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the Son of Man shall come in glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the Throne of his glory." And Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, "Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints," and Paul says the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven "with his mighty angels."

Nor are the angels to be mere idle spectators. They are to be employed in assembling the vast multitudes. "He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." "And the angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from the righteous, as the goats are separated from the sheep. For the Son of Man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of His Kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire." Angels are employed as his ministers now, and assist His people, and carry home their souls when they leave their bodies, and will aid in taking them through the air to meet their Lord, and in punishing the incorrigibly wicked.

It may be asked, in what sense then are saints to judge the world, and even angels, according to St. Paul's words in 1 Cor. vi. 2, 3? I answer, in precisely the same sense that the Apostles and believers are promised to sit on thrones with Christ, or to reign with Him: namely, their will is in perfect harmony with His. They approve of his decisions. And their justification and example, as sinners saved, is a just condemnation of those who have rejected Christ. No importance is to be attached to the fact that historically believers became magistrates in the Roman empire, or may be such now, as an interpretation of this passage. Nor do I think it exhausted by simply saying that believers judge the world and angels in Christ

as their Head. This is true; but a specialty is attached to the fact that their individual wills are in perfect submission and in sweet harmony with the mind of Christ. They rejoice therefore with approbation in all his ways. It may also be true that the term judge is here to be taken in the sense of govern, and that saints are to exercise authority under Christ in the new heavens and the new earth.

5. We have come now to the PARTIES TO BE JUDGED. "From thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead." God hath appointed a day in the which He will judge the world by Jesus Christ.

Both persons and their works must pass the Judgmentseat of Christ-those who may be living, the quick, and all who have died-both good and bad-and all evil spirits. 2 Pet. ii. 4; Jude 6.

To judge the quick and the dead, that is, the world, or rather the moral agents that are in it, or have belonged to it. Those are dead who are said to have fallen asleep; and those who are living at that time, who, in contradistinction to the dead who are asleep, are denominated the quick, the living. The terms the quick and the dead are co-extensive with the whole of our race. The dead are to be raised, and the living to be changed, for in every case corruption must put on incorruption and mortality must put on immortality.

The quick and dead does not mean, as some say, the bodies and the souls of men, nor the good and the bad, but those who are alive at the moment of the judgment, and all the dead from the beginning of Adam's race. The similes used of the flood and of the overthrow of the cities of the plain imply clearly that the world shall be going on just as it is now. It shall be peopled, and there

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will be good and bad, and those alive shall be caught up quick to judgment, undergoing a change equivalent to death, for the purpose of putting off mortality and putting on immortality. The Son of Man shall come as a thief in the night. St. Peter declares, in the very words of the Creed, that God ordained Jesus Christ to judge the quick and the dead; and so does St. Paul: "I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom." And Peter in another place says: "Who shall render an account to Him that is ready to judge the quick and dead;" and Paul in another place, that He may be Lord both of the dead and living.*

From which Scriptures it is clear the quick and the dead means all men ; and that some shall be living when the Judge shall come, but that the living and the previous dead shall together and at the same time be the subjects of the last judgment. Thus we are told in 1 Thess. iv. 15, that we which live-who shall be alive-remaining on the earth when the Lord shall come, shall not prevent them which are asleep. We shall not, indeed, all fall asleep-all shall not die, or be found dead, when the day of the great judgment comes, but we, that is, the human beings then alive, shall be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. 1 Cor. xv. 51.

That all must be judged is according then to both reason and Scripture. All are creatures. All are therefore accountable in the measure the Creator has imposed obligations upon them. As it is appointed unto all men once to die, so after death is the judgment for all men. And so also says St. John: "I saw the dead-all the dead

*Acts x. 42; 2 Tim. iv. 1; 1 Pet. iv. 5; Rom. xiv. 9.

-small and great, stand before God, and the dead were judged out of the things written in the books, according to their works." All will be there, every one-the rich and the poor, the master and the servant, the mightiest and the lowest, the learned and the ignorant-all, without any exception and without any partiality, must appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ and undergo this trial, and receive sentence according to the deeds done in the body. The last judgment is to be universal. No one, not you nor I can escape it. We shall certainly stand before the Judgment-seat of Christ. He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

But whether good angels are to be judged or not, all men, both good and bad, must appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ. So the Scriptures positively affirm. 2 Cor. v. 10, and Jude 14; Rom. xiv. 10-12; Acts x. 42; 2 Tim. iv. 1.

Collective terms are used, and classes specified by the sacred writers, in such a way as to show conclusively that all men must be judged. It could not be otherwise; for all are creatures, all have sinned; their outstanding unsettled accounts must be adjusted, so that it may appear that God is indeed just when He judgeth, and righteous when He condemneth. If any were rejected or overlooked, there would be no guarantee for justice.

6. What is to be judged? Thoughts, words, and deeds. The sacred writers specify idle and hard speeches, that is, arrogant and cruel expressions against our fellow-men as well as against God.

And are the sins of the godly now to be exposed as well as the sins of the wicked? Much is said on both sides of this question. That they will be published is argued―

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First. From the fact that the Scriptures speak in a general way of the works of all men, good as well as bad, coming before God in the judgment.

Secondly. Impartial justice would seem to require both sides of a case, what is against as well as what is for the parties to be judged. The sins from which they are saved, if seen, would show the greatness of their salvation and render the condemnation of the ungodly more fully justifiable, if it could need it.

Thirdly. The memory of the sins of the godly is perpetuated in the sacred records: Why may they not be mentioned again and for the last time at the judgment?

Fourthly. The Grace of God in their salvation, and the Justice of God in the punishment of the incorrigibly impenitent, would be more palpably displayed by bringing their sins to light than by keeping them in darkness. Nor is it possible not to see that the idea of publishing their sins at the last day is a stimulus to watchfulness against committing sin, whereas the contrary doctrine would lead to carnal security.

On the other side, it is said :

1. The Scriptures do not anywhere affirm positively that the evil doings of saints will then be made public.

2. The promise of God on the contrary is, that He will remember no more our sins, but will cast them into the depths of the sea. And it is asked, if God has removed our sins out of his sight, why will He allow them to be exposed to the gaze of angels and men, our former friends and enemies? If they have once been buried, why bring them from the depths of the ocean before the vast assembly of the universe?