"_When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the
angels with Him, then shall He sit on the throne of His glory:
and before Him shall be gathered all the nations: and He shall
separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the
sheep from the goats: and He shall set the sheep on His right
hand, but the goats on the left._"--MATT. XXV. 31-33.
He, the speaker, will do this. It is the most stupendous claim that ever
fell from human lips. A young Jewish carpenter whose brief career, as He
Himself well knew, was just about to end in a violent and shameful
death, tells the little, fearful band which still clung to Him, that a
day is coming when before Him all the nations shall be gathered, and by
Him be separated as a shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats. In
the world's long history there is nothing like it.
That Jesus did really claim to be the Judge of all men, it is, I
believe, impossible to doubt. The passage just quoted is by no means our
only evidence. In the Sermon on the Mount, which foolish persons who
love to depreciate theology sometimes speak of as though it were the
pith and marrow of the Christian gospel, Christ says, "Many will say to
Me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy by Thy name, and by Thy
name cast out devils, and by Thy name do many mighty works? And then
will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from Me, ye that work
iniquity." Again, He says, "Whosoever shall be ashamed of Me and of My
words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man also
shall be ashamed of Him when He cometh in the glory of His Father with
the holy angels;" and again, "The Son of Man shall come in the glory of
His Father with His angels; and then shall He render unto every man
according to His deeds." The fourth Gospel also represents Him as
saying, "Neither doth the Father judge any man, but He hath given all
judgment to the Son ... and He gave Him authority to execute judgment
because He is the Son of Man." And if still further evidence be
necessary it would be easy to show both from the Acts and the Epistles
that from the very beginning all the disciples of Jesus believed and
taught that He would come again to be their Judge.
Consider what this means. Reference has already been made in an earlier
chapter to Christ's witness concerning Himself, to His deep and
unwavering consciousness of separateness from all others. But more
striking, perhaps, than any illustration mentioned there is that
furnished by the fact before us now. What must His thoughts about
Himself have been who could speak of Himself in relation to all others
as Christ does here? When men write about Jesus as though He were merely
a gentle, trustful, religious genius, preaching a sweet gospel of the
love of God to the multitudes of Galilee, they are but shutting their
eyes to one half of the facts which it is their duty to explain.
Speaking generally, we do well to distrust the dilemma as a form of
argument; but in this case there need be no hesitation in putting the
alternative with all possible bluntness: either Christ was God, or He
was not good. That Jesus, if He were merely a good man, with a good
man's consciousness of and sensitiveness to His own weakness and
limitations, could yet have arrogated to Himself the right to be the
supreme judge and final arbiter of the destinies of mankind, is simply
not thinkable. And the more we ponder the stupendous claim which Christ
makes, the more must we feel that it is either superhuman authority
which speaks to us here or superhuman arrogance. Either Christ spoke out
of the depths of His own Divine consciousness, knowing that the Father
had committed all judgment unto the Son; or He made use of words and put
forth claims which were, and which He must have known to have been,
empty, false, and blasphemous.
Such is the significance of Christ's words in their relation to Himself.
It is, however, with their relation to ourselves that we are primarily
concerned now. Of the wholly unimaginable circumstances of that day when
the Son of Man shall come in His glory and all the nations be gathered
before Him I shall not attempt to speak. As Dean Church has well
said,[57] no vision framed with the materials of our present experience
could adequately represent the truth, and, indeed, it is well that our
minds should be diverted from matters which lie wholly beyond our reach,
that they may dwell upon the solemn certainties which Christ has
revealed. Let us think, first of the fact, and secondly of the issues,
of Judgment.
I
The persistent definiteness with which the fact of judgment is affirmed
by the New Testament we have already seen. Nor is the New Testament our
only witness. The belief in a higher tribunal before which the judgments
of time are to be revised, and in many cases reversed, may be said to be
part of the creed of the race. Plato had his vision of judgment as well
as Jesus. And in the Old Testament, and especially in the Book of
Psalms, the same faith finds repeated and magnificent utterance: "Our
God shall come, and shall not keep silence; a fire shall devour before
Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him. He shall call to
the heavens above, and to the earth, that He may judge His people;" and
again, "For He cometh, for He cometh to judge the earth: He shall judge
the world with righteousness and the peoples with His truth."
Here, then, is the fact which demands a place in the thoughts of each of
us--we are all to be judged. Life is not to be folded up, like a piece
of finished work, and then laid aside and forgotten; it is to be gone
over again and examined by the hand and eyes of Perfect Wisdom and
Perfect Love. Each day we are writing, and often when the leaf is turned
that which has been written passes from our mind and is remembered no
more; but it is there, and one day the books--the Book of Life, of our
life--will be opened, and the true meaning of the record revealed. Life
brings to us many gifts of many kinds, and as it lays them in our hands,
for our use and for our blessing, it is always, had we but ears to hear,
with the warning word, "Know thou, that for all these things, God will
bring thee into judgment."
It is, indeed, a tremendous thought. When Daniel Webster was once asked
what was the greatest thought that had ever occupied his mind, he
answered, "the fact of my personal accountability to God." And no man
can give to such a fact its due place without feeling its steadying,
sobering influence through all his life. Lament is often made to-day,
and not without reason, of our failing sense of the seriousness of life.
A plague of frivolity, more deadly than the locusts of Egypt, has fallen
upon us, and is smiting all our green places with barrenness. Somehow,
and at all costs, we must get back our lost sense of responsibility. If
we would remember that God has a right hand and a left hand; if we would
put to ourselves Browning's question, "But what will God say?" if
sometimes we would pull ourselves up sharp, and ask--this that I am
doing, how will it look then, in that day when "Each shall stand
full-face with all he did below"? if, I say, we would do this, could
life continue to be the thing of shows and make-believe it so often is?
It was said of the late Dean Church by one who knew him well: "He seemed
to live in the constant recollection of something which is awful, even
dreadful to remember--something which bears with searching force on all
men's ways and hopes and plans--something before which he knew himself
to be as it were continually arraigned--something which it was strange
and pathetic to find so little recognized among other men." But, alas!
this is how we refuse to live. We thrust the thought of judgment from
us; we treat it as an unwelcome intruder, a disturber of our peace; we
block up every approach by which it might gain access to our minds. We
do not deny that there is a judgment to come; but our habitual disregard
of it is verily amazing. "Judge not," said Christ, "that ye be not
judged;" yet every day we let fly our random arrows, careless in whose
hearts they may lodge. "Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall
give account thereof in the day of judgment;" yet with what superb
recklessness do we abuse God's great gift of speech! "We shall all stand
before the judgment-seat of God;" yes, we know it; but when do we think
of it? What difference does it make to us?
What can indifference such as this say for itself? How can it justify
itself before the bar of reason? Do we realize that our neglect has
Christ to reckon with? These things of which I have spoken are not the
gossamer threads of human speculation; they are the strong cords of
Divine truth and they cannot be broken. "You seem, sir," said Mrs. Adams
to Dr. Johnson, in one of his despondent hours, when the fear of death
and judgment lay heavy on him, "to forget the merits of our Redeemer."
"Madam," said the honest old man, "I do not forget the merits of my
Redeemer; but my Redeemer has said that He will set some on His right
hand and some on His left." Yes, it is the words of Christ with which we
have to do; and if we are wise, if we know the things which belong unto
our peace, we shall find for them a place within our hearts.