seventy years? not one sin omitted, and each, by God's eternal law, deserving the sentence of death. Fire cannot burn, nor water wash out the letters of death in these books of God, the books that shall be opened, at the last day, against the sinner. "And the books were opened," saith the scripture; and they shall be opened. And they shall be written in fire, within and without; they shall be as the scroll of the prophet, filled with lamentation and mourning and woe, and their words shall pass from the register of God into the sinner's heart, and there shall they be engraven for ever.

And this brings me to a concluding remark, touching the book out of which we shall be judged, at the great and terrible day of the Lord. It is recorded of persons, who have been near drowning, that, when recovered, they have said, that, in an instant, the whole of their past life was brought up before their eyes; not a portion here and there, but the whole at once, at a stroke, forty or fifty years together, flash

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ing on the mind. Brethren, brethren, not only will the books of God never forget ; but, when it comes to the trial, you will find that your own heart and conscience do not really forget so much as one sin, so much as one rebuke of God, within you! All is written down there, whether you perceive it or not. And of this we are sometimes conscious, when long-forgotten things start up on a sudden, and we see that, though we knew it not, there they were lying all the time, at the bottom of the soul! The past is not dead, but only sleepeth!

Conscience is thus God's servant, and, even when you think that she is asleep, she is noting down, year after year, these terrible books! It is making the sinner's own heart a record of condemnation; his own soul an eternal sentence of death! Oh! what an awakening that will be, when, in the twinkling of an eye, the soul, dead in sin while it lived, shall beroused by the stroke of God! It shall have the dimensions of its thoughts and memory so enlarged, as

to look at long years and all they contain, in a moment, as it now looks on a day or hour! What an awakening when the sinful past, and the avenging future shall be joined into the terrible present, and, in the mirror of his own soul, all the sins a man hath ever done shall in consuming flashes be reflected back upon him! Now men taste the bitterness of sin, only by moments. The vengeance of Almighty God is broken up into single strokes, and conscience torments us for one sin at a time. Surely that is painful enough. What will it be, when ten thousand thousand sins are felt at once, and their collected bitterness, as from a gathered vintage, is pressed out into a single cup of woe! Verily, in the hand of the Lord, there is a cup, and the wine is red, and the ungodly of the earth shall drink it out to the dregs thereof.

But, saith the Scripture, "another book was opened, which was the book of life." Therein are written down the works and graces of the saints! They too are judged

by their works. But is it for their own worth? Nay, brethren, God forbid! They are precious in God's sight, and they shall be judged and rewarded thereby. But it is because they are signs and fruits of the faith which God hath given to the saints. All their unworthy offerings have been washed in the blood of the Lamb, and made exceeding precious for his adorable sake, in the eyes of their heavenly Father.

And now, He that was wrapped in swaddling clothes, sitteth gloriously on his throne; and He that was judged by the wicked, is become the Judge; and He that walked on earth as man, is confessed and worshipped as the eternal God, and cometh to take his chosen into their eternal rest! Verily, we shall see that Scripture saith true. There is no condemnation for them that are in Christ Jesus, who live not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, and death is the gate to life, and the judgment-day the day of their crowning and their triumph! O death! where is thy sting? O grave! where is thy victory?

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SERMON XIII.

MATT. XXV. 31.- "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."

THE account which our Lord here gives of the judgment-day is, in many respects, so minute, that it requires a separate examination. Let us stand in thought before the tremendous throne, and prepare for the awful inquisition with a loving and reverent awe. It will enable us, as we proceed, to gather up in one many of the circumstances which we have already viewed apart. Let us view it, as Christ hath laid it before us!

1. Christ being here "the Son of man," his glory is to be considered as his reward.