ment at the end of the world. But were the Bible silent upon this point, it might be conclusively proved from facts and considerations independent of direct scripture testimony, that there is to be a judgment after death.

That there will be a future judgment, may be inferred from the partial displays of divine justice in this world. If there be a righteous God, he will fully reward the righteous and punish the wicked. But this is not done in the present dispensation of things. Whether rewards and punishments are invariably awarded to men in the present life according to their moral actions, is a point that has been long settled. The experience of all ages has shown that pleasure and pain, prosperity and adversity, are not distributed by providence exactly according to the virtues and vices of mankind, but scattered with a promiscuous hand. Though various instances occur in which those who have distinguished themselves by their crimes are distinguished by the judgments of God, while those who have been eminent for piety and virtue were signally delivered by the interposition of divine providence, yet the objects of God's hatred and love are not uniformly distinguished by the present distribution of things. The wicked are often in prosperity all their days, while the righteous are in adversity. As it respects public calamities, the distress is general and indiscriminate. If drought, famine, pestilence, floods or fires are commissioned to spread wide disasters, they have no warrant except in a few miraculous instances to exempt the righteous. Hence the tie that binds human society must be severed before there can be a perfect retribution; for the state of individuals is inseparably connected with that of society, and good and bad men must share alike in public blessings and calamities.

We also infer a future judgment from the fact that although this is not a state of perfect retribution, yet God in his providence does here begin to reward virtue and punish vice. Had no distinction whatever taken place in the present life between the righteous and the wicked, there might have been some ground to conclude that the ancient complaint was just, "that all things come alike to all men; there is one event to the righteous and the wicked,"

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But to suppose that God regards with equal eye the evil and the good, is in effect to annihilate his existence, as it contradicts every notion which holy beings have entertained of him. It would represent him as having less regard for virtue than many of his creatures on earth; for but few of them are so depraved as not to wish the virtuous rewarded and the vicious punished. Now God is a being of order, and he has displayed it in his moral government. He has shown himself favorable to virtue and unfavorable to vice. He does begin to reward and punish in the present life. Thus we see the throne of the Almighty already set for judgment; and by his beginning to reward and punish here, we infer what he will do hereafter, when the characters of moral agents will be fully adjusted.

Conscience also intimates to man when he sins that he deserves to be punished. Now the reproaches of conscience are altogether inexplicable, if there be no retribution beyond the grave. We are therefore led to the conclusion that those terrors which assail the wicked may be considered the beginnings of that misery and anguish which will be consummated in the world to come, in the cases of those who add final impenitence to all their other crimes.

When we see or hear of great crimes committed by others, suck as murders, perjuries, robbery, treachery, oppression in all its forms, and tyranny in all its degrees from that practiced towards the African slave, up to that exercised over the lives and liberties of millions of cringing vassals, through the forbearance of God, or the imperfection of human laws; we feel something within us demanding that such should receive condign punishment. From these considerations it seems reasonable to expect that there will be a judgment after death.

But it is not on an argument of this kind that I principally rely for proof of a future judgment. We are not left to the mere dictates of reason on this subject. God, in his word, has revealed in the clearest manner, that there will be a day of reckoning at the end of the word. 66 I said in my heart, God shall judge the righteous "For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil.”

and the wicked."

(Ecc. liii: 17.-xii: 14.) "God hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained." (Acts xvii: 30, 31.) "We shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.”—(Rom. xiv: 10.) "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive of the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad."-(2 Cor. v: 10.) Here it may be observed that the retrospective phrase, the things done in his body, determine the time of the judgment to a period beyond this life. "But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.”—(Matt. xii: 36.) "And as Paul reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled."-(Acts xxiv: 25.) "When the Son of Man shall come in his glory and all his angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory and before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats; and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.”—(Matt. xxv : 31-46.) These passages so clearly refer to the general judgment at a future indefinite time, that nothing need be said to establish this application of them. Another class of texts clearly limits the judgment to a period subsequent to death and the resurrection. "It is appointed unto men onte to die, but AFTER this the judgment.”—(Heb. ix : 27.) "I charge, therefore, before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom." (2 Tim. iv: 1.) "Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the ́ quick and the dead."—(1 Pet. iv: 5.) By the quick we are to understand those who shall be alive on the earth when Christ comes to judgment; and by the dead those who are so in a literal sense. The dead will be raised, and those who are alive upon the earth at that time, will be changed, and both together will be judged. "But the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and

"For I am

at hand; I

the perdition of the ungodly men.”—(2 Pet. iii: 7.) ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but to all them that love his appearing." (2 Tim. iv: 6-8.) "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 the things which were written in the books according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whoever was not found written in the book of life, was cast into the lake of fire."-(Rev. xx: 12-15.) Death and hell, taken liter

:

Prior to the day of Judg

ally, are things which belong to time. ment, the ungodly were confined under their power as in a prison, but having received their doom, they shall not be remanded back thither, but go into everlasting punishment. St. Peter speaks of the angels who sinned and were cast down to Tariarus, and delivered in chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment.-(2 Pet. ii 4.) St. Jude, speaking of the same characters, is more explicit. "And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains, under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day.”—(Jude 6.) Though the subjects of the judgment in these two last passages, are fallen angels, and not sinners of mankind; yet the argument from their case, in support of the future judgment, is equally strong as though spoken of men for it is not the subjects but the certainty of future judgment that is the object of inquiry.

There is another class of texts which speaks of the judgment and its attending circumstances. "The Lord Jesus shall be reveal

ed 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.”—(2 Thess.i: 7, 8.) "Behold he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him, and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, amen."(Rev. i: 7.) The inspired writers speak of the visible heavens and earth as waxing old, and passing away; yea, of a general conflagration as connected with the judgment.

These are but a small portion of the passages which announce a judgment to come. But they are plain and decisive. They disclose a judgment to occur after death, and to embrace all mankind.

Now, let me ask, have scenes on earth ever been witnessed that correspond with the awful descriptions which the Bible gives of the final judgment? Has the Lord Jesus descended from heaven, in the clouds of heaven, visible to every eye, and penetrating every soul? Have all men, all nations, the dead both small and great, the quick and the dead, stood before God? Has the Judge of all separated them the one from the other, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats, sitting his sheep on his right hand, and the goats on the left? Has he pronounced sentence upon them according to their characters, saying to those on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, and to those on his left, Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels? Has the sentence been actually executed? Have the righteous entered into life eternal, and the wicked gone away into everlasting punishment? Are the wicked now experiencing everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power, and the righteous shining forth in the kingdom of their God? These are scenes which mark the second coming of Christ, and the last judgment; when he will come to judge the world in right

eousness.

I am not unaware that it is objected that all that is said in the 25th chapter of St. Matthew respecting the final judgment, is referred to the destruction of Jerusalem. But any one who knows the manner in which the objectors treat this and the preceding chapter, can have no doubt that their present interpretation of them is only a

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