DOCTOR TALMAGE'S SERMON, PREACHED AT CORK, IRELAND,
SUNDAY MORNING, SEPT 6th, 1885.
"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: and before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He
shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth
his sheep from the goats."--MATTHEW xxv: 31, 32.
Half-way between Chamouny, Switzerland, and Martigny, I reined in the
horse on which I was riding, and looked off upon the most wonderful
natural amphitheater of valley and mountain and rock, and I said to my
companion, "What an appropriate place this would be for the last
judgment. Yonder overhanging rock the place for the judgment seat.
These galleries of surrounding hills occupied by attendant angels.
This vast valley, sweeping miles this way and miles that, the
audience-room for all nations." But sacred geography does not point
out the place. Yet we know that somewhere, some time, somehow, an
audience will be gathered together stupendous beyond all statistics,
and just as certainly as you and I make up a part of this audience
to-day, we will make up a part of that audience on that day.
A common sense of justice in every man's heart demands that there
shall be some great winding-up day, in which that which is now
inexplicable shall be explained.
Why did that good man suffer, and that bad man prosper? You say, "I
don't know, but I must know." Why is that good Christian woman dying
of what is called a spider cancer, while that daughter of folly sits
wrapped in luxury, ease, and health? You say, "I don't know, but I
must know." There are so many wrongs to be righted that if there were
not some great righting-up day in the presence of all ages, there
would be an outcry against God from which His glory would never
recover. If God did not at last try the nations, the nations would try
Him. We are, therefore, ready for the announcement of the text. The
world never saw Christ except in disguise. If once when He was on
earth He had let out His glory, instead of the blind eyes being
healed, all visions would have been extinguished. No human eye could
have endured it. And instead of bringing the dead to life, all around
about him would have been the slain under that overpowering
effulgence. Disguise of human flesh. Disguise of seamless robe.
Disguise of sandal. Disguise of voice. From Bethlehem caravansary to
mausoleum in the rock, a complete disguise.
But on the day of which I speak the Son of Man will come in His glory.
No hiding of luster. No sheathing of strength. No suppression of
grandeur. No wrapping out of sight of the Godhead. Any fifty of the
most brilliant sunsets that you ever saw on land or sea would be dim
as compared with the cerulean appearance on that day when Christ
rolls through, and rolls on, and rolls down in His glory. The air will
be all abloom with His presence, and everything from horizon to
horizon aflame with His splendor.
Elijah rode up the sky-steep in a chariot, the wheels of whirling fire
and the horses of galloping fire, and the charioteer drawing reins of
fire on bits of fire; but Christ will need no such equipage, for the
law of gravitation will be laid aside, and the natural elements will
be laid aside, and Christ will descend swiftly enough to make speedy
arrival, but slowly enough to allow the gaze of millions of
spectators. In his glory! Glory of form, glory of omnipotence, glory
of holiness, glory of justice, glory of love. In His glory! An
unveiled, an uncovered God descending to meet the human race in an
interview which will be prolonged only for a few hours, and yet which
shall settle all the past and all the present and all the future, and
be closed before the end of that day, which will close, not with
setting sun, but with the destruction of the planet as a snuffers
takes off the top of a burned wick.
It is a solemn time in a court-room when there is an important case on
hand, and the judge of the Supreme Court enters, and he sits down, and
with gavel strikes on the desk commanding bar and jury and witnesses
and audience into silence. All voices are hushed, all heads are
uncovered. But how much more impressive when Christ shall take the
judgment seat on the last day of the last week of the last month of
the last year of the world's existence, and with gavel of thunder-bolt
shall smite the mountains, commanding all the land and all the sea
into silence.
Can you have any doubt about who it is on the seat on the judgment
day? Better make investigation, to see whether there are any scars
about Him that reveal His person. Apparel may change. You can not
always tell by apparel. But scars will tell the story after all else
fails. I find under His left arm a scar, and on His right hand a scar,
and on His left hand a scar, and on His right foot a scar, and on His
left foot a scar. Oh, yes, He is the Son of Man in His glory. Every
mark of wound now a badge of victory, every ridge showing the fearful
gash now telling the story of pain and sacrifice which He suffered in
behalf of the human race.
But what is all that commotion and flutter, and surging to and fro
above Him and on either side of Him? It is a detailed regiment of
heaven, a constabulary angelic, sent forth to take part in that scene,
and to execute the mandates that shall be issued. Ten regiments, a
hundred regiments, a thousand regiments of angels; for on that day all
heaven will be emptied of its inhabitants to let them attend the
scene. All the holy angels. From what a center to what a
circumference. Widening out and widening out, and higher up and higher
up. Wings interlocking wings. Galleries of cloud above galleries of
cloud, all filled with the faces of angels come to listen and come to
watch, and come to help on that day for which all other days were
made. Who are those two taller and more conspicuous angels? The one is
Michael, who is the commander of all those who come out to destroy
sin. The other is Gabriel, who is announced as commander of all those
who come forth to help the righteous. Who is that mighty angel near
the throne? That is the resurrection angel, his lips still aquiver and
his cheek aflush with the blast that shattered the cemeteries and woke
the dead. Who is that other great angel, with dark and overshadowing
brow? That is the one who in one night, by one flap of his wing,
turned one hundred and eighty-five thousand of Sennacherib's host into
corpses.
Who are those bright immortals near the throne, their faces partly
turned toward each other as though about to sing? Oh, they are the
Bethlehem chanters of the first Christmas night! Who are this other
group standing so near the throne? They are the Saviour's especial
bodyguard, which hovered over Him in the wilderness and administered
to Him in the hour of martyrdom, and heaved away the rock of His
sarcophagus, and escorted Him upward on Ascension Day, now
appropriately escorting Him down. Divine glory flanked on both sides
by angelic radiance.
But now lower your eye from the divine and angelic to the human. The
entire human race is present. All nations, says my text. Before that
time the American Republic, the English Government, the French
Republic, all modern modes of government may be obliterated for
something better; but all nations, whether dead or alive, will be
brought up into that assembly. Thebes and Tyre and Babylon and Greece
and Rome as wide awake in that assembly as though they had never
slumbered amid the dead nations. Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South
America, and all the nineteenth century, the eighteenth century, the
twelfth century, the tenth century, the fourth century--all centuries
present. Not one being that ever drew the breath of life but will be
in that assembly.
No other audience a thousandth part as large. No other audience a
millionth part as large. No human eye could look across it. Wing of
albatross and falcon and eagle not strong enough to fly over it. A
congregation, I verily believe, not assembled on any continent,
because no continent would be large enough to hold it. But, as the
Bible intimates, in the air. The law of gravitation unanchored, the
world moved out of its place. As now sometimes on earth a great tent
is spread for some great convention, so over that great audience of
the judgment shall be lifted the blue canopy of the sky, and
underneath it for floor the air made buoyant by the hand of Almighty
God. An architecture of atmospheric galleries strong enough to hold up
worlds. Surely the two arms of God's almightiness are two pillars
strong enough to hold up any auditorium.
But that audience is not to remain in session long. Most audiences on
earth after an hour or two adjourn. Sometimes in court-rooms an
audience will tarry four or five hours, but then it adjourns. So this
audience spoken of in the text will adjourn. My text says, "He will
separate them one from another as a shepherd divideth the sheep from
the goats."
"No," says my Universalist friend, "let them all stay together." But
the text says, "He shall separate them." "No," say the kings of this
world, "let men have their choice, and if they prefer monarchical
institutions, let them go together, and if they prefer republican
institutions, let them go together." "No," say the conventionalities
of this world, "let all those who moved in what are called high
circles go together, and all those who on earth moved in low circles
go together. The rich together, the poor together, the wise together,
the ignorant together." Ah! no. Do you not notice in that assembly the
king is without his scepter, and the soldier without his uniform, and
the bishop without his pontifical ring, and the millionaire without
his certificates of stock, and the convict without his chain, and the
beggar without his rags, and the illiterate without his bad
orthography, and all of us without any distinction of earthly
inequality? So I take it from that as well as from my text that the
mere accident of position in this world will do nothing toward
deciding the questions of that very great day.
"He will separate them as a shepherd divideth the sheep from the
goats." The sheep, the cleanliest of creatures, here made a symbol of
those who have all their sins washed away in the fountain of redeeming
mercy. The goat, one of the filthiest of creatures, here a type of
those who in the last judgment will be found never to have had any
divine ablution. Division according to character. Not only character
outside, but character inside. Character of heart, character of
choice, character of allegiance, character of affection, character
inside as well as character outside.
In many cases it will be a complete and immediate reversal of all
earthly conditions. Some who in this world wore patched apparel will
take on raiment lustrous as a summer noon. Some who occupied a palace
will take a dungeon. Division regardless of all earthly caste, and
some who were down will be up, and some who were up will be down. Oh,
what a shattering of conventionalities! What an upheaval of all social
rigidities, what a turning of the wheel of earthly condition, a
thousand revolutions in a second! Division of all nations, of all
ages, not by the figure 9, nor the figure 8, nor the figure 7, nor the
figure 6, nor the figure 5, nor the figure 4; but by the figure 2.
Two! Two characters, two destinies, two estates, two dominions, two
eternities, a tremendous, an all-comprehensive, an all-decisive, and
everlasting two!
I sometimes think that the figure of the book that shall be opened
allows us to forget the thing signified by the symbol. Where is the
book-binder that could make a volume large enough to contain the names
of all the people who have ever lived? Besides that, the calling of
such a roll would take more than fifty years, more than a hundred
years, and the judgment is to be consummated in less time than passes
between sunrise and sunset. Ah! my friends, the leaves of that book of
judgment are not made out of paper, but of memory. One leaf in every
human heart. You have known persons who were near drowning, but they
were afterward resuscitated, and they have told you that in the two or
three minutes between the accident and the resuscitation, all their
past life flashed before them--all they had ever thought, all they had
ever done, all they had ever seen, in an instant came to them. The
memory never loses anything. It is only a folded leaf. It is only a
closed book.
Though you be an octogenarian, though you be a nonagenarian, all the
thoughts and acts of your life are in your mind, whether you recall
them now or not, just as Macaulay's history is in two volumes,
although the volumes may be closed, and you can not see a word of
them, and will not until they are opened. As in the case of the
drowning man, the volume of memory was partly open, or the leaf partly
unrolled; in the case of the judgment the entire book will be opened,
so that everything will be displayed from preface to appendix.
You have seen self-registering instruments which recorded how many
revolutions they had made and what work they had done, so the
manufacturer could come days after and look at the instrument and find
just how many revolutions had been made, or how much work had been
accomplished. So the human mind is a self-registering instrument, and
it records all its past movements. Now that leaf, that
all-comprehensive leaf in your mind and mine this moment, the leaf of
judgment, brought out under the flash of the judgment throne, you can
easily see how all the past of our lives in an instant will be seen.
And so great and so resplendent will be the light of that throne that
not only this leaf in my heart and that leaf in your heart will be
revealed at a flash, but all the leaves will be opened, and you will
read not only your own character and your own history, but the
character and history of others.
In a military encampment the bugle sounded in one way means one thing,
and sounded in another way it means another thing. Bugle sounded in
one way means, "Prepare for sudden attack." Bugle sounded in another
way means, "To your tents, and let all the lights be put out." I have
to tell you, my brother, that the trumpet of the Old Testament, the
trumpet that was carried in the armies of olden times, and the trumpet
on the walls in olden times, in the last great day will give
significant reverberation. Old, worn-out, and exhausted Time, having
marched across decades and centuries and ages, will halt, and the sun
and the moon and the stars will halt with it. The trumpet! the
trumpet!
Peal the first: Under its power the sea will stretch itself out dead,
the white foam on the lip, in its crystal sarcophagus, and the
mountains will stagger and reel and stumble, and fall into the valleys
never to rise. Under one puff of that last cyclone all the candles of
the sky will be blown out. The trumpet! the trumpet!
Peal the second: The alabaster halls of the air will be filled with
those who will throng up from all the cemeteries of all the ages--from
Greyfriar's Churchyard and Roman Catacomb, from Westminster Abbey and
from the coral crypts of oceanic cave, and some will rend off the
bandage of Egyptian mummy, and others will remove from their brow the
garland of green sea-weed. From the north and the south and the east
and the west they come. The dead! The trumpet! the trumpet!
Peal the third: Amid surging clouds and the roar of attendant armies
of heaven, the Lord comes through, and there are lightnings and
thunder-bolts, and an earthquake, and a hallelujah, and a wailing. The
trumpet! the trumpet!
Peal the fourth: All the records of human life will be revealed. The
leaf containing the pardoned sin, the leaf containing the unpardoned
sin. Some clapping hands with joy, some grinding their teeth with
rage, and all the forgotten past becomes a vivid present. The trumpet!
the trumpet!
Peal the last: The audience breaks up. The great trial is ended. The
high court of heaven adjourns. The audience hie themselves to their
two termini. They rise, they rise! They sink, they sink! Then the blue
tent of the sky will be lifted and folded up and put away. Then the
auditorium of atmospheric galleries will be melted. Then the folded
wings of attendant angels will be spread for upward flight. The fiery
throne of judgment will become a dim and a vanishing cloud. The
conflagration of divine and angelic magnificence will roll back and
off. The day for which all other days are made has closed, and the
world has burned down, and the last cinder has gone out, and an angel
flying on errand from world to world will poise long enough over the
dead earth to chant the funeral litany as he cries, "Ashes to ashes!"
That judgment leaf in your heart I seize hold of this moment for
cancellation. In your city halls the great book of mortgages has a
large margin, so that when the mortgagor has paid the full amount to
the mortgagee, the officer of the law comes, and he puts down on that
margin the payment and the cancellation; and though that mortgage
demanded vast thousands before, now it is null and void. So I have to
tell you that that leaf in my heart and in your heart, that leaf of
judgment, that all-comprehensive leaf, has a wide margin for
cancellation.
There is only one hand in all the universe that can touch that margin.
That hand this moment lifted to make the record null and void forever.
It may be a trembling hand, for it is a wounded hand, the nerves were
cut and the muscles were lacerated. That record on that leaf was made
in the black ink of condemnation; but if cancellation take place, it
will be made in the red ink of sacrifice. O judgment-bound brother and
sister! let Christ this moment bring to that record complete and
glorious cancellation. This moment, in an outburst of impassioned
prayer, ask for it. You think it is the fluttering of your heart. Oh,
no! it is the fluttering of that leaf, that judgment leaf.
I ask you not to take from your iron safe your last will and
testament, but I ask for something of more importance than that. I ask
you not to take from your private papers that letter so sacred that
you have put it away from all human eyesight, but I ask you for
something of more meaning than that. That leaf, that judgment leaf in
my heart, that judgment leaf in your heart, which will decide our
condition after this world shall have five thousand million years been
swept out the heavens, an extinct planet, and time itself will be so
long past that on the ocean of eternity it will seem only as now seems
a ripple on the Atlantic.
When the goats in vile herd start for the barren mountains of death,
and the sheep in fleeces of snowy whiteness and bleating with joy move
up the terraced hills to join the lambs already playing in the high
pastures of celestial altitude, oh, may you and I be close by the
Shepherd's crook! "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; and before Him shall be gathered all nations; and He shall
separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth the sheep from
the goats."
Oh, that leaf, that one leaf in my heart, that one leaf in your heart!
That leaf of judgment! Oh, those two tremendous words at the last,
"Come!" "Go!" As though the overhanging heavens were the cup of a
great bell, and all the stars were welded into a silvery tongue and
swung from side to side until it struck, "Come!" As though all the
great guns of eternal disaster were discharged at once, and they
boomed forth in one resounding cannonade of "Go!" Arithmetical sum in
simple division. Eternity the dividend. The figure two the divisor.
Your unalterable destiny the quotient.