pronouncing of them such as they were appointed to be, or the opposite, and the bestowal of the reward or punishment, is a strict judgment, in the passing of which the Judge has no room for arbitrary favour, no option, if I may so speak, to do otherwise than, in view of the evidence, to apply the fixed law—life for those whom it approves, death for those whom it condemns. Oh! there is a GOD of Judgment, and to us Christians there is no other GOD. CHRIST is full of merits. GOD accepts those merits, and is full of mercy on account of them. We cannot magnify the merits too much, nor rejoice too much in the mercy; provided (but provided only) that we remember that they are applied by rule, and that we must observe the rule, and be sure that GOD will in no wise, and in no case, depart from it. Trust to CHRIST’S merits; hope for GOD’S mercy, but count most surely on judgment, as you are most surely the objects of it. But, secondly, fully believing that there is a GOD of Judgment, the questions arise, Where is He? In what court does He sit? When does He judge? The common notion (and my remarks have hitherto fallen in with it) is, that He is only in a future world, and that He will not exercise His office till the last day. The notion is founded on a truth. CHRIST sits on the throne of GOD now, to send down grace, to intercede with the Father, to rule the Church. At the last day, and not before, He will leave that throne, and come forth in His glorious majesty to judge the quick and the dead, and to dispose of them in their appointed eternal abodes. We have a work to do, and a day set us to do it in, and account will not be taken of it, and the hire given us, till the day is over. There is a character to be formed ere we can enter heaven, and space, and opportunity, and power, are vouchsafed us for forming it. Respecting these, then, judgment tarrieth. And even when our individual time is over, when our work ceases, and our probation closes, there are others left to work and fashion themselves for eternity; and GOD has appointed that we, without them, shall not be made perfect. There is to be but one glorious descent from the throne, one general resurrection, one great assize, one gathering of the saints into the highest heaven, one opening, and then one shutting for ever of the lowest hell. When our day is over, we must, probably, as others do, sleep a night in the grave, and then on the morning of the Resurrection shall appear the GOD of Judgment. But surely, after all, there must be an earlier judgment! When the body is laid down, and begins its sleep, the soul does not lie down and sleep with it. “The body returns to the dust,” we are told, “but the spirit goes back to GOD who gave it;” and lest we should imagine that this is but a figurative way of describing a suspension of the spirit’s life, we are informed in many places not only that it continues greatly alive and