distant—we dare not, we could not, if we felt them close! Behold, the judge is at the door! Watch, lest it open and reveal Him! Behold the messenger is coming; be ready, for He may be sent to summon you to the presence of the GOD of Judgment! But we have not yet the full answer to our text. GOD is everywhere. He fills heaven and earth with His presence. And He is the same everywhere, and at all times; the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever; and so He is the GOD of Judgment, exercising judgment even in this life. It cannot be otherwise. It belongs to His very essence to love righteousness and hate iniquity. When He wills, it is done; when He feels, He acts; what He hates, He shrinks from—and if He shrinks, is it not judgment? What He loves, He clings to—and is not His presence favour, and support, and blessing? Brethren, I have often exhorted you not to shut GOD out of this present world as if He belonged only to the future. Live in the world to Him. “Wherever we live, we live unto the LORD.” Live in the world by Him. “The LORD is at hand. Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made unto GOD.” And live in the world, under Him: for “The eyes of the LORD are over the righteous, and the face of the LORD is against them that do evil.” Yes, the GOD of Judgment is _here_. You know it was so in Old Testament times. The deed of righteousness then brought its immediate reward; the deed of sin its punishment. Murmur or disregard drove away the pillar of fire, repentance and prayer brought it back. You think it otherwise now perhaps, but “I am the LORD, I change not.” The children of Israel were carnal babes, GOD therefore showed Himself to their natural eye. _We_ are men in CHRIST, and the vision, therefore, is to our faith. It was with perishable toys that _they_ were pleased: He, therefore, rewarded or punished them with temporal things. It is differently, _in a measure_, that He deals with us; but not altogether differently. It is a mistake to suppose that GOD’S favour was always testified to the Jews by prosperity, His displeasure by adversity. Think of Abraham, of Job, of Moses, of Joseph, of the ungodly in great prosperity, and you will see the mistake. Temporal circumstances were more often, then, the tokens of spiritual, but the spiritual has always been the reality; and in comparison with it, the token, not always afforded, is immaterial. Oh! do not suppose that when the Man CHRIST JESUS came on earth as the messenger of grace, the GOD of Providence departed. More real and constant is His presence now, and more invariable His action. In respect of our service of CHRIST and candidateship for heaven, there is a sense in which He leaves us unjudged till the end. But, in another sense, as He must, from His very nature, be always judging, so are we Christians the special objects of His judgment.