The judgment is a great
and solemn event to which the world is swiftly hastening. Soon
the thoughtless millions of earth will be called to halt from
their mad rush for gold, and then they'll discover that the
deceptive bubble has, at last, evaded their grasp. Standing in
the light of a blazing world and beholding the heavens wrapped
in sheets of fire, poor sinners will understand, and that too
late, that the door of mercy has closed to be opened no more
forever. The judgment is the next great coming event, and
it'll mark the final chapter of earthly activities. The path
from the cradle to the grave is short. Measured in the light
of all time, the earthly life of man is but a flickering
flame, a tiny spark, a flash of fire. But that's not all of
life. It's but the least noteworthy of some lives---of the
lives of those who were truly great. They live on. We live not
only in time, but we shall exist throughout all eternity. The
sum total of all the world has today, of all civilization, all
knowledge, all love, all happiness, all understanding, all the
joys and comforts and pleasures of existence, are the fruits
of lives lived before, humans who have gone on, beings who
existed, struggled, developed, drove ahead, and left a better
world behind them when they entered the tomb, a happier human
family, a more desirable existence for their children and
their children's children. The deeds that men do live after
them, and the sum total of those deeds determines the record
they must meet upon the judgment day. We'll now proceed to
give five reasons why the judgment day will be the greatest
day in the history of man.
The Greatest Assemblage of All Time...
The greatest
concourse of people that ever assembled will meet together
upon the judgment day. The signal will be the trump of God.
"For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout,
with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God."
I've tried to picture in my mind what the bugle's blast will
be like, whether loud and deep, like the thunder as it rolls
along among the threatening clouds, or like the shrill,
clarion notes of the Alpine bugler, whose sounds echo and
reverberate among a thousand hills. Whatever that call of God
may be like, it matters not; for we know its voice will be
sufficient to awake the sleeping dead.
People
expressed surprise in Jesus' day at his teaching, and upon a
certain occasion he increased their bewilderment by
exclaiming: "Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in
the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and
shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the
resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the
resurrection of damnation." (John 5:28, 29) What an awful
sight to behold all of Adam's posterity gathered together in
one great crowd, with not a straggler left behind! The lone
traveler who perished while in search of the north pole, and
the men whose bones lie glistening beneath a tropical sun,
will together hear the trumpet's sound and arise from their
beds of heat and cold. That voice shall penetrate the great
Westminister Abby, the burial place of kings and poets; and
the infamous King Henry VIII and Bloody Queen Mary, together
with Gladstone and Edith Cavell, and all those who sleep in
all the cemeteries of earth, shall hear that voice and shall
obey its call.
One time the
writer visited one of the greatest cemeteries in the world,
and it was evening. The summer's sun was setting behind the
western sky, and long shadows were lengthening out upon the
plains. All around me were tombs and monuments. I thought of
that great upheaval which will take place when God shall speak
from the skies, and I said to myself, How idle a boast is the
immortality of a name or the perpetuity of an embalmment, for
at the command of God every grave will give up its dead! I
thought also of Moses, whom the angels buried away in the land
of Moah, that his body would also come forth and take its
place before the judgment seat of Christ. The mummified bodies
of those who lived in other days, who now lie in state in
museums or catacombs, upon that day will burst their ancient
wrappings and stand up to be judged by the great God of heaven
and earth.
The sea also
shall give up its dead. Down among the coral reefs of the
ocean, where the petrified bodies of Christian and pirate lie,
that voice shall reach. The bodies of those who went down with
the Titanic, the Lusitanina, the Slocum, the Eastland, and
every other wreck at sea, will hear that trumpet call and
arise from their watery graves. Oh, awful day, when the
unnumbered dead shall arise from their beds of dust! when
granite mausoleums shall burst asunder! and all Christians,
all murderers, and those murdered, upon whatsoever seas, or
under whatsoever skies, shall meet before the King of kings
and the Lord of lords! Daniel declared that the multitude of
those who sleep in the earth shall awake, some to everlasting
life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
Time Shall Be No Longer...
The ceaseless
flight of time has been the subject of much reflection in the
midst of serious men in all ages. Essays, poems, proverbs have
been written expressing the sentiments awakened in reflective
minds as they heheld the onward course of the great river of
time, bearing on its bosom all things mortal. Time has been
the most victorious conqueror of all ages. Before his scythe
the strong form has bowed and been laid low. The sword that
carved out ancient empires has become useless and rusty by the
hand of Time. No man has written his name so high in the
temple of earthly fame and glory but that Time shall cause it
to perish. Man has built monuments on the earth: cities
intended by those who built them to endure always, have been
changed by Time in his onward march. The drifting sands of the
desert are now blown across the places where once proud
capitals of empires stood. Man has by his intellect and genius
bound the mighty giant Steam and compelled him to work. He's
harnessed the invisible forces of electricity and can turn on
or off its current as he pleases: but before the onward course
of Time, he's helpless. Not for a moment will time pause in
his flight, though the efforts of all things mortal were
concentrated upon that one purpose.
But though
Time won't heed the beseeching cries of mortals, he instantly
acknowledges the commands of Him who inhabits eternity. God
who carved the fration time out of infinite eternity, has
determined its end, and soon he'll commission his angels to
stand upon the sea and land and swear that time shall be no
longer. How solemn the mind becomes as we approach the limits
of time and view the portals of great eternity! Time no
longer! To the unsaved this must be particularly solemn. Time
has been full of God-given opportunities for men to prepare
for the ushering in of eternity. Christ has, for long ages,
sat upon the throne of mercy. The fountain filled with blood
has been freely opened for sin and uncleaness. The Spirit of
God has pleaded mightily at the door of men's hearts. The
gates of paradise have stood ajar. The star of hope will
always shine while time lasts; there's few human hearts over
whom its rays aren't shed. Hope lives long and dies hard in
the realm of time; but when that mighty angel shall have
lifted his hand to heaven, for those who are still unsaved the
star of hope will have forever set. In place of its elevating
influence, the dark pall of eternal despair will cast its
gloomy shadow across the sinner's sky. In dark waters of
remorse the human soul will sink downward.
What we know
of sin's effects during time foreshadows the fearful depths of
suffering that await the guilty one in vast eternity. The
cessation of time will open the flood-gates for those waters
to flow in upon the soul forever. No hope, no comfort, no
love, no light, no peace, no joy, no bright tomorrow, no sweet
by and by: but dark despair, wretched remorse, a lashing
conscience, demons, and, worse than all else, the eye of an
engry God---these things, and even more, will fill up the
sinner's existence in the dungeons of hell, when time has
completed its couse and eternity has begun. Oh, eternity! thou
ageless age! upon whose broad expanse ten thousand ages are
but foam. Eternity! No ages to count, no cycles to roll
around, no infant days or old age, and no end! Oh, my God!
what has eternity instore for me? What pain, what sorrow, what
remorse? or what joys, what happiness hast thou in store for
me when time shall have run its course?
When time
ends, every clock in the universe will stop, and every human
heart will cease to beat. The Indian will stop chasing the
deer, (grin) and the miser will stop counting his gold; the
plow will be left in the field with the furrow unturned, and
the woman will drop her broom---and all will hasten to the
judgment bar of God. The poor neglecter will stand aghast when
he beholds the door of mercy closed never to be opened again.
There'll be no loved one to greet the sinner in the dark
regions of despair; for maternal love, paternal pity, and
brotherly consolation will never be known in that land of
demons and moral outlaws. Oh, God, help men and women to place
a more proper estimate upon the value of time an opportunity
while time still exists!
The World Shall Burn Up...
Jesus said,
"Heaven and earth shall pass away." And Peter exclaimed: "The
Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count
slackness; but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that
any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But
the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the
which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the
elements shall melt with frevent heat, the earth also and the
works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that
all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons
ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness. Looking
for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the
heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements
shall melt with frevent heat?" (2 Pet. 3:9-12)
The story's
told of a man who built a frame house in a place where great
hurricanes ofttimes swept across the plains, He'd been warned
time and again, but to no avail. One day, without warning the
storm came on. The family fled to a sod house just in time to
see the former structure scattered by the wind. The storm
increased its awful fury, and they ran to the cave in time to
see the sod house also scattered across the plains. The storm
still increased, and the water filled up the cave, and they
were all driven out into the storm. Some lost their lives, and
their property was all destroyed. It'll be the same upon that
final judgment day. An awful storm of fire will sweep across
the earth and sky. The poor sinner will have no place to go.
He'll flee from his moral works, and the house of tradition
will be destroyed. His refuge of lies shall be swept away, and
naked he'll be forced to stand in the presence of Almight God.
Oh, awful consternation! Men calling for rocks and mountains
to hide them from the face of Him who sitteth upon the throne!
But the rocks and mountains shall have fled away, and naked,
destitue, with no one to plead their cause, poor sinners will
meet their doom. Like one of old, thank God, I can say, "In
the Rock of Ages I will hide me till the storm be overpast."
Man's Attitude Will Change...
Few, indeed,
gave heed to the teaching of Jesus Christ when he walked the
shores of Galilee. The sermons he preached on the
mountian-sides of that eastern country were masterpieces, and
twenty centuries of brained men haven't been able to add
anything of worth to the rules and maxims he laid down in that
long-ago age. He had no name, and his voice wasn't heard in
the streets. He was a great man---the compassionate One, the
friend of sinners---yet he wasn't appreciated. God declared at
one time that Christ was his Son, and Jesus often declared
himself to be the Son of God; but man couldn't be compelled to
believe that it was true. Great men have arisen, like Cicer
and Seneca, of Rome; Socrates and Plato, the philosophers;
Raphael, the painter; Homer, the poet; Galilio, the
astronomer; gladstone, the statesman; and George Washington,
United States' first President, and we give them all the honor
due their name and work. But the Bible says, concerning
Christ, "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given
him a name which is above every name: that at the name of
Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things
in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue
should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God
the Father" (Phil. 2:9-11).
The judgment
day won't only be the greatest day in all history from the
simple standpoint of that great assemblage, but it'll be great
because every man, woman, and child will be upon their knees.
That mighty prayer-meeting won't be one of entreaty or
supplication, but of acknowledgment, simply a giving of
consent to the awful fact that they'd been mistaken, and that
Jesus Christ is indeed the Son of God. Few saw him at his
first appearing; but when he comes again "every eye shall see
him," and the whole world will discover and acknowledge that
Christ is King. The time to kneel and pray for mercy is now,
for when the judgment day arrives it'll be too late.
God's Attitude Will Change...
There's no
other name given under heaven whereby men can be saved but the
name of Jesus Christ; on the day of judgment, however, Christ
will lay off his mediatorial robes and put on those of a
judge. He'll, on that day, assume the role of Judge of the
Supreme Court. No mediator then shall be found, and, hence, no
one can gain an audience with the great God. Christ will no
longer be the Savior, but one of an offended Godhead. The
books will all be brought in, and the world of mankind will be
judged out of the things written. Man must then give an
account to God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, and the Word
of God, for the use made of time. "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: 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. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand,
Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation of the world. Then shall he say
also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed,
into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.
And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the
righteous into life eternal." (Matt. 25:31-34, 41, 46)
Reader, what
would be your condition if all these things should happen
tonight? Prepare to meet they God!
The End...
All things
upon this earth will have an end, For of the dust were
each and all things made: The mighty oak that boweth not
its head, The earth, the sky, the flower, and tender
blade.
The
nightingale shall cease its pleasant song, And place its
head beneath its feathery wing; The whippoorwill, that
chants the evening long, Will close its eye, no more on
earth to sing.
The cattle
grazing yonder on the plain Will cease, and see a shelter
where to rest; The wildman, living in his house of cane,
Will watch the sun go sinking in the west.
The bride
adorned with robes of spotless white, With crimson cheek,
and pulses beating fast, With happy thoughts of future
years---that night Will ne'er mistrust that day on earth
is past.
The murderer,
low crouching in his cell, Will think of youth, of home
and mother dear; Not thinking that so soon the flames of
hell Will blanch his cheek, and freeze his heart with
fear.
The sun will
kiss as usual the west, And fling his smiling rays o'er
land and sea; And myriads on the earth will go to rest,
And dream of love, or wealth, and time to be.
But hark! what
means that solemn trumpet call? The sleeper wakes bedazed
with such a sight; "O rocks, O mountains, come and on me
fall! Oh, would to God I knew this were the night!"
The earth will
reel and fall to rise no more, The long, long day of mercy
will be past; The spotless bride of Jesus then will soar,
To lands where vernal flow'rs forever last.
