THE prophet had been complaining of the priests for neglecting to inform and correct the people, and of the people for disregarding GOD’S teaching. Reasoning and remonstrating with them, and supposing them to attempt self-justification, he tells them at last that they have wearied the LORD with their words—by which he means their acted and thought words rather than what they spoke—and in answer to the question, which he knows they would put, “Wherein have we wearied Him?” he says, By presuming licentiously that GOD is indifferent alike to good and evil, and has no moral likings or dislikings—“When ye say every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and He delighteth in them,”—or, if it were otherwise, that at least He does not act upon His feeling—“Where is the GOD of Judgment?” the manifestation of the discriminating, the rewarding, or punishing LORD. I do not propose to enlarge upon the text in its historic relation to the Jews, but, applying it to ourselves, to show, first, that the question, “Where is the GOD of Judgment?” is one which we Christians often ask in perverse unbelief, or in sad infirmity; and, secondly, that the question is one which in a better sense we should often ask (as we do not), in order to discern His operations, to become acquainted and impressed with the truth, that there is a judgment of all, _here_ and _hereafter_. “Where is the GOD of Judgment?” I say that this question is often asked in perverse unbelief, or in sad infirmity. Practically, we too often ignore the idea of judgment altogether. Our reason suggests to us, that if there is a moral governor of the world, then surely good will be approved by reward, and evil marked by punishment. The Bible plainly and most positively assures us, that, as rational and responsible creatures of GOD’S hand, we are subject to a judgment which His goodness, His truth, His justice, His holiness, cannot omit to pass on our every act, and word, and thought; that as purchased servants of CHRIST, we are set a certain work to do, with the express understanding that we shall be faithfully dealt with according to our treatment of that work, and are put upon a probation whereof at the end CHRIST _must_ take account, for He has been made LORD and Judge for that very end, and has received a commission from the Father, which He may in no single instance depart from. Yea, more than that, it tells us that the immediate effect on us, of all our good and evil, is _itself_ a judgment, contributing to the formation of the character which shall adapt us, and so consign us, to heaven or to hell. I say reason and the Bible so instructs us; and yet we practically ignore the judgment. Of course I do not mean that we strike it out of our creed, that we do otherwise than assent to it in theory, that we altogether forget it in practice, but that we do not make it the ruling principle of our lives—the impelling or restraining influence of every thought and deed.