For many long years I have been in the school of affliction, and
during that time how often I have asked the questions, When will my
course be completed? when shall I receive my diploma? But let me first
consider: Am I prepared for the grand examination in which angels are
to be the spectators, and God himself judge? Here teachers and
professors--however skilled in human wisdom, friends and relatives--
however anxious for my welfare, must step aside and leave me alone
before the dread tribunal! In the presence of my fellow-creatures I
might wear the robes of hypocrisy and appear in reality what I am not;
but what would this avail me in the presence of Him who knows every
thought even before it is formed, and whose searching eye can take in
at a single glance the past, present, and future of my history?
O dreaded hour! who can wonder that timid mortals put it far in the
distance, and even strive to shut their eyes to its stern reality?
What folly! Were the light of revelation quenched forever, there is
that within every human breast which warns of a judgment to come and
of a righteous retribution. Swift as the planets roll in their orbits
around the sun, still swifter advances that terrible scene around
which the hopes and fears, the joys and miseries of eternity cluster.
It is the great centre of attraction, not only for one age or one
nation, but for all who have drawn the breath of life from the grand
creation anthem of stars and angels (Job 38:4-7) till stars and angels
again lift up their voices in concert, and swear that "Time shall be
no longer." Yet the life, the heart of each individual there will be
as closely examined as if the court of Heaven were sitting for him
alone, and he the only person for whom the joys of Paradise or the
pains of Hell were prepared by eternal Justice!