What shall the results be of such a searching, impartial, and
conclusive investigation into the history of mankind? Some of these we
may, perhaps, be permitted to anticipate.
_The proceedings of the day of judgment will answer all the
accusations of Christ's enemies_.
The government of Jesus Christ is hated and opposed here. This fact,
alas! in human history, cannot be denied. We do not speak of Satan and
his angels, who war against the Lord, nor even of His unconscious foes
among the heathen; but only of those men who possess the Bible, and
all the means of knowing the will of their Divine King. Yet how many
among them are His open and avowed enemies. There is not one feature
of His character which men do not blaspheme,--not one act of His
government at which they do not cavil. He is alleged to be unrighteous
in His commands; unfair in His treatment of mankind; unwise in
His arrangements; unfaithful in His words; and even vindictive,
unmerciful, implacable in His judgments, and in no respect worthy
of man's love and obedience. Jesus of Nazareth--believed in by the
Church, known and loved by all its living members--is still "despised
and rejected of men." Nor are His enemies ashamed to speak out their
thoughts, and openly to scorn and ridicule Him; asserting that He has
no right to govern them or the world,--and thus "denying the Lord that
bought them." Now, as on the day of His crucifixion, a rabble of all
ranks, talents, and professions, cry, "Away with this fellow;" while
they demand in His stead some Barabbas "hero" of their own to worship.
There is often manifested an opposition to Christianity which assumes
the aspect of personal hatred. We do not at all allude in these pages
to the sincere, reverential man, who doubts, questions, argues,
opposes, sifts, denies, rejects, while endeavouring, with an honest
mind, to discover and believe _the truth_, whatever that may be; nor
to the sadness of spirit of one who _wishes_ "the glad tidings" to be
true, but cannot arrive at a conclusion so desirable for his own good
and peace, as well as for that of society; nor to the effects of a
peculiar constitutional temperament which has a tendency first to
doubt and invest everything with darkness, and then endeavours in
vain to dispel what itself creates. But when we speak of infidels and
unbelievers, we speak of _ungodly_ men who dislike the truth of God,
and who manifest this dislike in their triumph when any supposed error
in the life or the doctrines of Jesus Christ is detected, or any evil
(for which He is held responsible) is exposed in His followers, and
who keep an ample mantle of charity for those who disbelieve, but none
for those who believe in Jesus Christ as their only Saviour.
This opposition to the government of God through Jesus Christ has not
been a temporary outburst by a few only. The kingdom of Satan has
existed here since the fall of man, side by side with Christ's
kingdom, and opposed it in every age and clime. The kingdom of
holiness and peace has never entered the soul of any living man,
without first meeting, and then overcoming, enmity and ill-will by the
power of truth and love. It has never entered a single country on the
surface of the globe without terrible combats being fought again and
again, in which the best soldiers and noblest subjects of the Great
King have "had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover,
of bonds and imprisonments." "We will not have the Lord to reign over
us!" has been everywhere the awful battle-cry; and the conflict rages
now as fiercely as it did in any age of the world! Nor, moreover,
has this opposition been given by uncivilised savages; but men of
knowledge and of genius have dedicated all the powers of their mind to
the dread task of ridding the world of the Redeemer's sceptre. What
they have thought, they have spoken; what they have spoken, they have
written and recorded in books, that their influence might extend
beyond their own immediate circle and their own time, and that other
nations and other generations might know what _they_ thought of the
Saviour,--how sincerely they themselves despised and rejected Him, and
desired all others to do the same. What is every infidel publication
but an accusation against Jesus Christ, a protest against His
government, and an attempt to rouse the world to join in the
rebellion? "They take counsel together against the Lord and his
Anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away
their cords from us!"
And this hatred to Christ will continue till the end of the world: for
we read, that "in _the last days_ will come _scoffers_." Nay, it
is quite possible that accusations against Him are, and shall be,
maintained by the wicked up till the very hour of judgment. For, even
as the criminal before his trial will feed his pride, and soothe his
conscience, by denying every charge alleged against him, or by blaming
every one but himself; so it may be that the wicked, after death, will
continue to cast the blame upon the Saviour, for all they are and have
been, even when they can no longer doubt the reality of His existence
or government.
And will Jesus ever answer those accusations? Why should He? you
perhaps exclaim. His character, you say, cannot be affected in
the estimation of the good by anything which the enemies of all
righteousness can urge against it. His throne can no more be shaken by
the puny attacks of men or devils than the everlasting mountains can
be disturbed by the storm-blasts which howl around them. What more,
then, is needed, than to shut up the wicked in a prison-house, through
whose adamantine walls the accusing cry can never pierce, and whose
doors are for ever barred by the holy decree of the Almighty? Ah! were
it so, even this thought might possibly gratify pride and enmity,
could a _condemned_, though not _judged_ spirit for ever carry with
it a conviction of having waged a war in which _power_ alone had
conquered weakness, and _might_ trampled upon right; and that all its
charges remained unanswered and unanswerable! But let no one presume
upon this. It is true that Jesus Christ now, as when on earth He stood
before His enemies, "answers nothing." Do not misunderstand this awful
silence! You "marvel greatly" that He works no miracle to satisfy your
doubts, or you deny His power of doing so, and therefore you imagine,
that because He replies not to your accusations, He either hears them
not, cares not for them, or cannot meet them. But be assured, a day is
appointed when the question between you and Him will be fairly tried.
Unbelievers of all ranks, and whatever be their ability, will have
an opportunity of re-stating their case, and of proving the truth
of their accusations--if they can. Let none suppose that Jesus will
shrink from such an investigation. Every utterance is reported for
review at judgment; every book is kept for that day. It is not the
method of the divine government to put down its enemies by mere
physical power, as if the question between God and man was indeed one
of strength and weakness, and not rather of right and wrong. The Lord
will indeed answer his enemies; but He will do so by the irresistible
power of truth, and the omnipotent force of righteousness. He will
crush and overwhelm them; but it will be in their own conscience, and
in their own estimation. He will expel them from whatever refuge of
lies they may vainly attempt to seek for shelter, and expose them to
the full blaze of _principle_, until their inmost souls echo the dread
sentence of "GUILTY," which must be pronounced upon them, while they
stand "speechless" amidst the assembled universe, and before the
omniscient and holy Judge of all the earth. "He is coming with ten
thousand of His saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to CONVINCE
all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they
have ungodly committed, and of all their HARD SPEECHES which ungodly
sinners have spoken against Him!"
Do we address one who is a professed unbeliever in the truth, or
rather, who "believes a lie,"--that there _is_ no Saviour? We ask such
a one to consider what the certain, or even _probable_ consequences
will be to him, if all we have said is nevertheless true? What if you
shall see Jesus Christ face to face, and have your whole outer and
inner history, as it _is known to God_, minutely revealed to your own
mind, and to the assembled jury of the universe? Will your thinking,
or saying, that the whole is a fiction, make it so? Will your scoff at
God's revelation of the future prevent the dead from rising, or the
Judge from appearing? Will a foolish jest, or a proud callousness, or
a subtle argument, or a brave indifference to what others fear, enable
you, on the resurrection morning, to shut your ears against the sound
of the last trump, or to disobey the summons of the Son of God to rise
from the tomb, and to appear before Him? And if no unbelief can change
the will of God, or make that false which He proclaims to be true, nor
alter His prescribed order in things to come, no more than it can do
His present order in the starry heavens,--what can you say to Jesus
Christ in your own defence? How can you, in consistency with His Word,
so justify your own opinions and conduct, as to make it _possible_ for
Him to say to you, "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into
the joy of _thy_ Lord?" But, blessed be God! the same Word of truth
which condemns the sinner, and shuts out all hope of safety to him,
_while in his state of unbelief and ungodliness_, invites him, and
commands him, to come out of that state, and to share the life which
is in Christ for every man. We cannot repeat it too often that Jesus
offers immediate pardon and life through faith in His blood, to the
chief of sinners--to the oldest and most bitter enemy which He has
upon earth! Jesus offers His Spirit to every man, to enlighten
his understanding, renew his will, and spiritualise his taste and
affections, and shed abroad the love of God in his heart; so that even
thou, whoever thou art, mayest yet love, and be loved by, Jesus Christ
and His saints for ever and ever! "_Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ,
and_ THOU _shalt be saved_!" But should His long-suffering patience,
and abundant mercy, and rich love, fail to gain your heart,--should
you "_prefer_ darkness to light," and "remain in unbelief," and live
and die without Him,--how can you escape? Is it not righteous that you
should walk in the darkness which you love, and be separated from your
Saviour and His people, whom you dislike, and be permitted "to eat of
the fruit of your _own_ way, and be filled with your own devices?"
On "the great and terrible day of the Lord," you will, alas! be
"_convinced_" that the sentence pronounced upon you by the Saviour, of
"Depart from me!" is but an echo of what your own heart is now saying
to Him! Hear, I beseech you, the words of warning which God now
addresses to you, in order that you may, in time, "flee from the wrath
to come!" "For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the
knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,
but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation,
which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law
died without mercy under two or three witnesses: of how much sorer
punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden
under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant,
wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite
unto the Spirit of grace? For we know him that hath said, Vengeance
belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The
Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the
hands of the living God," (Heb. x. 26-31.)
But let us further inquire, What shall be its results with reference
to the righteous?
1. The righteous will then fully understand the excellence of Christ's
government over themselves.
How profoundly mysterious, as yet, to ourselves, is our own individual
history! If we attempt to gather up the past, and to trace the whole
way along which we have journeyed, with the innumerable windings of
the path, and all the dark valleys through which it has led, the
rugged places it has passed over, or the many lofty hills up which it
has ascended,--how endless, how perplexing does it appear! If, again,
we try to measure the various powers which have helped to make us what
we are, or to weigh the number and relative importance of all the
things which have combined to produce the present result of character
within, and of circumstances without us,--how soon are we lost amidst
the mass of the infinite items which make up the sum of even our
little history. How inadequate are all our attempts to solve the
problems without number which every year suggests. _Why_, for example,
has this or that happened? Wherefore this sorrow or that joy?--why
such changes of place or of fortune?--why the loss of old friends or
the gift of new ones?--why--But the questions are endless, and
never can be answered till judgment. It is true, that we are often
privileged to _see_ very clearly the reason of many of Christ's
dealings with us here. He shews us His _ways_ as well as His
_acts_--treating us as "friends" who "know what their Lord doeth." The
wheel of Providence often makes its revolutions in so short a period
that we see the whole movement. It was thus in the case of Abraham.
The mystery of God's command was resolved after three days on Mount
Moriah. Thus, too, the darkness of family grief and of a distant
Saviour, which brooded over the household of Bethany, was dispelled,
and vanished before bright sunshine, at the cry, "Lazarus, come
forth!" But it is not always thus; and though it would be so more
frequently if we waited more patiently upon God and considered His
ways, yet, at best, but a small fraction of our life is understood
here. Moreover, our own history is so interlaced with the history of
others, that what is more properly theirs, in some degree is ours
also. Can Moses, for instance, yet fully comprehend his own life in
its relation to the Jewish nation, whose fate is still involved in
darkness? Can any one of the saints of old, whose deeds and words are
recorded in God's Book, and are telling every day and hour upon the
history of mankind, and must continue to do so till time shall be no
more, comprehend what they really have done on earth? Must not the end
of all things come before they understand the place and the work their
Lord assigned to them? And so is it with the humblest believer. He
is a part of a great whole; and to understand how Jesus has governed
Himself as a part, he must be able to see his own life in relation to
the great whole. But each Christian who has walked by faith, and held
fast his confidence in Christ, will then also have revealed how the
Lord has governed him, and all that He has done to him and for him,
and what He has enabled him to be and to do on earth. The sackcloth
and ashes of every patient Job will be turned into garments of
praise; and the lamentations of every mourning Jeremiah into songs of
gladness: and in adoring wonder and unutterable joy, every head will
be bowed down, every crown cast at Christ's feet, and every heart
will feel, and mouth confess, "He hath done all things well!" What an
amazing disclosure will this be of the wisdom and love with which our
gracious Lord has assigned to each servant his lot,--given to each
"_his_ work," and so prepared all things for him in the world, and so
made all things work together for his good, that "the fruit has been
holiness, and the end everlasting life!"
2. But the Christian will also behold at judgment the excellence of
Christ's government over others, and over the whole world.
If we are such mysteries to ourselves, and if we cannot as yet truly
write our own biographies, how much more perplexing to us is the
personal history of any other in his relation to the Redeemer! How
impossible to discover the reasons of all, or of any, of Christ's
providential dealings with him, or to read aright any one day in his
life! Was it possible for Job's friends to interpret, _at the time_,
Job's sufferings? God alone could have corrected Jacob when, in the
dark night of his sorrow, yet just before the daybreak of his joy
in Egypt, he cried, "Joseph is not, Simeon is not, and will ye take
Benjamin away?--_all these things are against me!_" Daniel in the
lions' den, or the three young men in the furnace, with a wicked king
in peace upon the throne; John the Baptist in the dungeon, with Herod
in the banquet hall; Stephen falling asleep beneath the shower of
cruel stones, and Saul gazing complacently at the murderers' clothes
laid at his feet:--these, and a thousand other such incidents in human
history, are, to beholders, involved in a portion of that darkness
which hung over the cross of Christ itself, at the time, a mystery of
mysteries to all who witnessed its agonies! But when, from the history
of persons, we rise to the contemplation of the history of cities,
countries, and nations; or ascend to a still higher region in order to
take in, if possible, the history of the human race from age to age;
and to comprehend what Jesus Christ has done for it, and how He
has governed it,--how much more profound is the darkness! If, for
instance, we endeavour to form any estimate of the effect which has
been produced upon the character and destiny of mankind by the present
structure of the physical earth, with its mountains, seas, rivers,
winds, and climate--the house which Jesus Christ has built and
furnished for His creatures; by the famines and pestilences, wars and
conquests, migrations and settlements, arising out of circumstances
more or less controlling man, and beyond his will; as well as by all
that has come, as it were, directly from Jesus, through His Church,
from Eden till this present hour;--how infinite to us is the field
of observation! "O the depth of the riches both of the knowledge and
wisdom of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past
finding out!" We gaze upon those majestic wheels of His providence,
some of which take whole cycles to revolve, and "their wings are so
high, that they are dreadful!" It is so, for example, with the history
of Israel, which, commencing with Abraham, when earth was young, four
thousand years ago, is still moving on as a distinct stream flowing
amidst the waters of the great ocean, yet never mingling with them,
though nearing the unfathomable gulf where all is still.
But "what we know not now, we shall know hereafter," upon the great
"day of the _revelation_ of Jesus Christ," when, in the light of
unerring truth, the history of each man, and of the whole race, will
be seen, and for the first time understood. "Now we know in part, but
then we shall know even as we are known." Every question which here
perplexes or pains the thoughtful and conscientious inquirer, will be
fully answered. The secret and hitherto hidden springs of actions will
be laid bare, and their remotest results disclosed. We shall apprehend
the real life--the true philosophy--of history. Then will the
government of Jesus Christ over the whole family of man, and every
individual member of it, be seen--what it has always by His Church
believed--to have been one of righteousness, wisdom, and love.
3. Need I add, as the last grand result of judgment, that the Triune
God will be glorified?
_God the Father_ will be glorified! The prayer of Christ shall then
be fulfilled: "Father, glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify
thee!" The doxology of the apostle will be realised: "To him be glory
by the Church through Christ Jesus throughout all ages!" That glory
will be seen in His having committed the government of the world to
Jesus Christ. Then will be understood, as it never was before, how
"God _so_ loved the world in giving His only-begotten Son" to be its
Creator and Governor, and the Prophet, Priest, and King of His Church.
_God the Son_ will be glorified! Every event and act in His great
mediatorial kingdom will shew the grandeur of His character. The whole
world's history will be as a mirror, full of the light of this Sun of
Righteousness,--reflecting the greatness of His power, the depths of
His wisdom, the beauty of His holiness, and the riches of His grace.
He will "be glorified, too, _in_ His saints." Each believer will not
only be a living monument of what Christ has done, but, as a child
of God, will also be in his character an image of what Christ the
first-born _is_!
_God the Spirit_ will be glorified when the results are made manifest
of all He has done for and in the Church, and of all which men have
received from this Teacher, Sanctifier, and Comforter! If many will
have cause to mourn upon that day because they have resisted and
grieved Him by their wilful impenitency and wickedness, what a
multitude, greater than any man can number, will adore Him for the
spiritual ignorance in the ways of God which He dispelled,--the
all-sufficient strength for duty and trial, for life and death,
which He imparted,--the holy love which He shed abroad upon their
hearts,--the good fruit which by His aid they produced in their
lives,--the calm peace which He gave to their consciences,--the
prayers heard and answered by God which He prompted,--and the joy
unspeakable to which He often raised their souls!
Thus will the proceedings of the great day of judgment, without one
single exception, reveal to the intelligent universe the glory of
God,--Father, Son, and Spirit,--as displayed in the government of the
world through Jesus Christ.
Oh, how can we form an adequate conception of the overpowering effect
which the revelations of this eventful period in the history of the
universe must necessarily produce upon the saints and just men made
perfect, and upon the innumerable company of angels, who, with intense
interest and profound intelligence, watch the proceedings before the
immaculate throne of the Son of man! As age after age passes in
solemn review, and as each succeeding era, beneath the light of
investigation, emerges out of the darkness in which it had hitherto
been wrapped,--as city after city, and kingdom after kingdom, from
their early beginnings, onwards through centuries of advancement in
power and influence, till their final silence in the dust, are all
reproduced in their living reality,--we may conceive how the awful
interest in the world's trial must deepen itself in every bosom, and
intelligent eyes must gleam with a brighter intelligence, and admiring
souls burn with a profounder and holier admiration, as they are
enabled to perceive how, over all this earth, to them hitherto so dark
and cloudy, Jesus had ever reigned with unclouded splendour, as the
sun reigns in the calm heavens, and pours down his beams of light from
a region far above the tempestuous sky. And we can, in some degree,
conceive how their lips should ever and anon give birth to accents of
heartfelt praise, as a deep moral order and beauty are seen growing
up, evolving out of the chaos of history, even as a holy temple might
rear itself from what seemed to the eye of sense to be the very "lines
of confusion, and stones of emptiness." We can imagine, too, when this
long day of wondrous disclosures is about to terminate, and its sun to
set for ever over the old order of things, how the joy of this great
assemblage should reach at last its climax, and have a fulness of
glory in it never before experienced; until, as judgment ended, and
the whole government of their blessed Lord was disclosed, their sense
of the grandeur and infinite majesty of His character and ways should
be such as to call forth from ten thousand times ten thousand ecstatic
souls, as the grand verdict of the universe, those bursts of praise:
"_Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and
wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing." "Great and
marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy
ways, thou King of saints. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and
glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come
and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest_."
Such are a few of the more obvious results of a day of judgment. But
who will dare to deny that these may possibly be extended to other
worlds and other orders of beings, and be made influential for the
good and happiness of the universe throughout limitless ages, and be
the means of impressing unfallen yet peaceable creatures, with a more
profound sense of the glory of God and the unchangeableness of His
government? We ourselves possess an experience somewhat analogous to
this, in the fact of God's righteous dealings with another order
of beings--the fallen angels--having been revealed to us for our
instruction and warning; and thus, for aught we know, the transactions
of the coming day of judgment may, in whole or in part, form such a
living record of God's government by Jesus Christ, as may be revealed
to millions, of whose existence and circumstances we are as yet
ignorant, and be to them for ever as a great Bible, for their warning,
comfort, and instruction in righteousness.
We have now brought our thoughts upon "judgment" to a conclusion. May
they suggest others more worthy of the theme to all who may peruse
them! We have tried to view it in the light of Scripture statement;
yet feeling deeply conscious of how dimly and inadequately we perceive
and judge of the awful future; of God's relationship to the human
family; and of the manner in which the only wise and merciful God will
apply the eternal principles of justice (which is but love dealing
with sin) to the infinite varieties of human character, or to the
circumstances of each human being. Questions innumerable suggest
themselves, which we cannot answer now, but which will be answered
then, regarding the heathen, and regarding millions who have lived and
died without knowing or loving Jesus Christ; doubtless we shall all
then be amazed at our own ignorance and sin, and overwhelmed by the
majestic glory and excellence of God in Christ. But whatever the
results of that day may be, one thing is certain, that they will
afford satisfaction and joy unutterable to just and good men, yea, to
every human being who has any real sympathy with Him whose "name is
Love!"
But let us never forget that every day of our lives is a day of
judgment, in which Christ is searching our hearts and judging our
lives, condemning the evil and blessing the good, and seeking to
separate the one from the other. If we are able to welcome Him as our
judge and deliverer in our present day, we shall be able to do so also
on "the last day."