The

formed for them the last mournful offices. graves of those whom we loved, plead for the doctrine of the resurrection; and shall our tongues be silent? If these should hold their peace, it would not prevent the very graves from crying out. The dry leaves of autumn, and the snows of winter may fall over them; but spring will return with its leaves, its blossoms, and its birds;— the rivulet will again leap in gladness, and the breeze waft odours of May. Be still, throbbing heart, be still!

g*

XII.

RELATION OF THE JUDGMENT TO HEAVEN.

HE resurrection past, there is one further stage,

THE

before the members of the invisible church shall enter upon the enjoyment of perfect and full communion with Christ, in glory. The first sight upon which, at the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God, they shall open their immortal eyes, will be the form of the Son of Man, coming in the clouds of heaven. The first sound that shall break from their immortal lips, will be to welcome His advent in joyful, triumphant strains-"Lo, this is our God, we have waited for HIM; HE comes to save us." HE will come in the clouds of heaven, attended by HIS holy angels. The trumpet shall break, with startling sound, and echoing through the universe, shall penetrate every tomb, enter the cold, dull ear of the dead, and waken them from their long repose. Behold, the Son of Man coming, in power and great glory, to judge the nations of the earth! See the golden

HE

crown upon IIIs head, and the great white throne on which He sits! Behold, HE comes, who was once the babe of Bethlehem; for whom no room could be found in the inn; who was laid in the manger, despised and rejected by men! Behold, HE comes for whose destruction, the sword of a tyrant was besmeared with the blood of the innocents! comes, who was hurried, by night, to His sanctuary in Egypt! He comes, who toiled, for years, at a trade, in His obscure home, in Galilee! Who sometimes fled from the stones which enraged men were ready to hurl at HIM! Who suffered the contradiction of sinners! Who groaned in spirit, and wept at the grave of a friend! Who, sometimes, was hungry and athirst! Who fell down to the ground, praying, and sweating, as it were, great drops of blood, HIS Soul " exceeding sorrowful," even unto death! Behold, HE comes, who once stood before Pilate's and Herod's bar, mocked and buffeted! Who sunk exhausted under the tree which He bore on His way to Golgotha! Who hung on Calvary's cross, crying out, "My God, my God!" and when He yielded up His spirit, "It is finished!" Whose dead body, in the sepulchre, was insulted by the great stone with which His enemies barricaded the door, and the Roman cohort, who were set to guard it! HE comes! But not, now, under a cloud of weakness and infirmity; not, now, to be made sin, but without sin, unto salva

tion. In the clouds of heaven He comes; not to suffer and to die, but to judge the world. "Behold HE cometh in clouds, and every eye shall see HIM; and they, also, which pierced HIM; and all the kindreds of the earth shall wail because of HIM." "Behold, the Lord cometh, with ten thousand of His saints, to execute judgment upon all, to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds, which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against HIM." Every eye shall see HIM. Those who persecuted Hm: the Herod, who sought His life, whose fierce executioners slew without pity, owning not even the sanctity of the tomb, shall see HIM; the men of Nazareth, who took up stones to hurl at HIM, shall see HIM; the Jewish priests and rulers, who plotted His death; Judas who betrayed HIM; Antipas, who set HIM at naught; and Pilate who condemned HIM; the tyrant's minions, who put on HIM the cast-off kingly raiment, forcing a reed into His hand, in mockery of a sceptre; who smote HIM and cried out, "Hail, king of the Jews;" the men who scourged HIM, at the command of the Roman governor, and compelled HIм to bear His own cross, till HE fainted beneath the burden; who stood over His body and forced the nails through His hands and feet, and the soldier who pierced His side with a spear; these, all these, shall see HIM.

We, too, shall hear the archangel's summons; and wherever our dust may be reposing, whether in the silent grave-yard of our native village, or in some lonely spot, on strange and distant shores, or in the bottom of the sea, it shall be obedient to that voice. Every charnel shall disgorge itself of its tenants. "Myriads upon myriads of atoms, the dust of kingdoms, the ashes of all that have lived—not a solitary particle but holds itself ready, at the sound of the last trumpet, to combine itself with a multitude of others, in a human body, in which they once met, perhaps a thousand years before." Monarchs and princes, who were carried to their sepulchres in state; poets, orators, and statesmen, and the crowds who died unknown to fame; and the wretched children of woe, the beggar, the outcast, and the slave-shall all come alike, without any marks of distinction; the king unsceptred and uncrowned; the beggar, without his tatters, the scholar without his laurels, and the slave without his chain. And while the dead are rising from their graves, the living shall be changed; in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, they shall drop corruption, and put on incorruption; they shall drop a mortal body, and put on an immortal one. All nations, the ancient, the modern, the less as well as the more powerful, the small and the great, shall stand before God. The entire race of Adam will be there; all who have lived, in every age. They