A Portrait of the Artist as a Young ManJoyce, James
General
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Joyce, James
Artists -- Fiction; Autobiographical fiction; Bildungsromans; Dublin (Ireland) -- Fiction; Young men -- Fiction
Nor was that all. God’s justice had still to be vindicated before men:
after the particular there still remained the general judgement. The
last day had come. Doomsday was at hand. The stars of heaven were
falling upon the earth like the figs cast by the figtree which the wind
has shaken. The sun, the great luminary of the universe, had become as
sackcloth of hair. The moon was bloodred. The firmament was as a scroll
rolled away. The archangel Michael, the prince of the heavenly host,
appeared glorious and terrible against the sky. With one foot on the
sea and one foot on the land he blew from the archangelical trumpet the
brazen death of time. The three blasts of the angel filled all the
universe. Time is, time was, but time shall be no more. At the last
blast the souls of universal humanity throng towards the valley of
Jehosaphat, rich and poor, gentle and simple, wise and foolish, good
and wicked. The soul of every human being that has ever existed, the
souls of all those who shall yet be born, all the sons and daughters of
Adam, all are assembled on that supreme day. And lo, the supreme judge
is coming! No longer the lowly Lamb of God, no longer the meek Jesus of
Nazareth, no longer the Man of Sorrows, no longer the Good Shepherd, He
is seen now coming upon the clouds, in great power and majesty,
attended by nine choirs of angels, angels and archangels,
principalities, powers and virtues, thrones and dominations, cherubim
and seraphim, God Omnipotent, God Everlasting. He speaks: and His voice
is heard even at the farthest limits of space, even in the bottomless
abyss. Supreme Judge, from His sentence there will be and can be no
appeal. He calls the just to His side, bidding them enter into the
kingdom, the eternity of bliss prepared for them. The unjust He casts
from Him, crying in His offended majesty: _Depart from me, ye cursed,
into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels._
O, what agony then for the miserable sinners! Friend is torn apart from
friend, children are torn from their parents, husbands from their
wives. The poor sinner holds out his arms to those who were dear to him
in this earthly world, to those whose simple piety perhaps he made a
mock of, to those who counselled him and tried to lead him on the right
path, to a kind brother, to a loving sister, to the mother and father
who loved him so dearly. But it is too late: the just turn away from
the wretched damned souls which now appear before the eyes of all in
their hideous and evil character. O you hypocrites, O you whited
sepulchres, O you who present a smooth smiling face to the world while
your soul within is a foul swamp of sin, how will it fare with you in
that terrible day?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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