The Great Assize

Delivered on Lord's Day Evening, August 25th, 1872, by

C. H. SPURGEON,

At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

'For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that
everyone may receive the things done in his body, according to that he
hath done, whether it be good or bad.''2Corinthians 5:10.

THIS MORNING WE preached concerning the resurrection of the dead, and
it seems consistent with order to carry forward our thoughts this
evening, to that which follows immediately after the resurrection,
namely: THE GENERAL JUDGMENT; for the dead rise on purpose that they
may be judged in their bodies. The Resurrection is the immediate
prelude to the Judgment. There is no need that I try to prove to you
from Scripture that there will be a general judgment, for the Word of
God abounds with proof-passages. You have them in the Old Testament.
You find David anticipating that great assize in the Psalms (especially
in such as the forty-ninth and fiftieth, the ninety-sixth Psalm, and
the three that follow it), FOR MOST ASSUREDLY THE LORD COMETH: HE
COMETH TO JUDGE THE EARTH IN RIGHTEOUSNESS. Very solemnly and very
tenderly does Solomon in the Ecclesiastes warn the young man, that, let
him rejoice as he may and cheer his heart in the days of his youth, for
all these things God will bring him into judgment; for God will judge
every secret thing. Daniel in the night visions beholds the Son of Man
coming with the clouds of heaven, and drawing near to the Ancient of
Days; then he sits upon the throne of judgment AND THE NATIONS ARE
GATHERED BEFORE HIM. It was no new doctrine to the Jews; it was
received and accepted by them as a most certain fact that there would
be a day in which God would judge the earth in righteousness. The New
Testament is very express. The twenty-fifth of Matthew, which we read
to you just now, contains language, which could not possibly be more
clear and definite, from the lips of the Saviour himself. He is the
faithful witness, and cannot lie. You are told that before him will be
gathered ALL NATIONS, and he shall divide them the one from the other,
as the shepherd divideth the sheep from the goats. Other passages there
are in abundance, as, for instance, the one that is now before us,
which is plain enough. Another we might quote is in the second epistle
to the Thessalonians, the first chapter, from the seventh to the tenth
verse. Let Us read it, ' And to you who are troubled rest with us, when
the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in
flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey
not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with
everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the
glory of his power; when he shall come to be glorified in his saints,
and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among
you was believed) in that day.' The book of the Revelation is very
graphic in its depicting that last general judgment. Turn to the
twentieth chapter, at the eleventh and twelfth verses. The seer of
Patmos says, ' And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it,
from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found
no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before
God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is
the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which
were written in the books, according to their works.' Time would fail
me to refer you to all the Scriptures. It is asserted over and over
again by the Holy Spirit, whose Word is truth, that THERE WILL BE A
JUDGMENT OF THE QUICK AND OF THE DEAD.

Beside that direct testimony, it should be remembered there is a
convincing argument that so it must needs be, from the very fact that
God is just as the Ruler over men. In all human governments there must
he an assize held. Government cannot be conducted without its days of
session and of trial, and, inasmuch as there is evidently sin and evil
in this world, it might fairly be anticipated that there would be a
time when God will go on circuit, and when he will call the prisoners
before him, and the guilty shall receive their condemnation. Judge for
yourselves: is this present state the conclusion of all things? If so,
what evidence would you adduce of the divine justice, in the teeth of
the fact that the best of men are often in this world the poorest and
the most afflicted, while the worst of men acquire wealth, practice
oppression, and receive homage from the crowd? Who are they that ride
in the high places of the earth? Are they not those, great
transgressors, who 'wade through slaughter to a throne and shut the
gates of mercy on mankind'? Where are the servants of God? They are in
obscurity and suffering full often. Do they not sit like Job among the
ashes, subjects of little pity, objects of much upbraiding? And where
are the enemies of God? Do not many of them wear purple and fine linen
and fare sumptuously every day? If there be no hereafter, then Dives
has the best of it; and the selfish man who fears not God, is after
all, the wisest of men and more to be commended than his fellows. But
it cannot be so. Our common sense revolts against the thought. There
must be another state in which these anomalies will all be rectified.
'If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the
most miserable,' says the apostle. The best of men were driven to the
worst of straits in those persecuting times for being God's servants.
How say ye then, 'Finis coronat opus,' the end crowns the work? That
cannot be the final issue of life, or justice itself were frustrated.
There must be a restitution for those who suffer unjustly: there must
be a punishment for the wicked and the oppressor.

Not only may this be affirmed from a general sense of justice, but
there is in the conscience of most men, if not of all, an assent to
this fact. As an old Puritan says, 'God holds a petty session in every
man's conscience, which is the earnest of the assize which he will hold
by and by; for almost all men judge themselves, and their conscience
knows this to be wrong and that to be right. I say 'almost all,' for
there seems to be in this generation a race of men who have so
stultified their conscience that the spark appears to have gone out,
and they put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. The lie they seem
to approve, but the truth they do not recognize. But let conscience
alone and do not stultify her, and you shall find her bearing witness
that there is a Judge of all the earth who must do right.' Now this is
peculiarly the case when conscience is allowed full play. Men who are
busy about their work or entertained with their pleasures, often keep
their consciences quiet. As John Bunyan puts it, they shut up Mr
Conscience; they blind his windows; they barricade his doors; and as
for the great bell on the top of the house, which the old gentleman was
wont to ring, they cut the rope of it, so that he cannot get at it, for
they do not wish him to disturb the town of Man-soul. But when death
comes, it often happens that Mr. Conscience escapes from his
prison-house, and then, I warrant you, he will make such a din that
there is not a sleeping head in all Man-soul. He will cry out and
avenge himself for his constrained silence, and make the man know that
there is a something within him not quite dead, which cries out still
for justice, and that sin cannot go unchastised. There must be a
judgment, then. Scripture asserts it, that would be enough: but by way
of collateral evidence the natural order of things requires it; and
conscience attests it.

Now we come to consider what our text says about the Judgment. I pray
you, brethren, if I should speak coldly tonight on this momentous
truth, or fail to excite your attention and stir your deepest emotions,
forgive me, and may God forgive me, for I shall have good reason to ask
God's forgiveness, seeing that if ever a topic should arouse the
preacher to a zeal for the honor of his Lord and for the welfare of his
fellow creatures, and so make him doubly in earnest, it is this. But,
then, permit me to say, that, if ever there was a theme quite
independent of the speaker, which on its own account alone should
command your thoughtfulness, it is that which I now bring before you. I
feel no need of oratory or of speech well selected: the bare mention of
the fact that such a judgment is impending, and will ere long occur,
might well hold you in breathless silence, still the very throbbings of
your pulse, and choke the utterance of my lips. The certainty of it,
the reality of it, the terrors that accompany it, the impossibility of
escaping from it, all appeal to us now and demand our vigilance.

I. Ask ye now, who is it, or who ARE THEY THAT WILL HAVE APPEAR BEFORE
THE THRONE OF JUDGMENT? The answer is plain; it admits of no exemption:
'We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.' This is very
decisive, if there were no other text. We must all appear; that is to
say, every one of the human race. We must all appear. And that the
godly will not be exempted from this appearance is very clear, for the
apostle here is speaking to Christians. He says, 'We walk by faith, not
by sight. We are confident. We labour' and so on; and then he puts it,
'We must all appear.' So that, beyond all others, it is certain that
all Christians must appear there. The text is quite conclusive upon
that point. And if we had not that text, we nave the passage in
Matthew, which we have read, in which the sheep are summoned there as
certainly as are the goats; and the passage in the Revelation, where
all the dead are judged according to the things which are written in
the books. They are all there. And if the objection should be raised,
'We thought that the sins of the righteous being pardoned, and for ever
blotted out, they could never come into judgment,' we have only to
remind you, beloved, that if they are so pardoned and blotted out, as
they undoubtedly are, the righteous have no reason to fear coming into
judgment. They are the persons who covet the judgment, and will be able
to strand there to receive a public acquittal from the mouth of the
great Judge. Who, among us, wishes, as it were, to be smuggled into
heaven unlawfully? Who desires to have it said by the damned in hell,
'You were never tried, or else you might have been condemned as we
were.' No, brethren, we have a hope that we can stand the trial. The
way of righteousness by Christ Jesus enables us to submit ourselves to
the most tremendous tests which even that burning day can bring forth.
We are not afraid to be put into the balances. We even desire that day
when our faith in Jesus Christ is strong and firm; for we say, 'who is
he that condemneth?' We can challenge the day of judgment. Who is he
that shall lay anything to our charge in that day, or at any other,
since Christ hath died and hath risen again?It is needful that the
righteous should be there that there may not be any partiality in the
matter whatever; that the thing may be all clear and straight, and that
the rewards of the righteous may be seen to be, though of grace, yet
without any violation of the most rigorous justice. Dear brethren, what
a day it will be for the righteous! For some of them were'perhaps some
here present are'lying under some very terrible accusation of which
they are perfectly guiltless. All will be cleared up then, and that
will be one great blessing of that day. There will be a resurrection of
reputations as well as of bodies. Men call the righteous, fools; then
shall they shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. They
hounded them to death, as not being fit to live. In early ages they
laid to the Christians charges of the most terrible character, which I
should count it shame to mention. But then they will all be clear; and
those of whom the world was not worthy, who were driven and hunted
about find made to dwell in the caves of the earth, they shall come
forth as worthy ones, and the world shall know her true aristocracy,
earth shall own her true nobility. The men whose names she cast out as
evil, all then be held in great repute, for they shall stand out clear
and transparent without spot or blemish. It is well that there should
be a trial for the righteous, for the clearing of them, the vindication
of them, and that it should be public, defying the evil and criticism
of all mankind.

'We must all appear.' What a vast assembly, what a prodigious
gathering, that of the entire human race! It struck me as I was
meditating upon this subject, what would be the thoughts of Father
Adam, as he stood there with Mother Eve and looked upon his offspring.
It will be the first time in which he has ever had the opportunity of
seeing all his children met together. What a sight will he then
behold'far stretching, covering all the globe which they inhabit,
enough not only to people all earth's plains, but crown her hill-tops,
and cover even the ways of the sea, so numberless must the human race
have been, if all the generations that have ever lived, or shall ever
live, shall at once rise from the dead. Oh, what a sight will that be!
Is it too marvelous for our imagination to picture? Yet it is quite
certain that the assemblage will be mustered, and the spectacle will he
beheld. Every one from before the Flood, from the days of the
Patriarchs, from the times of David, from the Babylonian kingdom, all
the legions of Assyria, all the hosts of Persia, all the phalanx of the
Greeks, all the vast armies and legions of Rome, the barbarian, the
Scythian, the bond, the free, men of every color and of every
tongue'they shall all stand in that great day before the Judgment Seat
of Christ. There come the kings'no greater than the men they call their
slaves. There come the princes'but they have doffed their coronets, for
they must stand like common flesh and blood. Here come the judges, to
be judged themselves, and the advocates and barristers, needing an
advocate on their own account. Here come those that thought themselves
too good, and kept the street to themselves. There are the Pharisees,
hustled by the Publicans on either side and sunk down to the natural
level with them. Mark the peasants rising from the soil; see the
teeming myriads from outside the great cities streaming in, countless
hosts such as no Alexander or Napoleon ever beheld! See how the servant
is as great as his master! 'Liberty, Equality, Fraternity,' are now
proclaimed. No kings, no princes, no nobles, can shelter themselves
behind their order, assert a privilege or claim an immunity. Alike on
one common level they stand together, to be tried before the last
tremendous tribunal. There shall come the wicked of every sort. Proud
Pharaoh shall be there; Senacherib, the haughty; Herod, that would have
slain the young child; Judas, that betrayed his master; Demas, that
sold him for gold; and Pilate, who would fain have washed his hands in
innocency. There shall come the long list of infallibles, the whole
line of popes, to receive their damnation at the Almighty's hands, and
the priests that trod upon the necks of nations, and the tyrants that
used the priests as their tools'they shall come to receive the
thunderbolts of God which they so richly deserve. Oh, what a scene will
it be! These little companies, which look to us so large when they are
gathered together beneath this roof, how do they shrink into the drop
of a bucket as compared with the ocean of life that shall swell around
the throne at the last great Judgment day. They shall all be there.

Now, the most important thought connected with this to me, is that I
shall be there; to you young men, that you will be there; to you, ye
aged of every sort, that you, in propria personae'each one shall be
there. Are you rich? Your dainty dress shall be put off. Are you poor?
Your rags shall not exempt you from attendance at that court. None
shall say'I am too obscure.' You must come up from that hiding place.
None shall say, 'I am too public.' You must come down from that
pedestal. Everyone must be there. Note the word 'We', 'We must all
appear.'

And still further, note the word, 'appear.' ' We must all appear.' No
disguise will be possible. Ye cannot come there dressed in masquerade
of profession or attired in robes of state, but we must appear; we must
be seen through, must be displayed, must be revealed; off will come
your garments, and your spirit will be judged of God, not after
appearance, but according to the inward heart. Oh, what a day that will
be when every man shall see himself, and every man shall see his,
fellow, and the eyes of angels and the eyes of devils, and the eyes of
God upon the throne, shall see us through and through. Let these
thoughts dwell upon your minds, while you take this for the answer to
our first enquiry, 'Who is to be judged?'

II. Our second question is, Who will be the judge? 'We must all appear
before the judgment seat of Christ.' That Christ should be appointed
judge of all mankind is most proper and fitting. Our British law
ordains that a man shall be tried by his peers, and there is justice in
the statute. Now the Lord God will judge men, but at the same time it
will be in the person of Jesus Christ the man. Men shall be judged by a
man. He that was once judged by men shall judge men. Jesus knows what
man should be; he has been under the law himself in deep humility, who
is ordained to administer the law in high authority. He can hold the
scales of justice evenly, for he has stood in man's place and borne and
braved man's temptations; he therefore is the most fit judge that could
be selected. I have sometimes heard and read sermons in which the
preacher said that a Christian ought to rejoice that his judge is his
friend. There may be no impropriety intended, still it seems to me
rather a questionable suggestion. I should not like to put it use that
way myself; because any judge that was partial to his friends when he
sat on the judgment seat would deserve to come off the seat
immediately. As a judge I expect no favoritism from Christ. I expect
when he sits there he will deal out even-handed justice to all. I
cannot see how it is right for any minister to hold it forth that we
should find encouragement in the judge being our friend. Friend or no
friend, we shall go in for a fair trial every one of us, and Christ
will not be a respecter of persons. Of him whom God has appointed to
judge the world, it shall not be said when the assize is over that he
winked at the crimes of some and extenuated them, while he searched out
the faults of others and convicted them. He will be fair and upright
throughout. He is our friend, I grant you, and he will be our friend
and Saviour for ever; but, as a judge, we must keep to the thought, and
believe and maintain it that he will be impartial to all the sons of
men. You will have a fair trial, man. He that will judge you will not
take sides against you. We have sometimes thought that men have been
shielded from the punishment they deserved, because they were of a
certain clerical profession, or because they occupied a certain
official position. A poor labourer who kills his wife shall be hanged,
but when another matt of superior station does the like deed of
violence, and stains his hands with the blood of her whom he had vowed
to love and cherish, the capital sentence shall not be executed upon
him. Everywhere we see in the world that with the best intentions
justice somehow or other does squint a little. Even in this country
there is just the slightest possible turning of the scale, and God
grant that may be cured ere long. I do not think it is intentional; and
I hope the nation will not long have to complain about it. There ought
to be the same justice for the poorest beggar that crawls into a casual
ward, as for his Lordship that owns the broadest acres in all England.
Before the law, at least, all men ought to stand equal. So shall it be
with the Judge of all the earth. Fiat justia, ruat coelum. Christ will
by all means hold the scales even. Thou shalt have a fair trial and a
full trial, too. There shall be no concealment of anything in thy
favour, and no, keeping back of anything against thee. No witnesses
shall be borne across the sea to keep them out of the way. They shall
all be there, and all testimony shall be there, and all that is wanted
to condemn or to acquit shall be produced in full court at that trial,
and hence it will be a final trial. From that court there will be no
appeal. If Christ, saith ' Cursed!' cursed must they be for ever. If
Christ saith 'Blessed!', blessed shall they be for aye. Well, this is
what we have to expect then, to stand before the throne of the man
Christ Jesus the Son of God, and there to be judged.

III. Now the third point is, WHAT WILL BE RULE OF JUDGEMENT? The text
says that 'every one may receive the things done in his body according
to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.' Then it would appear
that our actions will be taken in evidence at the last. Not our
profession, not our boastings, but our actions will be taken in
evidence at the last, and every man shall receive according to what he
hath done in the body. That implies that everything done by us in this
body will be known. It is all recorded; it will be all brought to
light. Hence, in that day every secret sin will be published. What was
done in the chamber, what was hidden by the darkness, shall be
published as upon the housetop'every secret thing. With great care you
have concealed it, most dexterously you have covered it up; but it
shall be brought out to your own astonishment to form a part of your
judgment. There, hypocritical actions as well as secret sins will be
laid bare. The Pharisee who devoured the widow's house and made a long
prayer, will find that widow's house brought against him, and the long
prayer too; for the long prayer will then be understood as having been
a long lie against God from beginning to end. Oh, how fine we can make
some things look With the aid of paint and varnish and gilt; but at the
last day off will come the varnish and veneer, and the true metal, the
real substance, will then be seen.

When it is said that everything that is done in the body will be
brought up as evidence against us or for us, remember this includes
every omission as well as every commission; for that which is not done
that ought to have been done is as greatly sinful as the doing of that
which ought not to be done. Did not you notice when we were reading the
twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew, how those on the left hand were
condemned, not for what they did, but for what they did not do: 'I was
an hungry, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no
drink.' Where would some of you stand, according to this rule, who have
lived in neglect of holiness, and neglect of faith, and neglect of
repentance, before God all your days? Bethink yourselves, I pray you.

Recollect, too, that all our words will be brought up. For every idle
word that man shall speak he will have to give an account. And all our
thoughts, too, for these lie at the bottom of our actions and give the
true colour to them good or bad. Our motives, our heart sins,
especially, our hatred of Christ, our neglect of the gospel, our
unbelief'all of these shall be read aloud and published unreservedly.
'Well,' saith one, 'who then can be saved?' Ah! indeed, who then can be
saved? Let me tell you who will be. There will come forward those who
have believed in Jesus, and albeit they have many sins to which they
might well plead guilty, they will be able to say, 'Great God, thou
didst provide for us a substitute, and thou didst say that if we would
accept him he should be a substitute for us and take our sins upon
himself, and we did accept him and our sins were laid upon him, and we
have now no sins; they have been transferred from us to the great
Saviour, substitute and sacrifice.' And in that day there will be none
who can put in a demurrer to that plea: it will hold good; for God has
said, 'Whosoever believeth on Christ Jesus shall never be condemned.'
Then will the actions of the righteous, the gracious actions, be
brought forth to prove that they had faith. For that faith which never
evidences itself by good works is a dead faith and a faith that will
never save a soul. Now, if the dying thief were brought up, he would
say, 'My sins were laid on Jesus.' 'Ay, but how about your good works?
Thou must have some evidence of thy faith,' Satan might reply. Then
would the recording angel say, 'The dying thief said to his fellow
thief who was dying with him, 'Wherefore art thou railing? In his last
moments he did what he could; he rebuked the thief that was dying with
him and made a good confession of his Lord. There was the evidence of
the sincerity of his faith.' Dear hearer, will there lie any evidence
of the sincerity of your faith? If your faith has no evidence before
the Lord, what will you do? Suppose you thought you had a faith and
went on drinking. Suppose you did as I know some have done here, go
straight from this place into the public house? Or suppose you joined
the Christian church and remained a drunkard? Ay, and women have done
that also as well as men. Suppose you professed to have faith in Christ
and yet cheated in your weights and measures and common dealings? Do
you think that God will never requite these things at your hands? Oh,
sirs, if ye be no better than other men in your conduct, ye are no
better than other men in your character, and ye will stand no better
than other men in the judgment day. If your actions are not superior to
theirs, you may profess what you will about your faith, but you are
deceived, and, as deceivers, you will be discovered at the last great
day. If grace does not make us differ from other men, it is not the
grace which God gives his elect. We are not perfect, but all God's
saints keep their eyes on the great standard of perfection, and, with
strong desire, aim to walk worthy of their high calling of God and to
bring forth works which prove that they love God; and if we have not
these signs following faith, or if they are not put in as evidence for
us, at the last great day we shall not be able to prove our faith. It
will be proof positive that you hated God; for a man must hate God
indeed who will spurn his counsels, give no heed to his reproof, scorn
his grace, and dare the vengeance of him who points out the way of
escape and the path that leadeth to life. He that will not be saved by
God's mercy proves that he hates the God of mercy. If God gives his own
Son to die and men will not trust in his Son, will not have him as
their Saviour, that one sin, if they had no other, would at once prove
that they were enemies of God and black at heart. But if thy faith be
in Jesus, if thou lovest Jesus, if thy heart goes out to Jesus, if thy
life be influenced by Jesus, if thou makest him thy example as well as
thy Saviour, there will be evidence'thou canst not see it, but there
will be evidence'in thy favour. For notice those gracious things, when
the evidence was brought, and Christ said, 'I was an hungry, and ye
gave me no meat, thirsty and ye gave me no drink,' they said, 'O Lord,
we never knew this.' Should any man stand up here and say, 'I have
plenty of evidence to prove my faith,' I should reply, 'Hold your
tongue, sir! Hold your tongue! I am afraid you have no faith at all, or
you would not be talking about your evidence.' But if you are saying,
'Oh, I am afraid I have not the evidence that will stand me in good
stead at the last,' yet if all the while you have been feeding the
hungry, and clothing the naked, and doing all you can for Christ, I
would tell you not to be afraid. The master will find witnesses to say,
'That man relieved me when I was in poverty. He knew I was one of
Christ's and he came and helped me.' And another will come and say
(perhaps it will be an angel), 'I saw him when he was alone in his
chamber and heard him pray for his enemies.' And the Lord will say, 'I
read his heart when I saw how he put up with rebuke, and slander, and
persecution, and would not make any answer for my sake. He did it all
as evidence that my grace was in his heart.' You will not have to fetch
up the witnesses: the judge will call them, for he knows all about your
case; and as he calls up the witness, will be surprised to find how
even the ungodly will be obliged to consent to the just salvation of
the righteous. Oh, how the secret deeds and the true heart-sincerity of
the righteous, when thus unveiled, will make devils bite their tongues
in wrath to think that there was so much of grace given to the sons of
men, with which to defeat persecution, to overcome temptation, and to
follow on in obedience to the Lord. Oh yes, the deeds, the deeds, the
deeds of men'not their prating, not their profession, not their talk,
but their deeds (though nobody shall be saved by the merits of his
deeds)'their deeds shall be the evidence of their grace, or their deeds
shall be the evidence of their unbelief; and so, by their works shall
they stand before the Lord, or by their world shall they be condemned
as evidence and nothing more.

IV. Now the last point is this: What is the object of this judgment?
Will sentence of acquittal and condemnation be given, and then the
whole thing be over? Far from it. The judgment is with a view to the
thereafter''That every man may receive the things done in his body.'
The Lord will grant unto his people an abundant reward for all that
they have done. Not that they deserve any reward, but that God first
gave them grace to do good works, then took their good works as
evidence of a renewed heart, and then gave them a reward for what they
had done. Oh, what a bliss it will be to hear it said, 'Well done, good
and faithful servant,''and to find that you have worked for Christ when
nobody knew it, to find that Christ took stock of it all,'to you that
served the Lord under misrepresentation, to find that the Lord Jesus
cleared the chaff away from the wheat, and knew that you were one of
his precious ones. For him, then, to say, 'Enter into the joy of thy
Lord,' oh, what a bliss will it be to you.

But to the ungodly how terrible. They are to receive the things that
they have done; that is to say, the punishment due,'not every man
alike, but the greater sinner the greater doom; to the man who sinned
against light a greater damnation than to the man who had not the same
light,'Sodom and Gomorrah their place, Tyre and Sidon their place, and
then to Capernaum and Bethsaida their place of more intolerable
torment, because they had the Gospel and rejected it'so the Lord
himself tells us. And the punishment will not only be meted out in
proportion to the transgression, but it will be a development of the
evil actions done in the evil consequences to be endured, as every man
shall eat the fruit of his own ways. Sin, after the natural order,
ripens into sorrow. This is not a blind fate, but it is the operation
of a divine law, wise and invariable. Oh, how dreadful it will be for
the malicious man to have for ever to gnaw his own envious heart, to
find his malice come home to him, as birds come home to roost, to hoot
for ever in his own soul; for the lustful man to feel lust burning in
every vein, which he can never gratify;'for the drunkard to have a
thirst, which not even a drop of water can allay;'for the glutton who
has fared sumptuously every day, to be in hunger perpetually; and the
soul that has been wrathful to be for ever wrathful, with the fire of
wrath for ever burning like a volcano in his soul; and the rebel
against God for ever a rebel, cursing God whom he cannot touch, and
finding his curses come back upon himself.

There is no punishment worse than for a man who is sinfully disposed to
gratify his lusts, to satiate his bad propensities, and to multiply and
fatten his vices. Only let men grow into what they would be, and then
see what they would be like! Take away the policemen in some parts of
London, and give the people plenty of money, and let their do just as
they like. Last Saturday, it might be, there were half-a-dozen broken
heads, and wives and children were in one general skirmish. Keep those
people together: let their vigor continue unimpaired by age or decay,
while they keep on developing their characters. Why, they would be
worse than a herd of tigers! Let them give way to their rage and anger,
with nothing to check their passions; let miserly, greedy people for
ever go on with their greed. It makes them miserable here, but let
these things be indulged in for ever, and what worse hell do you want?
Oh, sin is hell and holiness is heaven. Men will receive the things
done in their body. If God has made them to love him, they shall go on
to love him; if God has made them trust him, they shall go on to trust
in him; if God has made them to be like Christ, they shall go on to be
like Christ, and they shall receive the things done in their body as a
reward; but if a man has lived in sin, 'he that is filthy shall be
filthy still'; he that has been unbelieving shall be unbelieving still.
This, then, shall be the worm that never dieth, and the fire which
never shall be quenched, to which shall be added the wrath of God
forever and ever. Oh, that we may have grace every one of us to flee to
Christ! There is our only safety. Simple faith in Jesus is the basis
for the character which will evidence at last that you are chosen of
God. A simple belief in the merit of the Lord Jesus, wrought in us by
the Holy Spirit, is the rock foundation upon which shall he built up,
by the same divine hands, the character which shall evidence that the
kingdom was prepared for us from before the foundations of the world.
God work in us such a character, for Christ's sake. Amen.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON'Matthew 25.
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The Lord Blessing His Saints