I. This retributive period will dawn with overpowering splendour upon the world.
1. The character of this manifestation. A “throne” is an emblem of glory. This is a “white throne.” There is not a single stain upon it. It is a “great white throne.” Great in its occupant: He filleth all in all. Great in its influence: toward it the eyes of all intelligences are directed; to it all beings are amenable; from it all laws that determine the character and regulate the destiny of all creatures, proceed.
2. The effect of this manifestation. Before its refulgence this material universe could not stand: it melted--vanished away. It will pass away, perhaps, as the orbs of night pass away in the high noontide of the sun: they are still in being, still in their orbits, and still move on as ever; but they are lost to us by reason of a “glory that excelleth.”
II. This retributive period will witness the resurrection of the dead and the consequent destruction of Hades and the grave.
1. In the resurrection there will be a connection between man’s raised and man’s mortal body.
(1) The one rises out of the other.
(2) The one retains the same plan, or outline, as the other.
(3) The one fulfils the same functions as the other.
2. The resurrection will be co-extensive with the mortality of mankind. Not an infant too young, nor a patriarch too old. Tyrants and their slaves, sages and their pupils, ministers and their people--all will appear.
III. This retributive period will bring humanity into conscious contact with God.
1. There will be no atheism after this.
2. No deism.
3. No indifferentism.
IV. This retributive period will settle for ever the question of every man’s character and destiny.
1. The worth of a man’s character will be determined byhis works.
2. A man’s works will be determined by recognised authorities. God’s moral and remedial laws are “books,” and they will now be opened--to memory, to conscience, and to the universe.
3. According to the correspondence, or non-correspondence, of man’s works with these recognised authorities will be his final destiny. (D. Thomas,D. D.)
The great white throne
I. A throne. Yes, a royal seat, a seat of judgment, the seat of the great King and Judge of all.
II. A great throne. All earth’s thrones have been little, even the greatest--Nebuchadnezzar, or Alexander, or Caesar, or Napoleon; but this is “great”; greater than the greatest; none like it in magnificence.
III. A white throne. White is purity, truth, justice, calmness. Such is the throne to be--unsoiled, untainted, incorruptible; no one-sidedness nor imperfection; no bribery nor favour there. All is “white”--transparent and spotless perfection.
IV. One seated on it. It was not empty or unoccupied, nor filled by a usurper, or by one who could not wield the power required for executing its decrees. God was seated there; that very God before whose face heaven and earth flee away; that God whose presence melts the mountains, and made Sinai to shake (Psa_102:26; Isa_36:4; Isa_2:6; Jer_4:23; Jer_4:26; Rev_6:14; Rev_16:20). How terrible to stand unready before such a Judge and such a throne! All justice, all perfection, all holiness! Who can abide His appearing? But besides the Judge and the throne, there are the millions to be judged. (H. Bonar,D. D.)
The great white throne
I. When once the great white throne is erected, all distinctions of this life will have been for ever abolished. We often marvel at the contrast exhibited in the present life, between the circumstances or conditions in which mankind are placed.From the extreme of affluence to the extreme of destitution there are endless varieties of condition, yet, in certain respects, all are equal; the noble and the mean; the richest and the poorest. Surely it ought to make the wealthy set loose to their riches, and the poor think lightly of their poverty, when it is remembered how soon the small and the great will stand alike before God, to be judged according, not to their respective conditions on earth, but each according to his works.
II. The next feature which calls for notice is the opening of the books. The idea is that of a faithful register to be brought forward hereafter, to decide the everlasting portion. Thus, when we hear of the books to be opened at the judgment, and of men being judged out of those things which are written in the books, we are, in effect, reminded that the actions which we day by day commit, the very words we speak and the thoughts we indulge, contribute the materials for a final reckoning, upon the issue of which will be suspended eternal joy or eternal shame. This regard to the inevitable connection between conduct in this life and our portion in eternity, would serve alike to restrain from iniquity and impel to obedience.
III. It must not be overlooked, however, that while mention is made of books--of several volumes of account--out of which the dead will be judged, allusion is made to but one book of life, containing the names of those who would be saved. Possibly an intimation is hereby conveyed as to the comparative fewness of the saved. Yet another interpretation of the difference is, that, whereas there are many different methods by which men may go to perdition, there is but one way of life. It is not alone the heathen, who never heard of a Redeemer; nor the infidel, who professed to disbelieve the existence of God or a revelation; nor the heretic, who corrupted the truth and turned the grace of God into lasciviousness; not alone the scoffer, the profligate, the profane, who will be excluded from heaven; but the impenitent, the unbelieving, the unconverted, the ungodly--all who have refused to lay hold of the salvation which is offered in the gospel.
III. The dead, universally, are said to be judged according to their works. This accords with the representation given in other parts of the Bible. The reward is of grace; the judgment is according to things done in the body.
IV. The issue of the judgment, as described in the closing verse of the chapter. No sooner has the evangelist spoken of the judgment itself, than he tells us of the extinction, thenceforward, of death and of hell. There will be no more slumber in the grave. Up to this period the wicked will nat have entered upon the full consummation of misery. The soul is not the man. The soul, in union with the body, constitutes thenature, which Christ redeemed, and which must, hereafter, partake of punishment or reward. Hence the complete wretchedness will not overtake the wicked till the final abolition of death and the grave. “Whosoever was not found written in the book of life, was cast into the lake of fire.” This will be the consummation of the ruin of the ungodly.From this doom there will be no appeal; from this sentence no reprieve. We can be earnest for time; who, comparatively, is earnest for eternity? The book is still open. Christ is willing to write your name there. (Bp. R. Bickersteth.)
The great white throne
I. What John saw. When the eagle-eyed seer of Patmos, being in the Spirit, looked aloft into the heavens, he saw a throne, from which I gather there is a throne of moral government over the sons of men, and that He who sits upon it presides over all the inhabitants of this world. There is a lawgiver who looks down and spies every action of man, and who does not suffer one single word or deed to be omitted from His note-book. Now we know that this moral governor isGod Himself, who has an undisputed right to reign and rule. Some thrones have no right to be, and to revolt from them is patriotism; but the best lover of his race delights the most in the monarchy of heaven. In addition to this, His throne is one from the power of which none can escape. The sapphire throne of God, at this moment, is revealed in heaven, where adoring angels cast their crowns before it; and its power is felt on earth, where the works of creation praise the Lord. Even those who acknowledge not the Divine government are compelled to feel it, for He doeth as He wills, not only among the angels in heaven, but among the inhabitants of this lower world. See, then, at the very outset how this throne should awe our minds with terror. Founded in right, sustained by might, and universal in its dominion, look ye and see the throne which John of old beheld. This, however, is but the beginning of the vision. The text tells us that it was a “white throne.” Does not this indicate its immaculate purity? There is no other white throne, I fear, to be found. Why, then, is it white for purity? Is it not because the King who sits on it is pure? Hark to thethrice sacred hymn of the cherubic band and the seraphic choir, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth.” Creatures who are perfectly spotless themselves unceasingly adore the yet superior holiness of the great King. Oh fairest of all thrones I who would not be a willing subject of Thy peerless government? Moreover, the throne is pure, because the law the Judge dispenses is perfect. There is no fault in the statute-book of God. When the Lord shall come to judge the earth, there will be found no decree that bears too hardly upon any one of His creatures. “The statutes of the Lord are right”; they are true and righteous altogether. I have thought, too, that perhaps this throne is said to be a white throne to indicate that it will be eminently conspicuous. You will have noticed that a white object can be seen from a very great distance. We must see it; it shall be so striking a sight that none of us will be able to prevent its coming before us; “every eye shall seeHim.” Possibly it is called a white throne because of its being such a convincing contrast to all the colours of this sinful human life. There stand the crowd, and there is the great white throne. What can make them see their blackness more thoroughly than to stand there in contrast with the perfections of the law and the Judge before whom they are standing? Perhaps that throne, all glistening, will reflect each man’s character. The next word that is used by way of adjective is “great.” It was a “great white throne.” You scarcely need me to tell you that it is called a great white throne because of the greatness of Him who sits upon it. Speak of the greatness of Solomon? He was but a petty prince. Speak of the thrones of Rome and Greece before which multitudes of beings assembled? They are nothing, mere representatives of associations of the grasshoppers of the world, who are as nothing in the sight of the Lord Jehovah. A throne filled by a mortal is but a shadow of dominion. This will be a great throne because on it will sit the great God of earth and heaven and hell, the King eternal, immortal, invisible, who shall judge the world in righteousness, and His people with equity. You will see that this will be a “great white throne” when we remember the culprits who will be brought before it; not a handful of criminals, but millions upon millions; and these not all of the lesser sort, not serfs and slaves alone whose miserable bodies rested from their oppressors in the silent grave; but the great ones of the earth shall be there; not one missing. It will be a great white throne, because of the matters that will be tried there. It will be no mere quarrel about a suit in Chancery, or an estate in jeopardy. Our souls will have to be tried there; our future, not for an age, not for one single century, but for ever and for ever. Turn not away your eyes from the magnificent spectacle till you have seen the glorious Person mentioned in the words, “And Him that satonit.” The most fitting One in all the world will sit upon that throne. It will be God, but hearken, it will also be man. The Christ whom you despised will judge you, the Saviour whose mercy you trampled on--it is He who shall judge righteous judgment to you, and what will He say but this--“As for these Mine enemies, who would not that I should reign over them, cut them in pieces before My eyes!”
II. The inferences which flow from such a sight as this.
1. Let me search myself.
2. Having spoken a word to the Christian, I should like to say to every one of you, in remembrance of this great white throne shun hypocrisy.
3. But there are some of you who say, “I do not make any profession of religion.” Still my text has a word to you. Still I want you to judge your actions by that last great day. Oh sir, how about that night of sin? “No,” say you, “never mind it; bring it not to my remembrance.” It shall be brought to thy remembrance, and that deed of sin shall be published far wider than upon the house-tops. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The great white throne, the opened books, and the assembled dead
I. The supreme tribunal: “A great white throne.” It is a new wonder. St. John saw other thrones in more than one apocalyptic disclosure, but none like this. It is unique and transcendent. It is “great.” It represents Divine majesty. It is “white.” Its intolerable splendour is without a stain. It is not a throne of grace. To it no penitents are welcomed. None could bow before it. No elemency is published and no forgiveness dispensed. It is the supreme and final tribunal. From the decisions of this bar there is no appeal. The sentences of the King are irreversible.
II. The intolerable purity of the judge: “Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away.” Descriptions may be indefinite from the lack of graphic ability in the narrator, or from the impossibility of seizing and reporting the transcendent and stupendous objects which he has to record. Not a single minute particular is given in St. John’s outline of the dread vision. All that we are told of the throne is, that it is vast, and dazzling in its whiteness. “Him that sat upon” the throne; but not a syllable is there about that sight. Of that face--its majesty, brightness, terror--St. John could utter nothing; but he has recorded what followed its unveiling. Earth and heaven, as conscious and guilty things, fled away--just as the stars retreat and disappear when the sun darts forth at break of day, or rather as tow and gossamer fly and vanish when touched by the flame. The face from which all nature shrank into instantaneous invisibility, and could discover no space to hide in, was incapable of description.
III. The universality of the dread assize: “I Saw the dead, small and great, stand before God.” Earth and heaven were permitted to vanish from the face, the splendour and purity of which they could not endure. Not so men. The guiltiest, though the heart shrink, must encounter the sight and hear the sentence. St. John “saw the earth and heaven fly”; but “the dead, small and great, stand,” stand “before the throne,” and await their doom.
IV. The impartiality of the solemn awards. The prominent truth in the vision is, He will “judge the people righteously.” “According to their works,” as good or evil, holy or unholy, the sentence will be given. Faith |n the blood of atonement, without a life of reverence, virtue, love of God, self-sacrifice, and Christ-like nobleness, is the pretence of hypocrites and traitors. “According to their works,” St. John saw “every man judged.”
V. Great and approaching changes in the seen and unseen worlds: “And death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire.” We cannot understand this statement without recalling the peculiarities of our present life. To the righteous now there exist the earth and the unseen heaven. After the judgment the distinction between the earth where we are and heaven where God is, will be abolished. The earth and the visible skies are to depart; the unseen heaven will alone remain. Resembling changes await the wicked. The bodies of the unrighteous are in the graves of this planet. Their souls are in Hades awaiting judgment. The scene of retribution is a future and unseen world. After judgment, the earth and the grave will be Be more. Hades--the unseen world of spirits--will be similarly abrogated. Death and Hades, and all which they represent, will merge in retribution, of which the lake of fire is the symbol. (H. Batchelor.)
The great white throne
“I saw a throne.” There is a throne now, but men do not see it. There is a real government now, but it will be a visible one then. You know the sceptic has doubts, because he cannot see. He says, “Where is God, and whom is the throne? I have never seen it.” Did you ever see the throne of England? I never did--but you know there is one; you know there is a government. I never sawthe Queen, and I dare say many of you have not seen her, but you know there is a Queen. I never saw the great King, but He is here. He reigns; and by and by His throne will become visible, and faith and doubt will be lost in sight, and the believer will say, “It is He”; and the infidel will say, “It is He”; and there will be no more doubting and no more believing--it will be sight. “I saw a throne.” It is called a “great” throne. “I saw a great white throne.” Now, of all the seats in the world, I believe thrones are the filthiest. I believe the throne of England to be one of the purest in the world; but that throne has oftentimes been stained with the blood that tyrants have shed. But that is the “great white throne.” Many a time darkness has dimmed it round, for “clouds and darkness are round about him”; it has been veiled in mystery; but behind the cloud it was a white throne--a throne that never was tarnished by injustice, and that never was defiled by wrong-doing. The infidel and the doubter have often had hard thoughts of God; but when the throne is set it will be seen to be without a stain. “I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it.” It is the Man of Calvary; it is the Babe of Bethlehem--but, oh, how changed! See His eyes piercing and flashing--pictures of His penetrating wisdom. See His feet that have theglow of the furnace, that outshine the sun in its glory. And then hear His voice. It is louder than the choruses of mature. It is “as the voice of many waters.” And as He says, “Rise, ye dead.” they come forth at His bidding. Oh, when that day comes, may you find that the blessed One who sits upon the throne is your friend. A minister was one day travelling with a young spark, a sceptical fellow; and as the manner of such men is, and probably liking a little to annoy the person with whom he was travelling, he said, among other things, “Talk about the Bible being an inspired book! why, I tell you, those books of the old pagans were far better; it is not fit to be named in the same day of the week with Homer.” “Well,” said the minister, calmly, “since you seem to be so great an admirer of Homer, would you give me a specimen--some favourite passage from your beloved author?” “In a minute,” said the young man, “I will”; and very readily he pointed to what he thought a fair specimen of the sublimity and power of Homer, where he speaks in these words--“Jove frowned and darkened half the sky.” “Now, there, sir,” said he, “just think of the sublimity of that figure--the very frown of the god darkened half the face of nature.” “I grant,” said he, “you have selected with very good taste; but before you venture to pit your favourite author against the inspired Word of God, read it a little more. What do you say to this: ‘I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat upon it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away.’” How much less sublime what you have repeated from Homer is than that? The young man was silent. I hope he learned never again to pit any book against the Book of God. “And the sea gave up the dead which were in it.” Now, those of you that are at all acquainted with the opinions of the people that lived when the Apostle John wrote, will know that it was thought among the most impossible of things that anybody should ever be recovered that was lost in the waters. Hence, in the Odyssey you will find that when Ulysses was in peril of drowning he moaned that he had not fallen in the fight before the walls of Troy, for he speaks of himself as sinking in the waters, and so being for ever dead. And it was a great opinion that all who had not sepulchral rites could never have peace or happiness after; the body they never dreamed could rise, but even the spirit they thought was destroyed. Blessed be God, we have a better view than that. How many of the bravest of Britain’s sons and the fairest of her daughters have gone forth and have gone down with the storm for their requiem, the wreck for their coffin, and the waters for their winding-sheet. There they are. Though you do not know where they are lying, Jesus knows; and when the last trump is heard they will come forth. And not only so, but “death and hell shall give up the dead that are in them.” This is a noble personification. Death and hell are the twin giants that rule the grave and the spirit-world. What a blessed thing it is that both will be conquered! When the trumpet is blown, the dust in the charnel will begin to stir and creep and quiver, and bone will come to his bone, and the frame will be built up again. And when the trumpet is blown, it will be heard in the highest heaven, and the blessed spirits will come down, and it will be heard in the deepest pit, and the lost souls will come up, and there, by some wondrous appointment, body and soul will be remarried never to be divorced for ever. “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God.” I saw them--small and great--the man of wealth and the man of rank, the prince and the man of poverty. What a mighty host will that be! You and I will be among the number. Then there is another thing. “The books were opened.” Now what are these books?
1. First of all, there will be the books of God’s requirements. Where are these books? There are many. First, God’s requirements as they are written in nature. The poor pagan has had that book, that book whose syllables are constellations and whose letters are stars. The firmament has declared the being and power of God, and the dew of heaven and the flowers of nature have shown His goodness. There is enough in nature to make a man feel after God, if haply he may find Him; and the heathen have had that.
2. Then there will also be that book of moral conscience which God puts into a man; and He has written something on the page of every heart. You may, if you like, try to be irresponsible, but there is something within that won’t let you feel like that. When Pericles once kept one of his friends waiting, when at last he got in he said, “Pericles, why was I kept waiting so long?” He said, “I was preparing the accounts for the citizens.” “Why take so much trouble?” said his friend; “why not declare yourself irresponsible?” Well, now, that is just what many silly infidels of this day say. They cannot get their accounts quite clear for the throne, but I tell you what they do--they declare that they are not responsible, that they are conquered by circumstances, and cannot help whatever they may be. Will that do? God will open the book of conscience, and He will judge you, and your own conscience will attest that God is true.
3. Well, then, there is the book of inspiration. Every sceptic in this land will be judged by this book. Your not believing it is no reason; if you do not believe it, you ought.
4. Well, the book of God’s providence will be opened, and God will be justified in that day. You know sometimes His providence seems dark, and we are sometimes inclined to grumble, and say this is wrong and that is wrong; but when that day comes, it will all be open, and we shall say, “It is all right,” and even the sinner will be obliged to bow his head and say, “It is all just.”
5. And there is another book--the book of God’s remembrance. It is a beautiful figure that represents the Divine knowledge as the book of God’s remembrance. That book will be opened, and your very secret sins will all be there.
6. Ay, and then the book of memory will be opened. There are some strange facts that now and then transpire with respect to human memory. I do not believe when a thing has once been in your mind you ever really lose it again. I cannot understand it at all, but I could tell you fact after fact about it. I remember coming home from an appointment one very dark night, and there came on a storm, and by and by the lightning flashed out, and for an infinitesimal portion of time I could see everything. There I saw the church steeple, which might be a mile off, as plainly as could be, and the whole of the landscape, in that infinitesimal portion of time. Have you never had it like that in your memory? I believe there is a key somewhere that would unlock everything you ever did, and bring it up before your mind. Now, when the books are opened, the book of memory will be opened, and there will come flashing up pictures of all sorts of things you did; and I tell you, if you do not get sin washed away by the blood of Christ, there is nothing for you but horrors--horrors for ever. (S. Coley.)
I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God.--
The last judgment
When Massillon pronounced one of those discourses which have placed him in the first class of orators, he found himself surrounded by the trappings and pageants of a royal funeral. The temple was not only hung with sable, but shadowed with darkness, save the few twinkling lights of the altar. The beauty and the chivalry of the land were spread out before him. There sat Majesty, clothed in sackcloth and sunk in grief. All felt in common, and as one. A sense of the indescribable nothingness of man “at his best estate,” of the meanness of the highest human grandeur, now made plain in the spectacle of that hearsed mortal, overcame him. His eye once more closed; his action was suspended; and, in a scarcely audible whisper, he broke the long-drawn pause--“There is nothing great, but God.” I take the sublimely affecting sentence and mould it to the present theme--There is nothing solemn but judgment. The thunderstorm is solemn: when the lightnings, “as arrows, shoot abroad.” But what is it to that far-resounding crash, louder than the roar and bellow of ten thousand thunders, which shall pierce the deepest charnels, and which all the dead shall hear? The ocean-tempest is solemn: when those huge billows lift up their crests; when mighty armaments are wrecked by their fury. But what is it to that commotion of the deep, when “its proud waves” shall no more “be stayed,” its ancient barriers no more be observed, the largest channels be emptied, and the deepest abyss be dried? The earthquake is solemn: when, without a warning, cities totter, and kingdoms rend, and islands flee away. But what is it to that tremour which shall convulse our globe, dissolving every law of attraction, severing every principle of aggregation, heaving all into chaos and heaping all into ruin? Great God! must our eyes see--our ears hear--these desolations and distractions? Must we look forth upon these devouring flames? Must we stand in judgment with Thee? Penetrate us now with Thy fear; awaken the attention, which Thy trump shall not fail to command; surround our imagination with the scenery of that great and terrible day!
I. Let us consider the scenery which shall illustrate this august assize. The “throne” is the emblem of royal dignity. It is the symbol of Divine supremacy. “The Lord hath prepared His throne in the heavens, and His kingdom ruleth over all.” It is “a great white throne.” It is vast, shadowy, undefined. No rainbow of the covenant girdles it; no suppliants or penitents sue before it; no pardons are issued from it. It is a tribunal throne. “He hath prepared His throne for judgment.” It is occupied. There is One, that “sitteth upon it.” This is often characteristic and distinctive of the Father. There is no manner of similitude. Nothing at first appears to guide us in the present discrimination. There is no form. It seems essential, and not distinguished, deity. But need we be at loss? “We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ.” He now “thinketh it no robbery to be equal with God,” and as God He is “Judge Himself.” “From the face” ofHim who sitteth upon the throne, “the earth and the heaven flee away.” Who can think of that countenance and not associate with It pensive downcast, deepest affliction, sweetest meekness? Into what expression mast that countenance have now kindled! With what terrors must it now be clothed! Things inanimate, insensible, smitten with a strange panic and with a sudden dismay, start back; and those refulgent heavens and this fair earth shrink into ancient disorder and anarchy: they rush into primeval chaos and night. Rut net so can the sinner “flee away”; rocks--mountains--cannot cover him; there is no hiding-place for “the workers of iniquity.” It makes little difference whether it be the greater catastrophe or the inferior; the larger could not strike a deeper terror--the smaller could not induce a less. And why do heaven and earth pass away? and why is no more place found for them? They have realised their end. They were but as the scaffolding; the erection is complete. They are of no further use. They may be set aside. “The mystery of God” is “finished.” There is “the consummation.” Time, therefore, need “be no longer.”
II. We now, then, turn to the multitude that shall be summoned to this judgment. “Death delivered up the dead which were in it.” This is the power of the grave, it is the personification of death. He who burst the barriers of the tomb and made death bow before Him--He shall send forth His mandate, publish His behest; and then the vaults and thecatacombs and the mummy pits and the bone-houses shall disgorge their relics. It was much for the sea to obey Him who sitteth on the throne; it was more for inexorable death--the grave--the sepulchre--to yield its victims; but “hell”--the place of departed spirits, where the disembodied soul of man is to be found, whether in happiness or in woe--hades has listened to a voice until then unknown to it. The gates of “the shadow of death” unbar, and its portals fly open. And now there come--there come--there come--clouds of spirits rolling upon clouds, in swift succession, with impetuous rush; sumless, but unmixed, but individualised; the consciousness of each distinct, the character of each defined, the memory of each unobliterated, and the sentence of each foredoomed. And hades sends back spirits to those bodies, which the sea and the grave may no more retain. “The small and the great stand before God.” All who have been among the mighty, and would not “let go their prisoners,” and who “destroyed the earth,” and all of minor state. None are so great that they can intimidate: none so little that they can escape. And thinking of that mighty throng, there is a distinctive circumstance which must not be overlooked: “every man was judged.” God can say, “All souls are Mine”; and all souls, on that day, shall pass in review before Him. Each of your “idle words,” each of your “vain thoughts,” each of your impure desires, every bias of your spirit, every movement of your heart must reappear. “Be sure your sin will find you out.”
III. Let us consider the process which must determine this judgment. When Hilkiah found the law, and read it to the people, they rent their clothes, terror-struck, that they had committed so many offences against a long-forgotten law. “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” He is the God of judgment. He is the God of truth. “But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth.” But then that book, which is closed to so many, shall “be opened”--shall be opened in all its injunctions, all its penalties, all its sanctions. You will not then think that its bands are small; you will not then think that its terrors are weak. If the law, by one drop of its present fury, one flash of its present power, causes the stoutest heart and the most rebel conscience to quail, how will the stoutest heart be as tow in the fire, and the most rebel conscience be as wax before the flame, when this book shall be opened!--shall be opened in all its contents, shall be opened in all its principles, shall be opened in all its awards! But these “books” may refer to the discoveries of the gospel. And these might indeed cheer, and these ought indeed to fortify, if you have “won Christ and arefound in Him.” Yet if you are unbelievers still, if you are “enemies in your minds by wicked works,” this book, the word of reconciliation, is more portentous in its aspect against you, even them the volume of the law. You will be judged “according to this gospel.” All the beseechings of mercy, all the remonstrances of authority, all the pleadings of tenderness! This book shall be opened only the more terribly to convict and to condemn. Mercy will in that day be more terrible than justice. (R. W. Hamilton, D. D.)
The last judgment
I. The majesty of the tribunal.
II. The person of this judge. Here is justice, we may say, here is retribution, in the very commencement of this judgment, the very constitution of this court--the once abased but now exalted--openly exalted--Jesus, is receiving from His Father a compensation for all His former degradation and shame.
III. The dissolution of the whole material world. What is a man advantaged if he gain the whole of such a world as this? The world would be a poor thing to make our portion, even if it were destined to last for ever, but we shall be alive ages and ages after it has perished; and if theworld is our all, where then will our happiness be? where will our comfort and support be?
IV. The strange, vast assembly gathered together in it.
V. The process of this judgment.
1. Its exactness. “The books were opened.” “The books were opened”--the book of God’s law; the law of His universe, which every creature is bound by his very existence in His universe to obey. The book of His gospel--a book superadded in man’s case to the book of the law, and as binding on man when made known to him as the law itself. And then there is a hook to be opened within us, the book of memory and conscience. There are few of us who have not at intervals been surprised at the power of these two faculties within us; it is an indication of their future power when they are called forth in their full energy before our Judge.
2. The justice or equity of this judgment: “The dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books.” False accusers can do nothing against us now. Friends and flatterers can do nothing for us. They will not be listened to. The books--the true and faithful books only--will be regarded, and by their testimony will our sentence be determined.
3. The wonderful grace that will be manifested by Him in this judgment. There is another book mentioned. “Another book was opened, which is the book of life.” “He that believeth shall be saved,” it says. “Now bring forward that book of life. It is My once secret register of all that are Mine. Open it. There stands that man’s name written; I with My own hand wrote it there; and though My law condemns him, and record upon record condemns him, yet he believed in Me for salvation, and that is enough--I will never condemn him. I will not blot out his name out of that book of life, but I will confess his name, declare and proclaim it here as a name dear to Me, before My Father and before His angels.” (C. Bradley, M. A.)
The great assize
There are three great days connected with the history of our race.
1. The day the world was made.
2. The day the world was redeemed.
3. The day the world will be judged. It is to the last of these days our text invites attention. Come forth with me and view the scene. Every prophecy is fulfilled, the last hour arrived; the funeral day of the world has come. For the first and last time are found in one great assembly every angel, every saint, and every devil. The books are opened.
I. The preliminaries of the judgment.
1. The day will be ushered in with sound of trumpet and the voice of God. The debaucher will be revelling in obscenity--the prodigal rioting in prodigality and wantonness--the self-righteous wrapped up in his own carnal security--the robber on his errand of sin--the whisperer slandering his neighbour--the infidel glorying in his shame--the miser counting over his gold--the soldier in the tented field--the sailor on the briny deep--the careless sitting at ease--the hypocrite practising deceit. When the shrill blast of the archangel’s trump, waxing louder than ten thousand thunders, shall shake the earth, and the angel shall swear by Him that liveth for ever and ever that time shall be no more.
2. The Judge will appear. Every eye shall see Him, for like the sun He will appear equally near to all who shall be placed at His dread tribunal. All our previous ideas of grandeur will be infinitely surpassed by the realities of this solemn scene.
3. The dead shall be raised, and all created intelligences shall stand arraigned before the judgment-seat. People of every age and condition, rank and degree. Populous assemblies! Not one missing of past, present, or future generations.
II. Proceedings of the judgment. “And the books were opened.”
1. There will be the book of God’s omniscience. Every thought, feeling, desire, motive, and purpose of every heart are fully recorded; and every act of every life.
2. The book of conscience. The one will be found to tally exactly with the other. Oh, trifle not with your conscience, for it will wake up in the judgment and echo the truthfulness of God’s omniscience.
3. The book of life. The Divine wisdom or remembrance, whereby the Lord knoweth them that are His.
III. Its final and irreversible results.
1. The whole will be divided, and there shall be no mistake. Not one sinner shall stand in this vast congregation of the righteous.
2. Sentence will be pronounced. If we have not on the wedding garment, we must hear that awfully tremendous voice saying unto us, “Depart, ye cursed.”
3. Execution of the sentence. (J. D. Carey.)
The last judgment
I. The seat of judgment--a great white throne.
1. Its dignity. A throne is the seat of royalty (1Ki_10:18-19; Isa_6:1).
2. Its purity. White is an emblem of purity. As from the majesty of this throne there can be no appeal, so with respect to the equity of it there can be no just cause of complaint.
II. The author of judgment.
1. Who is the Judge? Jehovah in the person of Christ. The Father judgeth no man (Joh_5:22).
2. His qualification for His work.
III. Infinite knowledge.
(1) Unspotted justice.
(2) Unlimited power.
III. The subjects of judgment. “I saw the dead, small and great,” etc.
1. The appearance will be universal.
2. The appearance will be inevitable.
IV. The rule of judgment. Conclusion:
1. Flee to the Cross of Christ.
2. Ever associate that day with feelings of the deepest solemnity. (J. G. Breay, B. A. )
The last judgment
I. The subjects of the judgment.
1. The dead, small and great.
(1) Young and old.
(2) Rich and poor.
(3) Illiterate and learned.
2. These shall stand together before God.
(1) Social distinctions are not accounted at that tribunal.
(2) Ethnic distinctions cease.
(3) Distinctions of time also are at an end.All generations mingle in one grand congregation.
3. The value of character will then appear.
(1) When conventional, accidental distinctions vanish, the real, permanent distinctions of character come out in the boldest relief.
(2) The interval of the disembodied and millennial states will afford the best opportunities for reflection upon that conduct which is now crystallised into character.
(3) If anything further is needed to force home this lesson upon the spirit, here it is in the excitements of the judgment--the prodigies--the Judge--the witnesses--the impending doom.
II. The character of the judge.
1. Christ appears not now as Mediator.
(1) Death ends probation.
(2) The shadows of the great judgment are felt here in the court of conscience. Works, words, thoughts, motives, should be ever examined here in anticipation of the more imposing court.
(3) The preparation of holiness we must have.
2. He now appears as King.
(1) He comes “in the glory of His Father”--the glory of His Divinity. The dead “stand before God.”
(2) He comes in “His own glory”--the glory of His exalted and beatified manhood. Here is the only universal Monarch. On His head are many crowns.
(3) He comes with His retinue of holy angels.
3. His resources are equal to the occasion.
(1) See the effect of His glance. The world kindles into conflagration (verse 11; 2Pe_3:7-12).
(2) The eye of flame can discriminate as it can search.
(3) What impiety can dare that throne?
III. The standards of the judgment.
1. The book of God’s works.
(1) This volume treats of His power. The forces of Nature assert His sovereignty. How has that been respected?
(2) It treats also of His wisdom. The exquisite dovetailing of things, nice adjustments, wonderful adaptations, assert His adorableness. How has that been respected?
(3) It treats further of His goodness. What contrivances to give pleasure to His creatures! Every voice of beneficence calls for gratitude. How have we responded?
2. The book of God’s Word.
(1) In this we have His law.
(2) In this also we have His gospel.
3. The book of memory.
(1) God’s memory forgets nothing.
(2) Man’s memory will be prodigiously quickened.
4. The book of condemnation.
(1) The names of the doomed are written there. The character of the writing is legible and black.
(2) How many millions will find their names there! Is yours amongst the number?
(3) What does it mean to be written there? Exclusion from heaven.
5. “And another book was opened which is the book of life.” (J. A. Macdonald.)
The last assize
Though the Book of Revelation contains much that is mysterious, and even inexplicable, passages such as this are as instructive as magnificent. The delineation is that of transactions in which we must all bear a part in the last general assize. It was before the Redeemer that the mighty multitude of those whom the grave had surrendered were arraigned, the title of absolute divinity being justly assigned to Him who is evidently the Son of Man, seeing that the two natures coalesced indissolubly in His person. Our text then proceeds to give some account of the principles upon which judgment will be conducted, showing that an accurate register has been kept of human actions, and that men will be judged according to their works, and therefore judged in righteousness. We know not whether the principles of God’s moral government are insisted on with sufficient frequency and urgency from our pulpits, but we are sure that they produce not their due influence on the great mass of men. Here and there, indeed, you may meet with an individual whose thoughts are set on the account which he must one day render, and whose habitual endeavour it is to preserve an habitual sense of the coming of the Lord. But even individuals such as these will confess to you that their endeavours are but partially successful; that they have great cause of humiliation before God, on account of their forgetfulness of the day of trial. So that there can be no class of hearers to whom the subject of discourse presented by our text is not appropriate. We shall premise a few remarks on the necessity of a general judgment, in order to vindicate God’s moral government, and then proceed to examine the several assertions made in our text in regard to this fact. Now, in every age of the world, men have been perplexed by what seemed opposite evidences as to the superintending care of a wise and beneficent Being. On the one hand, there is no doubt that we live under a retributive government, and that cognisance is taken of our actions by an invisible but ever-present Being whose attributes render Him the determined foe of vice and the steadfast upholder of righteousness. On the other hand, there has been an irresistible demonstration, from the experience of all ages, that no accurate proportion is at present maintained between conduct and condition, but that vice has most frequently the upper hand, while righteousness is depressed and overwhelmed. There has been no reconciling of these apparent contradictions, except by supposing that human existence would not terminate with death, but that in another, though yet unknown state, vice would receive its due meed of vengeance, and righteousness of reward. Thus you see how reason concurs with revelation in directing your thoughts to a state of retribution. We next remark that the season of judgment is not to arrive until the end of all things, when the dead shall be raised. Once admit that all men are to be put upon trial, and you also admit, so far as we can see, that their final portion is not entered upon ere that trial is past; for what could be more contrary to all show of justice than the sentencing after execution? But when men would curiously inquire into the particulars of the intermediate state, we are not at all able to answer their questions. We doubt not that the justified soul is immediately assured of its acceptance with God, and consigned to the peace and repose in the blessed certainty that heaven will be its portion. We doubt as little that the soul of him who dies in his impenitence is immediately conscious that its doom is determined, and given over to anguish and remorse because allowed no hope that lost time may be redeemed and hell yet avoided. It is the whole man, the compound of spirit and flesh, which has obeyed or transgressed; it must be therefore the whole man which is put upon trial, and which receives the portion whether of promise or threatening. Thus, whatever our thoughts of the intermediate state, we know that the allotments of eternity cannot be fully dealt out unless the vision of our text shall have been first accomplished, “and the dead, small and great, stand before their God.” We pass now to the contemplation of the person of the Judge. We wish to set before you the combined wisdom and mercy of the appointment, that He who is to decide our portion for eternity, is the very Being who died as our surety. We cannot dispense with the omniscience of Deity; we see clearly enough that no finite intelligence can be adequate to that decision which will ensure the thorough justice of future retribution. But then neither can we dispense with the feelings of humanity; at least we can have no confidence in approaching His tribunal if we are sure that the difference in nature incapacitates Him from sympathy with those whose sentence He is about to pronounce, and precludes the possibility of His so making our case His own as to allow of His deciding with due allowance for our feebleness and temptations. It is thus we are assured that mercy and justice will alike have full scope in the transactions of the judgment, and that in appointing that the Mediator who died as our substitute will preside at our trial, God hath equally provided that every decision shall be impartial, and yet every man be dealt with as brother to Him who must determine our fate. It would have been an encouragement to wickedness had the Judge been mere man, and therefore liable to be deceived. It would have filled humble piety with dread had the Judge been only God, and therefore not “touched with a feeling of our infirmities.” This leads us to our concluding point, the thorough righteousness of the whole procedure of the judgment. (H. Melvill,B. D.)
The judgment
It is related of Daniel Webster, the reality of whose moral endowments no one disputes, that when once asked what was the greatest thought that had ever occupied his mind, he replied, “The fact of my personal accountability to God.” Eliminate accountability, and man drops into the category of instinct and natural desire; if he is a savage, he becomes a beast; if he is civilised, he becomes virtually a criminal. Freedom and conscience imply accountability; accountability implies rendering account, and this implies a judgment; such is the logic that covers human life, few and simple in its links, but strong as adamant and inexorable as fate. It underlies and binds together the twofold kingdom of time and eternity--one chain, whether it binds things in heaven or things on the earth. It is the weakness of formulated theology that it arbitrarily transfers the most august and moving features of God’s moral government to a future world, thus placing the wide and mysterious gulf of time and death between actions and their motives. All broken law begins at once to incur judgment; the quick pang of conscience that follows sin is the first stroke of judgment; while undergoing it the soul is passing a crisis, and turns to the right or the left hand of eternal righteousness. Thus we are all the while rendering account to the laws without and within; we are all the while undergoing judgment and receiving sentence of acquittal or condemnation. Conduct is always reaching crises andentering upon its consequences. It may be cumulative in degree, and reach crises more and more marked; it may at last reach a special crisis which shall be the judgment when the soul shall turn to the right or left of eternal destiny. A profound view of judgment as a test or crisis entailing separation, shows us that it attends change; for it is through change that the moral nature is aroused to special action. It is a law that catastrophes awaken conscience. It is also a peculiarity of the action of the moral nature under great outward changes that man is disclosed to himself. Recall the most joyful event of your lives, and you will find it to have been also a period of great self-knowledge. Recall your deepest sorrow and you will still more vividly recognise it as an experience in which there was a deep, interior measurement of yourself. If change has this revealing and judging power, the change of worlds must have it in a superlative degree. It is appointed unto men once to die, and after that cometh judgment; the testing and unveiling of character and conduct. Pre-eminently, far beyond anything that has preceded, man is then judged and assigned his true place and direction. I think the central truth of the judgment can nowhere more easily be got at than in the passage before us. No other symbol than that of “books” could so vividly convey the fact that the whole life comes into judgment. Nothing is left out or forgotten; there can be no mistake. The books are the unerring transcript of the life. The simplicity of the symbol is marred by the introduction of “another book” than those recording the works. Why is there “another book which is the book of life “--and what does it mean? Mankind do not go up to the throne of God to be judged simply by their works. Parallel with humanity is the kingdom of heaven. Parallel with men’s deeds are the purposes of God. Over and above what humanity does of itself is a plan of redemption, the working out of which enters into human destiny. It may be that the other book represents that other power, and the influences that flow out of thelife of Christ. It is a book of life, and He is the life of the world. Men are judged by the records of their works, but it may be that the sentence pronounced is affected by what is written in the book of life. I am aware that this complicates the thought, but we must remember that the problem of spiritual destiny is not absolutely simple. But we will leave this side issue and turn to the main thought--the books out of which men are judged. The books must be found in God, or nature, or man. The mind of God must indeed be a tablet whereon are written all the works of men, but let us not touch that ineffable mystery without warrant. Science, in the person of some of its high priests, has suggested that all the deeds of men are conserved as distinct forces in the ether that fills the spaces of heaven, and may be brought together again in true form, in some new cosmos, as light traversing space as motion is turned to heat when arrested by the earth. But we can find no link between such a fact, if it be a fact, and the moral process of judgment. We must search manhimself for the elements of his great account. Take the mind: at first it is merely a set of faculties, without even self-consciousness, but contact with the world brings them into action--first observation, then memory; soon the imagination spreads its folded wings; then comes the process of comparison and combination, and thus the full process of thinking is developed--a process to which there is no end, and the capacities of which are immeasurable. When we reach the limit of our own powers, we open the pages of some great master of thought, and there find new realms that reveal corresponding powers. Take the soul: there are faculties that exist only in germ till certain periods of life arise. The child knows nothing of the love that breaks in upon the youth with its rapturous pain and yearning of insatiable desire, flooding the heights of his being, but the capacity was in the child. The soft touch of a babe’s hand unlocks new rooms in the heart of the mother. New relations, new stages of life, disclose new powers and reveal the mysteries of our being. We are all the while finding out new agencies in nature; even its component parts are not yet all discovered, while the forces developed by combination aredoubtless immeasurable in number and degree. Take the memory, the faculty through which the consciousness of identity is preserved. With so important a function to fulfil, it is altogether probable that its action is absolute, that is, it never forgets. We cannot understand its action, but probably we speak accurately when we say that an impression is made upon the mind. The theory that memory is a physical act, and therefore cannot outlast death, is untenable. Matter, having no real identity, cannot uphold a sense of identity, which is the real office of memory. The impression of what we do, say, hear, see, feel, and think, is stamped upon the mind. An enduring matrix receives the impression; is it probable that it is ever lost? We think we forget, but our thought is corrected by everyday experience. The mind wearied by till forgets at night, but remembers when sleep has refreshed the body. The body forgot; the mind retained its knowledge. We forget the faces we have seen, but on the first fresh glimpse we remember them. We revisit scenes that long since had faded from memory, but the new sight uncovers the old impression. Even so slight a thing as a note of music, or a perfume, will bring up scenes long ago forgotten; a strain of music, and a face that had grown dim to memory, comes back from the dead in all its freshness. De Quincey, a profound observer upon the subject, says that when under the influence of opium, the most trifling incidents of his early life would pass again and again before his distempered vision, varying their form, but the same in substance. These incidents, which were originally somewhat painful, would swell into vast proportions of agony, and rise into the most appalling catastrophes. This was the action of a diseased nature, but it indicates what shape our lives may assume if viewed at last through the medium of a sin-diseased soul Not only does the memory retain conduct, but all impressions upon the soul remain imbedded within it. Nothing is lost that has once happened to it. We are taking into ourselves the world about us, the society in which we move, the impress of every sympathetic contact with good or evil, and we shall carry them with us for ever. We do not pass through a world for nought--it follows us because it has become a part of us. It may be said that these impressions are so numerous and conflicting that they can yield no distinct picture hereafter. But we must not limit the capacity of the soul in this respect, in the presence of greater mysteries. In some sense, it may present, as it were, a continually fresh surface. A most apt illustration waits upon our thought drawn from the palimpsests forbad in the monasteries of Italy; parchments that, centuries ago, were inscribed with the history or laws of heathen Rome, the edicts of persecuting emperors, or the annals of conquest. When the Church arose, the same parchments were used again to record the legends and prayers of the saints. Later still, they were put to further use in rehearsing the speculations of the schoolmen, or the revival of letters, yet presenting but one written surface. But modern science has learned to uncover these overlaid writings one after another, finding upon one surface the speculations of learning, the prayers of the Church, and the blasphemies of paganism. And so it may be with the tablets of the soul, written over and over again, but no writing ever effaced, they wait for the master-hand that shall uncover them to be read of all, What are these apocalyptic books but records of our works printed upon our hearts? What are the books opened but man opened to himself? is is a view of the judgment that men cannot scoff at. Its elements are provided; its forces areat work; it lies within the scope of every man’s knowledge. It is but the whole of what we already know in part. As there are powers in man that render judgment possible, so there are conditions on the other side that cooperate. One cannot be judged except there be one who judges. Man is judged by man; nothing else were fit. The deflections from perfect humanity cannot be measured except by the standard of perfect humanity. Hence it is the Son of Man, the humanity of God, who judges. When man meets Him, all is plain. His perfection is the test; He furnishes the contrast that repels, or the likeness that draws. This then is judgment: man revealed by the unveiling of his life, and tested by the Son of Man. (T. T. Munger.)
The judgment
I. Its place in Christian belief.
1. It is an essential part in the creed of a Christian.
2. Its importance may be gathered from its prominence in the Scriptures. It is foretold in the Old Testament--the Psalms, Isaiah, Daniel, Malachi, all reveal it. Our Lord, in His parables, especially in those called “eschatological,” because of their reference to the “last things.” The scene in Mat_25:1-46. is in line with the text. The day of judgment is pointed to both in the Epistles and Apocalypse.
3. Yet belief in the general judgment is difficult. The mystery is so transcendental, so vast, so seemingly unlikely, that the inability of the imagination to bring home to itself this stupendous truth is apt to lead the understanding astray and to obscure the light of faith.
II. Why there should be a general judgment? The question was debated of old, why the particular judgment of the soul in the hour of death should not suffice. It was urged that the Lord judged the penitent thief and rewarded him with Paradise on the day of his death; Nah_1:9 was quoted; and the fact that desert appertains only to the deeds of this life. Yet one verse demolished all this (Joh_12:48). The reasons for the general judgment may be found in this--that the issue of our actions do not stop with the actions themselves. Not only actions, but their far-reaching effects, will form the subject-matter of that tribunal. The complete being, body and soul, must also be arraigned before judgment is complete.
III. The procedure.
1. The persons: “the dead,” the living being numerically inconsiderable when compared with the generations of mankind who had departed.
2. “Small and great” stand before God--that is, all earthly distinctions no longer are of any account; as we should say, “all sorts and conditions of men.” The only surviving difference is that of goodness or badness.
3. They stand before the throne. They are not merely spirits, but men and women in bodily form.
4. He who sits upon the throne is the Son of man.
5. “The books were opened,” etc.; that is, the secrets of all hearts are made manifest (Psa_1:3; 1Co_4:5). “Another book,” etc., has been differently explained, as that which pours light upon what is written in “The books,” declaring what is good and what is bad in reality; or again, it is taken to be the book of Divine predestination; or again, as by St. Anselm, as “the life of Jesus,” which is to test the life of His followers, which, perhaps, is the best exposition, for the issues are decided by the live
