dreadful hour of making their account with God. In that hour indeed it will be an inexpressible comfort that they have that same Jesus for their judge, whom on earth they have labored to love and serve, and obey beyond all others. Still, the holiest life will not excuse us from coming forth and standing before the throne of our Savior Christ; and giving an account of our own works before men and angels.

But "if the righteous scarcely be saved," if even they must stand up and be judged as criminals before that dreadful tribunal, where and how "shall the ungodly and the sinner appear!" For they too must appear, however unwilling they may be. They must appear to give account of their thoughtless, unholy lives of the time they have wasted, the talents they have abused, the sins they have indulged in, the duties they have neglected, the warnings they have despised, the offers of mercy they have slighted, the contempt they have brought by their pride, their malice, their worldly-mindedness, on the sacred name of our Lord Jesus Christ, his word and sacraments.

Thus certain is it, my Christian brethren, that " we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ." The confidence of strength and manhood will avail us nothing in that day, the feebleness of childhood or old age will not be accepted as an excuse. Money will then be of no use, for the Judge will take no bribes. Poverty and distress will be no plea in our favor, for that will be a time of justice, not of mercy. Wisdom and learning will show us no way of escaping the terrors of the last judgment. Nor shall we be allowed to pass unnoticed under pretence of ignorance and want of scholarship. If we are ever so good, we shall not be excused from this judgment-if we are ever so bad, we shall not be able to flee from it.

There is then no avoiding it, but we must all appear before our Judge in the last day. Appear-that is, be laid open, or made manifest, so the word signifies in the original. For in that day our real character will be seen, the veil of deceit and hypocrisy will be taken off,

and our whole conduct will be set forth in its true colors. Then "the hidden things of darkness will be brought to light," "the counsels of the heart will be made manifest," and every one shall have his reward of God, not according to what he seems, but to what he is.

For how many proud and wicked thoughts do we cherish, which none but God is witness to! How many false or boastful, flattering or uncharitable words do we speak, of which none but God knows the full meaning! And as to our actions, how few (if any scarce) are done out of pure love to him! Even the best things we do, are very often either set about with improper motives, or carried on by improper means. The good we do is very often for an evil end, while for a good end we think we may do anything.

All this secret perverseness and pride of our hearts, which is now known to none but to him, whose " eye is in every place beholding the evil and the good" all shall "appear," and be laid open before the judgmentseat of Christ.

Now, when it is said, that in that great day, all shall be shown forth or made to appear, it can hardly mean that we should then be laid open before God, for his eye thoroughly tries and searches us at all times, now as much as then. He is always " a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." "He knows what is in man. "" "Neither is there any creature which is not manifest in his sight, for all things are naked and open" in his eyes. Thus thoroughly does God know what we are:-but some there are who do not yet know us, namely, the angels, other men, and ourselves. To these, therefore, we shall be laid open, and made manifest before the judgment-seat of Christ.

First of all, our whole hearts will be set forth before the angels, for though we are taught, that those blessed spirits do continually watch over us for good, and are filled with heavenly joy, when we serve God with regularity, order, and diligence, yet we have no reason to believe that they are now acquainted with the secrets

of our hearts. This is a peculiar right which the Almighty hath reserved to himself alone, calling himself "God that knoweth the hearts," or, as it is properly, the "heart-knowing God." But the angels esteem of us only by our outward conduct; and to this they pay particular regard, as we may gather from different parts of Holy Scripture. But forasmuch as our outward actions do not always show our inward thoughts; in the last day these also will be discovered. And surely if we are not quite hardened to all sense of shame, we must, at least in some degree, be affected by the consideration, that our most secret sins, our most cunning deceits, shall be all laid open by the Judge himself, before that mighty assembly of the blessed and holy angels.

Let us remember, again, that our hearts and lives will be shown forth in their true and proper colors, to all men as well as all angels. Then, it will be seen how different many of our outward actions and words were from our inward thoughts. It will be seen how easy it is to have a fair character in the world, to be reckoned honest, upright, just, liberal, or sober, and yet all the while to be no true servant of Christ Jesus. Then will be seen how little use it is for man to approve, if God disapprove-how little harm it is for man to hate us, if God loves us. Then will be brought to light those many hidden pieces of fraud and cheating, of deceit and cunning, and hypocrisy, which we think men will never know; but in that day they will appear. "There is nothing covered that shall not be" then "revealed, nor hid which shall not be" then "made known" to the whole world. Think, too, that if we will not now, we shall then acknowledge the dreadful nature of sin, when we are about to feel the punishment of it. We shall curse our own folly, for not having sooner laid seriously to heart the great truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Though our eyes be now blinded and our hearts hardened by the love of this world, yet, in that day, we shall be of a far different mind. Our hearts will be softened by the terrible sound of the last trumpet, our eyes will be opened by the brightness of the Judge's presence.

But what will that avail? The day of salvation will then be past; according to our lives we must be judged. "Then shall it be too late to knock when the door shall be shut, and too late to cry for mercy when it is the time for justice."

SERMON III.

SELF-EXAMINATION.

ADVENT.

PSALM iv. 4, 5.

"Stand in awe and sin not;

Commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still.
Offer the sacrifices of righteousness,

And put your trust in the Lord."

It was the intention of good and pious men in ancient days, that, as Lent should be a six weeks' preparation for the solemn and sacred festival of Easter, so, before the holy season of Christmas, there should be about half that space, viz. three weeks, set apart; the weeks of Advent (the word Advent signifying, in Latin, the coming or approach of some great person), for Christians to put their minds in order, as it were, and prepare themselves for the due commemoration of the Lord Jesus' first appearing on earth "for us men, and for our salvation.'

And herein it was thought right to have special reference made to his second Advent; for this plain and good reason-because we can have no just sense of the importance of his first Advent to redeem us, if our hearts are cold and insensible to the great doctrine of his last coming to judge us.

Whatever people may wish or intend, those, who by the practice of any kind of unchristian behavior have in effect "departed from the living God," will certainly not return to him in true and lively repentance, will not "cast off the works of darkness, nor put on the armor of light," unless they pray and strive to have deeply fixed in their conscience, a sense of the approach of that day when their Savior shall "come again in his glorious Majesty to judge both the quick and the dead."