the office of Christ. Is it possible that a created being can occupy such a position?

All men will hear these words-" Arise, ye dead, and come to judgment!" the instant they are uttered from that throne; and this command will be obeyed as quickly by the king as by the beggar. Greatness will not exempt the mighty, nor obscurity vail the little. Each grave will give up its dead. In those graves that are the unsounded depths of the sea-of those whose inmates have for winding-sheets the untrodden sands—in village churchyards, where the green sod is the only covering, or in cathedral aisles, and beneath monuments of bronze, and stone altars in the silent urns of the ancient dead-in pyramidal chambers-in subterranean cemeteries-wherever, in short, is dead dust, that voice will be heard, and all will arise and rush to the judgment-seat. And what an array of faces, gazing into eternity, will be there! Sodom and Gomorrah, Babylon, and Jerusalem, Rome, will pour forth their myriads for the last assize. Waterloo, Marengo, and Austerlitz-Pharsalia, Marathon, and Thermopyla-and Paris, and Berlin, and Vienna, will start to life, and their dead cast off the shrouds of death, and march to the judgment-seat. And thou, too, my brother, my sister, and I, too, shall be there. We must meet again; you, to answer for the use you have made of the appeals you have heard; and I, to answer for the honesty and faithfulness with which I have preached to you. Oh, what happiness, if I should meet there thousands to whom the gospel, as delivered from my lips, has been the savour of life! And, on the other hand, how unspeakably dreadful, if I should see there those with whom I have taken sweet counsel, but who have had the name of Christianity without its power; and be constrained to hear that awful farewell, which will be the knell of a separation to last throughout eternity! What a separation! what a loss!-a lost soul! We can scarcely conceive of its awful import and yet nothing is more common; not because there is not efficacy in a Saviour's blood, or welcome in God, but because men are determined to gratify their lusts, and expend them on a world that is quickly passing away.

Did we not read, the other day, of a great leader in the political world, (whether right or wrong in politics, it is not for the pulpit

of

to pronounce,) who last Sunday was in as good health as any us to-day, full of hope, of promise, of renown? He walked out on his journey perfectly well; in one instant his body was a cold, untenanted ruin, and his soul stood before the judgment-seat of God. It is not he, or she, but “. we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ."

A lost soul! I have no words of my own with which to describe it: a loss that can never be repaired. My money, my estate, I may lose and retrieve; but if I lose my soul there is no reparation. If I lose my sight, I may get some compensation by a more keen and delicate sense of touch; but if I lose my soul, there is no compensation.

A lost soul! Robert Hall alone could and did describe it. "What, if it be lawful to indulge such a thought, what would be the funeral obsequies of a lost soul? Where shall we find the tears fit to be wept at such a spectacle? or, could we realize the calamity in all its extent, what tokens of commiseration and concern would be deemed equal to the occasion? Would it suffice for the sun to vail his light, and the moon her brightness; to cover the ocean with mourning, and the heavens with sackcloth? or, were the whole fabric of nature to become animated and vocal, would it be possible for her to utter a groan too deep, or a cry too piercing, to express the extent and magnitude of such a catastrophe?" And yet it is true of every unregenerate man, that "except ye repent, ye shall likewise perish." Such will be the assembly at the judgment-seat of Christ; all that have lived, breathed, and played their part on the stage of this world, shall be there; and Christ says, "My reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be."

Observe the term, "my reward." Great difficulty has been found in explaining this expression. By Roman Catholic divines, and those whose doctrines have that tendency, it has been stated, that it teaches that in certain suffering there is an expiatory. power; that certain deeds are meritorious and gain a reward, and that all Christ does for us is to help us to do good works. I feel that the reasons that lead me to eonclude there can be no merit in any thing man can do, are irresistible. I owe to God al that I can do, as my Creator; but more particularly as my

Redeemer, he claims my perfect obedience. I owe to God to love him with all my soul, and mind, and strength. If I have loved him without suspension, served him without faltering, and in every thought and action sought his glory, I have simply done my duty. To pay what we owe is not the merit, but duty. But our purest thoughts are tainted, according to God's own statement; the truest act of beneficence is mixed with sin; the nightshade of death mingles with the most beautiful bouquet we can offer; our holiest deeds are but splendid sins; and when we come to die, we can only bring our good deeds and our bad deeds to Jesus, and say, "O Lamb of God, that takest away the sins of the world, take away our sins." Again: whatever sympathy we feel with the holy and beautiful, whatever loyalty and devotedness to God, whatever grace and love are in our hearts, they are the inspiration of God, and therefore cannot be any merit of ours; our sins are our own, and they shame us; our good deeds are not our own, therefore they cannot honour us; we must bring both to the throne of grace, to be forgiven or restored.

Again any action, to be meritorious, must not only be done by man and of himself, it must also not be due before it is performed; it must be done by man alone, so as to profit God. But when we have done all, we are unprofitable servants; our goodness extendeth not to Him.

In one word, the sentiment which has stood the test of a thousand years, is still true-"By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight."

Seeing, then, the judgment-day is a great and coming reality, and that you and I must render our account to God, may I not reasonably ask, What are the hopes on which you build? What is your standing? What preparation are we making for it now? Our life hangs upon a hair, so does His coming. The last great carthquake has begun, and its vibrations are felt from Paris to Frankfort, from Frankfort to Naples; whatever be the issue, they are sounds from the skies, reverberating upon the earth in solemn tones, "Prepare to meet thy God." If He who is to come quickly, come and find us absorbed in the things of the world, and careless about the things of eternity, what an awful scene, what a dreary prospect for us! I am speaking the true word of God,

when, in the prospect of the judgment-seat, I ask you to turn from all you have done and suffered as the ground of acceptance, for your good deeds can avail you nothing, to "the blood that cleanseth from all sin;" and to do all that is holy, and benevolent, and generous, being taught by the Holy Spirit, as the evidence and result of your acceptance. Thus, families so feeling and united and affectionate here, instead of being severed at the last day, the one to stand at the right hand and the other at the left of the throne, shall be made yet more united, affectionate, and beautiful, ever rejoicing before the throne of God and the Lamb.