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I. THE CERTAINTY OF JUDGMENT TO COME. TO get rid of the doctrine, a man must plunge into the gloomy absurdities of atheism. And is he safe there? He has conscience still left; he is rebuked for sin. There is its premonition. What passes thus in the court of conscience, may be called a kind of petty session, before the great assize, when the Judge shall come and call the nations round His bar.

II. THE TIME OF JUDGMENT. At the end of the world. What epithets are attached to this "day" in Scripture! In some places it is called "that day." As if there were no other day. The day of days. In other places it is called "the day of Christ," the "day of the revelation of Christ"; to intimate that it is the day on which publicly He will be manifested in all His glory, as " the great God and our Saviour." It is called in other places " the day of the revelation of God's righteous judgment." Intimating that then the principles of His moral government are to be exposed and vindicated. In another passage it is called " the day of wrath." The impenitent sinner is said to be "treasuring up unto himself wrath against the day of wrath." It is called in other places "the last day." The close of time; the world's dying day.

III. THE JUDGE. To call rational creatures to account for their conduct, with a view to final retribution, implies that they are the subjects of Him who thus deals with them. It is an act of authority, therefore, over them which belongs exclusively to God. .And God has not only right, not only authority, but every qualification for calling us into judgment. Dwell upon His attributes. He is not only omnipresent, but He is omniscient. All their history, their lives, their words, their thoughts, their feelings. He is omnipotent. He can arrest the sinner. Where will the sinner go, and the hand of God cannot reach him? Then think of His justice. His award must be right. Power cannot awe Him; wealth cannot bribe Him; cunning cannot deceive Him. God is to be Judge. But the Father has delegated this awful commission to the Son. It is part of His mediatorial reward, as God-Man, to judge the world. And how fit that He, who to redeem the world assumed human nature, should in that human nature judge the world! How congruous, that He who came to fulfil the covenant of grace, should be Judge of those who have been placed under it!

IV. WHO ARE TO BE JUDGED? "All." All kings and their subjects; all pastors and their flocks. All; the great and the small.

V. FOR WHAT THEY WILL BE JUDGED. Everything. You must account for all your privileges. Your Bible; your minister; your sabbaths; your sermons; your sacraments. Your religious parents. Your judgment; your conscience; your memory. Your bodies; all the organs of sense. You must be judged as to your actions. All your secret actions; the deeds which many of you would be glad to forget. For your words. Your slanderous words; your impure words; your malicious words; your false words. The judgment will go further: it will go to the heart. The heart makes the character; motive gives character to action; it is as a man feels and purposes, that he is. There are a thousand thoughts for one action. And all those thoughts are to be brought into judgment. The secrets of all hearts are to be laid open. Oh! who would like to be known for an hour? What, then, must it be to have the life, the history of the heart, laid open? You must be judged, not only for what you have done, but for what you have not done. You are to be judged for your property. And for your influence. Influence is a talent, and we must give account of it to God.

(J. A. James.)

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KJV: And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

WEB: Inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this, judgment,