commanded to preach it, and therefore he did preach it. It may not be called "the gospel," but it is certainly a most important accessory truth to the gospel: it is one of those doctrines without which a gospel ministry would not be complete. I mean that if in any testimony concerning Christ the doctrine that he shall come a second time to judge the world were utterly neglected such a testimony would not be a complete gospel. Hence you find that Paul, when he preached to the famous congregation of the Areopagites, took care to insist upon this truth. In Acts xvii. 30, 31, he says, "The times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent; because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.' This was also a part of Paul's subject when he stood before Felix; "he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come"; and this made Felix tremble, for there is great force of conviction in that solemn truth. The doctrine of the judgment of the world by Christ was used by Peter and Paul and other apostles as a sort of preliminary truth which they insisted upon before they came to the essence of the gospel, which consists in preaching Jesus Christ as a Saviour. They ploughed with this doctrine before they sowed the invitations of the gospel. They did not, however, lay the axe to the root and then forget to proclaim the word of grace; they preached the terrors of the Lord, not in a legal, but a gospel manner. Peter does so in this case; for first he speaks of Christ in the judgment, and then in verse forty-three he adds, " To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins."

This morning, in obedience to the same command, I shall try to speak first of all upon the message; and, secondly, upon the evident importance to be attached to it, which we shall in a great measure gather from the words of our text. May the Holy Ghost, who in Peter's day fell on all those who heard his word, fall also upon you as you are led to believe in the Lord Jesus.

I. First, let us consider THE MESSAGE which God commands all his servants to declare. That message begins first with the assurance that there is a moral government. There is a Judge over the race of men: we are not as the locusts, of whom Solomon says that they have no king. The world is not left unobserved of God, to be as a den of wild beasts, or a pond of fishes, wherein everyone devoureth his fellow, and none calleth them to account. Men are not permitted to do whatsoever is right in their own eyes, but there is a law, and a Governor over them. God hath committed at this day all authority unto the Son; and Jesus Christ at this moment reigneth and ruleth over the whole race of men, taking account of all the actions that are done in their bodies, and making note of everything in order to the summing up of all things byand-by. There is a law, there is a rule, there is a government, over the human commonwealth. The race is not left to anarchy: Jesus Christ is head of all.

That being announced, we have to go on to say that there will be a judgment. "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." As the result of there being a government over mankind,

an assize will be held, wherein cases will be tried, and justice will be administered; this, indeed, is the sanction and support of the law, that it will call men to account: its voice of power proclaims, "O ye house of Israel, I will judge you everyone after his ways." There will be a day of final account. I need not stop to quote the numerous passages of Scripture which assert that every one of us must give an account of himself before God, for we are fully persuaded that "we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ": but, my brethren, we think that all reasonable persons will conclude that there must be a judgment, if they will only consider the character of God. Being the ruler of the world, he must do justice. We should count any man who was made a king but a miserable counterfeit of a monarch if he never administered justice at all. If we had a state without laws, or laws without punishments for those who broke them, we should be indeed in a wretched condition, and our king would be the mimicry of royalty. But such is not the case in the kingdom of him who ruleth over all. It is said of our Lord, "Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness,"-this makes us feel that he wills to do justice, and as assuredly he hath power to punish transgression we feel certain that he will do so. There will come a day in which he will judge the acts of men, because his character is not such that he could or would trifle with evil. "Be not deceived, God is not mocked; whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." "The Father who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's works" will not permit offenders to insult his laws with impunity. It is wrapped up in the very idea of God that he is Judge of all the earth, and must do right; and to do right he must hold a final court in which he will "render to every man according to his deeds."

The character of man equally involves a judgment, for he is evidently a responsible being, and this is clear to anybody who cares to open his eyes. We count not the cattle of the hills or the fish of the sea responsible, let them do what they may: no one blames the wolf that he ravens, or the lion that he devours, but when we come to think of man, we regard him as a creature whose actions have a moral quality about them, and are either right or wrong: in fact, he is a responsible agent. Surely, where there is responsibility there is a law, and where there is a law there must, some day or other, be rewards for well-doers, and punishments for malefactors. The constitution and nature of man inevitably require this, or else his responsibility is given to him in vain. Now, the present tangled condition of the world's history requires that there should be a day of rectification at the end of time. At this moment we often see the wicked prosper, while the righteous are abased: at this day the mirth and the jollity are often connected with sin, while sorrow and grief go hand in hand with godliness in many and many an instance. Remember how the wise man argued, and be persuaded by his reasoning:"Moreover, I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there; and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there. I said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked." Since the actions of men are evidently left unpunished now, and highhanded sin holds power, there must come a righting of the wrong and a clearing of the just. The Judge of all the earth must do right, and how can this be but by a final adjustment in which it shall be clearly

seen that though the wicked prosper for a while, they are as bullocks fattening for the slaughter; and though the righteous suffer for a while, it is but as the gold suffers in the furnace, that it may come forth purified. Every heart that has ever groaned under the oppressor's wrong, every soul that has ever writhed under the proud man's contumely, must feel that there must be an end to the reign and riot of evil, and a time in which innocence shall be avenged. Every Job may lift up himself before his false accusers, and say, "I know that my avenger liveth, and that he will stand in the latter day upon the earth."

Moreover, there is in the consciences of most, if not of all, men a testimony to a coming judgment. I will not say of all men, for I believe that some manage so to drug their self-consciousness as at last to quiet all their fears; but yet the most of men believe in a judgment to come, and in their more thoughtful moods are alarmed thereat. There is more faith as to the judgment than we dream in those who are most profanely daring in their speeches against God. The reason why they speak so exceeding proudly is because their consciences make them cowards, and to veil their cowardice they use bombastic words. These are the men that tremble first, the men that first cry out for mercy when the hand of God begins to touch them. How very seldom do you find a man die in stolid unbelief! At some time or other reason will speak and conscience will be heard, and then that "dread of something after death" makes men cling even to the most wretched state, choosing rather to bear the ills they have than fly to others that they know not of. Universal conscience, or almost universal conscience, speaks like a prophet within the soul, and tells of a throne of judgment, a heaven, and a hell.

Now, whether we had or had not this argument to support us would make not one jot of difference to those of us who believe in the word of God. What God says would always be enough for us, even if the nature of things and the apparent force of reason should flatly contradict his word. Yes, I will even put it in that harsh way. We are always glad when we get the subordinate help of arguments fetched from the nature of things, and so forth; but we care very little about them: we have accepted the Bible as God's revelation, we believe the teaching of this book to be infallible, and inasmuch as the Scriptures declare that there is a judgment to come, we confidently look for it.

Now, according to the revelation of the gospel, this judgment will be conducted by the man Christ Jesus. God will judge the world; but it will be through his Son, whom he has ordained and appointed actually to carry out the business of that last tremendous day. He who shall sit upon the throne is "the Son of man." He will be thus enthroned, I suppose, partly because it is involved in his mediatorial office, in which the Lord hath put all things in subjection under his feet. He is at the right hand of God, "angels and authorities, and powers being made subject unto him." God has been pleased to put the world, not under the direct government of personal deity, but under the government of the Mediator, that he might deal with us in mercy. That Mediator is both prophet, priest, and king, and his kingship would be shorn of its glory if the King had not the power of life and death, and the power of holding court and judging his subjects: Jesus Christ, therefore, being mediatorial king and sovereign, all power being given unto him in heaven and

in earth, he will take unto himself his great power at the last, and will judge the nations. This high position is also awarded to our Lord as an honour from the Father, by which shall be wiped away every trace of the shame and dishonour through which he passed among the sons of men. The kings of the earth stood up to judge him, but they shall stand before him to be judged: the rulers took counsel together to condemn him, but the rulers shall stand at his bar to be themselves condemned: Pontius Pilate and the chief priests shall all be there, and Cæsar, and all Cæsars and Czars and emperors and kings and princes shall do homage before him in lowliest manner, by standing before his judgmentseat as prisoners to be tried by him. There will be no recollection of the sceptre of reed, for he shall break his enemies with a rod of iron; there shall be no marks of the thorn-crown, for on his head shall be many a diadem. Men shall not then be able to think of him as the Man of tears, with visage sadly marred by grief and shame, for his eyes shall be as a flame of fire, and his countenance as the sun shining in its strength. O cross, whatever of shame there was about thee shall be wiped out for ever among the sons of men, for this man shall sit upon the throne of judgment! The Father designed to put this honour upon him, and he hath right well deserved it. Jesus Christ as God hath a glory which he had with the Father before the world was; but as God-man he hath a glory which his Father hath given him to be the reward of that labour of life and death by which he hath redeemed his people. "Give unto the Lord glory and strength" is the ascription of all his saints, and God the everlasting Father hath done this unto his Son, concerning whom he hath sworn that every knee shall bow before him, and every tongue shall confess that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father. "Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands 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."

I want you especially to remember that in the Holy Scriptures we are perpetually reminded in reference to the judgment that it is a judgment by the man Christ Jesus. There must be special reason for this honour done to the manhood of our Lord, or it would not be so continually insisted upon. Daniel in his prophecy (ch. vii. 13) says: "I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him." The coming one in his vision was "the Son of man," and we all know to whom that title belongs. Hence our Lord himself very early in his ministry took care to claim for himself this power of governance and judgment. Turn to John v. 22, where he says, "The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father." Then in verse 27 he gives us the reason for his being thus ordained to be the judge: "And he hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man." So that not only doth Daniel see him as the Son of man, but Jesus Christ himself declares that the authority to judge is given to him because he is the Son of man, there being in that fact a peculiar reason why he should be judge of all mankind. Your memories will at once allow you to recollect that in the

famous pictures drawn by our Lord wherein he describes the judgment (Matthew xxv. 31, 32), he takes care to begin by saying, "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." He does not call himself the Son of God in this case, but says, "The Son of man shall come in his glory." So is it, too, in Matthew xiii. 41: "The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend." This it was which seems to have struck the apostle Paul so much when he quoted from the Psalms, and applied the language to Christ, in Hebrews ii.: "What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the Son of man, that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands: thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet." Whereon he says, "We see Jesus crowned with glory and honour."

It is as Son of man as well as Son of God that our Lord will judge the world at the last great day. Be ye sure, then, of his impartiality. He is God, yet man, having an intense sympathy both with the King and with the subjects, having manifested his grace even to the rebellious, and being yet filled with intense love to the Father and his law. If we could have the election of a judge, what being could we suppose more impartial or so impartial as the Lord, who, though he counted it not robbery to be equal with God, yet made himself of no reputation, and took upon himself the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of sinful flesh? O blessed Judge, be thou at once enthroned by the choice of the whole creation!

This person is peculiarly suitable to be judge because he has a perfect knowledge of the law. "Yea, thy law is my delight," saith he. He put on righteousness as a garment. The Lord Jesus Christ from his youth up was an exceedingly deep scholar of the law of God: he grew, as a child, in wisdom concerning the will of God: his ear was opened to hear as the learned, that he might know how to speak a word in season to them that are weary. He knows the law, for he made himself subject to it and kept it in all its parts. This is the first requisite in a judge, to be thoroughly well acquainted with the statute-book. Yet further, he knows also the evil of law-breaking. What a Judge is this whom God hath appointed, who, strange to say, has himself suffered for sin! Though in him was no sin, for he was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners, yet the sting of sin, which is death, he has endured, and the curse of sin has passed upon him, as it is written, "Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." With what precision, then, can he judge who, being both God and man, and knowing well the law, has also an intimate acquaintance with all the heinousness and wickedness of lawbreaking! Well did the Father choose him to be the Judge of the quick and dead. It puts judgment beyond a cavil when he who is the Friend of sinners is made the Judge of sinners.

Thus much, then, concerning the fact that there will be a judgment, and that this judgment will be conducted by the man Christ Jesus.

Now, observe, that this judgment will concern all mankind. He will

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