike its "habitation" and its base.

But this "throne" is new to heaven. It is specially prepared; and he sitteth upon it, who judgeth right.

It is "a great white throne." Refulgent in its purity and righteousness; formed of the fleecy vapors, burnished with the radiance of sun-beams, woven from the garniture of the sky. Sunrise and sunset never imprinted that stately purple, that glowing vermilion, that molten gold. It is vast, shadowy, undefined. No rainbow of the covenant girdles it; no suppliants or penitents sue before it; no pardons are issued from it. It is a tribunal throne.

It is occupied. There is One that "sitteth upon it." Sometimes it is distinctively the throne of the Father. Here is no room for discrimination - there is no manner of similitude. For need we be at loss? "We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ;" "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." He is now enshrined with all the splendor, as he ever possessed all the fulness of the Godhead. Sometimes he is "seated with his Father on his throne;" sometimes we look forth on "the throne of God and of the Lamb." He now "thinketh it no robbery to be equal with God," and as God he is "Judge himself." And yet we are to be called the idolaters of the nineteenth century, because we "honor the Son even as we honor the Father." Blessed Jesus! if we be idolaters, whowhat are the multitudes bending around thy throne, casting their diadems at thy feet, and crowning thee Lord of all?

"From the face" of him who sitteth upon the throne, "the earth and the heaven flce away." He "gave his cheeks to them who plucked off the hair; " they "struck him with the palm of their hand," they "smote him with a reed," they "blindfolded him;" he "hid not

his face from reproach and spitting." Those brows were lacerated with thorns; those eyes overflowed with tears; blood trickled down those channels which violence had furrowed and grief had worn. Into what expressions must that countenance have now kindled! with what terrors must it now be clothed! Things inanimate, insensible, smitten with a strange panic and with a sudden dismay, start back; and those bright heavens and this fair earth shrink into primeval disorder and anarchy and night. But.not so can the sinner "flee away; " rocksmountains cannot cover him; there is no hiding-place for "the workers of iniquity."

Heaven and earth having fled away, "no more place is found for them." It may denote the dissolution of the whole created economy; it may simply refer to the dissolution of our planetary system, with its canopied atmosphere and with all that belongs to it. It makes little difference, whether it be the greater catastrophe or the inferior; the larger could not strike a deeper terror- the smaller could not induce a less. It is all to us, though the universe is rolling in its path; our heaven and our sky "find no more place." What matters to the animalcule, that noble streams are flowing, when its own drop is exhaled? What matters to the insect, that majestic forests flourish, when its own leaf has decayed? What matters to the emmet, that chains of magnificent mountain heights are mingling with the heavens, when its own hillock is overturned?

And why do heaven and earth pass away? and why is no more place found for them? They have realized their end. They were but as the platform and the scaffolding; the erection is complete. "The mys tery of God" is "finished." There is the consummation; and time, therefore, "need be no longer."

Another remark is due to the personage who sends forth an aspect so strange, so glorious, that even heaven and earth cannot endure the sight it is the crucified One. It is he whose doctrine has been so long a stumbling-block; it is he, who was put to death in weakness and in shame. Complex was his person; mysterious was his investure. But why is he the Judge? "All judgment is committed unto him," "because he is the Son of man." "God hath appointed to judge the world in righteousness by that man, whom he hath ordained: " of whom he hath given this notification, "that he hath raised him from the dead." The clouds, then, now disperse; that which was hidden is proclaimed; that which was perverted is disabused. Jesus is vindicated; every reproach is rolled away. All will acknowledge that he has made good each challenged right, that he has made clear each suspected transaction, that he has made honorable each aspersed attribute: while the

cross stands up as the very index and basis and trophy of all, and he who now 66 comes the second time" throws the renown and the triumph of his second coming over all that was misunderstood and misconstrued in the first.

Another remark is also due to the whole of this great and singular process it is incapable of description and embellishment. We take the scenery as it is delineated; and with that we must satisfy ourselves. It is unsusceptible of exaggeration. If any of us could overleap the boundaries of time, and could see the winding up of the great drama of human events and moral interests, would any of us report that the judgment was too greatly described? that the clangor of the trumpet was not so piercing, that the conflagration of the elements was not so vehement, that the apparition of the rising dead was not so appalling and so strange? Should any of us say that it was overdrawn, and that it had been extravagantly represented? Faint is every metaphor, feeble is every description, unworthy is every imagining, when compared rather when contrasted with that which the reality shall prove.

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There is "a throne," "a great white throne;" it is occupied by him whom the people despised and the nations abhorred; from his face, suddenly transformed and transfigured," heaven and earth flee away;" they are superseded in every design and use; but Jesus is vindicated, beholding the honors of his tribunal; and the transaction itself it is impossible to overstate or extravagantly to describe.

II. WE WILL TURN TO THE MULTITUDE THAT SHALL BE SUMMONED TO IT.

When we have entered a court of justice, there has been one point of concentrated interest and attention. However splendid the forms of its administration, however solemn the functionaries of its exercise, whatever may have been the significance of its types, whatever may have been the dreadness of its issues, until law seemed built up into a throned state, and to have been covered with a spotless robe, all — all were forgotten by us while intent upon the prisoner at the bar. There he stood; and what a spectacle! The excess of feeling had confounded every feature, until it had lost its power, and was incapable of its expression; and yet how keenly alive was he to every glance that was stolen, to every word that was breathed, bearing upon his case! Then how his eye riveted; how attentive was his ear! Every function and organ of sense seemed to vibrate.

There we saw him

that poor wretch: his countenance of haggard

vacancy, his spirit fallen into dark and torpid despair. He awaited the verdict of his guilt and the sentence of his condemnation.

We were spectators then: we felt but from the force of sympathy. We are now arraigned. We ourselves now are cited. We ourselves must confront this inquest; we ourselves must stand before this judg ment-seat. All are comprehended; all are summoned. "Come to judgment," "small and great," "the quick and the dead."

Oh! this innumerable, this untold crowd. It were to insult its vastitude, to compare it to any of the throngs of earth: the millions which Thebes attracted which Godfrey marshalled over which Xerxes wept when whole peoples have been stirred, when mighty nations have risen up, when they have said "A confederacy," when the appeal has been made to a contemporary race and to a listening world.

Who knows the number of that generation of his species, which now fills this earth? Say that it is 500,000,000, low as is this computation. Begin not to reckon it for a thousand years. Then, from that epoch, you must multiply it at least a hundred and fifty times. Arithmetic has no fictitious figure, by which to include it; or if it might find the number or the sound, there the index might point, or there the sound might be uttered, but the mind would not be travelling with it - would not be informed by it. Yet some impression may be made upon us, when we think of those that shall "stand in the judgment," by ascertaining the sources whence they are derived.

"The sea gives up its dead." What navies have been shattered, and have been swallowed up by its rage! Pharaoh and his host the whole world perished in its overflow. It is insatiable. It has encroached upon the kingdoms and the dwelling-places of men. It is the very emblem of all that is insatiable: human cupidity, aggrandizement, ambition. It conceals that which it has devoured; but he who said to the waves of Gennesaret, "Peace, be still," shall control the multitudinous oceans of our earth, and then every cavern shall be searched, and every depth shall be sounded. It shall be exacted of its prey.Each secret now shall then be wrung from it, and all its captives be restored. "The sea gave up its dead."

"Death gave up the dead which were in it." The power of the grave, the personification of death. The deep places of the earth; for the dry land is but the burying-place of man. Let us think, however painted this scene may be, it is only a painted sepulchre; we are only treading on the dust of our predecessors, as posterity will soon tread on ours. But he who burst the barriers of the tomb, and made death bow before him he shall send forth his mandate, publish his behest; and then the vaults, and the catacombs, and the mummy pits,

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