monstrous to need refutation. The other view is that the miseries of this life, in which the most pious and good, and in every way some of the best men on earth are deeply involved, and pass out of this world without any redress, imperatively call for a future judgment. The moral proof, then, of a future judgment is derived both from within ourselves, and from the works of creation and Providence, from conscience in us, and from evidences of design in the works and government of God. The whole constitution of the universe, and the whole framework of human society, are witnesses for its necessity. The testimony of the moral sense is universal and strong. Nor are there wanting evidences of design in the works of the Creator, which lead us irresistibly to the conclusion that the unfinished problems of his Providence in this world must be completed in the world to come. We cannot believe they are dropped and abandoned. On the contrary, all we know of the wisdom of God constrains us to believe that He has secured a perpetual identity to all His moral creatures, and guaranteed that this life of man shall so far lap over and impress itself on the life to come, that this world is only the sowing, and futurity is the harvest. The natural world unquestion- . ably demonstrates the perfect wisdom, Almighty power, and Supreme goodness of the Creator. Is it reasonable, then, to suppose that His moral government is less perfect? In the light of reason and common sense, does induction teach us there is a God, who is all wise, all powerful, and supremely good? And is it not, then, a legitimate conclusion that there is a final Judgment-seat, when and where the apparently inconsistent dispensations of His moral government over the universe will be cleared up? For if this life is really nothing but a life of trial, to be succeeded by a final retribution, then we are sure the goodness, truth, and justice of God will be UNFINISHED PROBLEMS. 345 vindicated in the moral world quite as clearly as his glorious perfections are seen in the natural world. Some things are clear, even now. For example, there are some cases just such as we have referred to. Cunning gains over honest simplicity. The truth is, that though honesty is upon the whole the best policy, yet there are cases whose sequel we do not see, and hence, as far as this world is concerned, there are exceptions to this great maxim. No one is prepared to say there are not individual cases that are exceptions to this rule, if this life is the whole of human existence. For it is certainly the testimony of human experience that many things here are unfinished. Many cases are adjourned to a heavenly tribunal, where, from the character of God, we look for a perfect vindication of innocence, and of all his ways towards his creatures, in the punishment of wrong-doing and the reward of well-doing. If, in the checkered events of human life, we see men of integrity made the victims of the snares and evil deeds of the artful, who receive a temporal reward; and if we find the godly suffering from sickness and other visitations of Divine Providence, is it not evident that this is not the end?— these cases are adjourned to the eternal world. It is quite true also that sometimes God lays his hand upon transgressors, so that He may be known on the earth by the judgment which He executes upon them. And are these any thing but preludes or pledges of that awful judgment which is to come? Proofs that we must leave many things, sadly unfinished as they are, without seeing the reasons, to the judgment of the last day, being perfectly sure there is One above us who sees all, and who renders to every man according to the deeds done in the body-according to his works. 4. Let me call your attention now, in the next place, to something in regard to the circumstances and manner of the proceedings of the Judgment-day which may be clearly learned from the Scriptures. The Lord Jesus shall come in his human nature from his throne at the right hand of God, from heaven, and He shall come visibly in the clouds of heaven, and with power and great glory. Innumerable hosts of holy angels will appear with him. Matt. xxiv. 30; 2 Thess. i. 7. His coming is to be sudden,-as it was in the days of Noah and of Sodom and Gomorrah. This proves that the world will then be very much as it is now-that His coming will be unexpected--that it will be sudden—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, the archangel's voice shall shake all the earth, and rouse the dead out of their sleep. "Lo! on a narrow neck of land, 'Twixt two unbounded seas I stand, Yet how insensible! A point of time, a moment's space, "O God! my inmost soul convert, Give me to feel their solemn weight, And save me ere it be too late; Wake me to righteousness."-Wesley. The manner in which the sacred writers speak of our Lord's coming to judge the world impresses us with the great solemnity, glory, and magnificence of the event. He once came in meekness and humility to teach us how great was his love for us, and to show us our duty. He shall come again in his glory, and His holy angels with him, in terrible majesty, to teach us that every creature is subject to Him. MANNER OF THE JUDGMENT. 347 In Heb. xii. 26, the Apostle seems to have in his mind a contrast between the glory of the giving of the law at Mount Sinai and the glory of the eternal judgment, when Christ shall judge the world according to that law "whose voice then shook the earth; but now He hath promised, saying: Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven." Our Lord expressly declares, in Luke ix. 26, that He would come to this world again after his sufferings and death, and come in His own glory, and in the glory of His Father, and in the glory of the holy angels. The same is substantially, and almost in the same words, to be found in many other places. The splendor of the Divine Majesty will be made manifest: "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." Matt. xxv. 31. "Hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven." "All the tribes of the earth shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory." Matt. xxiv. 30, and xxvi. 64. According to the Scriptures also, the magnificence of this day is to be ushered in with the trump of God, by which the dead are to be raised. "For the LORD himself shall descend from heaven with a shout (1 Thess. iv. 16), with the voice of the archangel." That is, with authority to enforce obedience from all angels, powers, and authorities-for all are put under Him who is the Head over all things to His Church. But how are we to understand these words, with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trump of God? Are they to be taken in a literal sense? Why not? Is there any reason for departing from the literal meaning? Was there not a literal sounding of the trumpet exceeding loud at the giving of the law? Why was not this intended to be a model for the Judgment-day? And is not this view supported by the use of trumpets in executing the Divine judgments upon Jericho? It may be metaphorical, however, so far as the instrument is concerned. It may be that the voice that is to call the world to judgment and wake the dead, will be composed of thunder such as those heard when God spoke in the hearing of the people at Mount Sinai. Perhaps it will be an articulated voice formed by the angel hosts in the air, so in harmony as to produce a sound loud enough to fill the whole earth, and yet as if the utterance of but one trumpet, and that as soon as the attention of quick and dead is secured, from the same hosts will be heard the summons of the parable of the virgins: "Behold, the Bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him." All that need be insisted on is, that Christ's command to bring the quick and the dead to judgment will be effectual. It will gather them before him. And as the sound of a trumpet by one who blows it well is loud, penetrating far and wide; so Christ's call to judgment will reach every cavern and receptacle of the dead on the mountains and on the plains, and under the seas. And as the phraseology of the sacred writers is Jewish, it is not strange they should represent the gathering of mankind to be judged, as if called by a trumpet, as the Israelites were accustomed to be assembled on festival days, or for other solemn purposes. Again, an immense retinue of angels are also mentioned in several places by the inspired writers, as contributing to the glory of Christ when He shall come to judge the world. So our Lord says himself: "When |