There is a land of calmest shore, Where ceaseless summers smile, And winds, like angel whispers, pour Across the shining isle. There is a land of purest mirth, There is a land where sorrow's sons, Like ocean's wrecks, are tossed; But there revive those weeping ones, And life's dull sea is crossed. There is a land where small and great The spoils of fortune, and of fate, There is a land where star-like shine The pearls of Christ's renown; And gems, long buried in the mine, Are jewels in his crown. There is a land like Eden fair, 244 THE DYING CHRISTIAN TO HIS SOUL. THE DYING CHRISTIAN TO HIS SOUL. РОРЕ. VITAL spark of heavenly flame, Hark! they whisper angels say, The world recedes-it disappears; THE FINAL JUDGMENT. JOHN HARRIS, D. D. He who "sees the end from the beginning" has imparted to man a subordinate prescience of the same comprehensive kind - has sketched on his mind an outline of the great system of providence, and filled him with presentiments of the principal events which are to attend the development of that system. The consequence is, that, wherever the Bible comes, it finds our nature preconfigured to many of its truths, waiting for an interpreter, and ready to respond to the truth of many a prediction, as a prophecy or an anticipation with which it had long been familiar in thought, and for which it only wanted divine authentication, and a name, in order to regard it as a solemn reality. Indeed, in this respect, the work of God only resembles his word; for as in his word he has often disclosed the infinite affluences of his mind by revealing, with all the simplicity of apparent unconsciousness, an eternal principle in a passing word, an infinite project in an incidental allusion, so, in the construction of the human mind, he has traced on it characters and imagery which can only be read by the light of eternity; thrown on it the unsteady shadows of objects which stand yet far distant on the plains of futurity. Of these preintimations we know of none more deeply 246 THE FINAL JUDGMENT. inlaid in the mind than that of future retribution. That the ancient saints lived in the faith of it, we know; for the spirit of inspiration has recorded the very words in which, in the prospect of that day, they triumphed over their persecutors, and sang of the joy that would crown them in "the day of the Lord." And, relying on the uniformity and immutability of the human constitution, we may safely infer that ancient sinners anticipated it also. There were moments when they possessed the warning of its approach in the restless apprehensions of their own breasts; moments when the fires of that day seemed to rise up in the distant horizon, and to cast a lurid glare on the face of their startled and trembling consciences; when the mention of such a day would have fallen in with the smothered forebodings of their minds, would have aroused an inward monitor, which, however carefully laid to sleep, was ready to awake at the slightest summons, and to bear testimony in the cause of righteousness. But, though the doctrine of a future judgment did not originate in the teaching of Christ, though, from the earliest ages, mankind had variously received it,yet the light they possessed, even the revealed light, did but just suffice dimly to show them the Judge enthroned in clouds, and surrounded with judgments; while, from his superiority to temptation, his greatness and perfection, they inferred that the Judge of all the earth would do right. But the person of the Judge, the pomp and process of the judgment, its most solemn circumstances and affecting results, all this was comparatively unknown to them; and, in supplying the information, our Lord has greatly enlarged the original part of his teachings. Christ, when speaking of the final judgment, seldom omitted to insist and enlarge on its publicity. He thus reminds us, that the end for which there is any judgment at all is best secured by having it held in the presence of all worlds, that piety may be most honored, sin most abashed, and the government of God vindicated and glorified, on the largest possible scale. In a few descriptive words, he fills the horizon with intelligent beings of all orders and characters. It will not be the judgment of a single individual, nor of a nation, but of a whole world of intelligent and accountable beings. It will not be an assize for sins of recent commission merely; sins committed thousands of years before will be reproduced and examined, with all their circumstances of aggravation, as if they had been only just committed. What a profound impression will that produce of the holy character of God, and of the infinite enormity of sin! When his people are crowned, he would not have one of their enemies. absent; and when the ungodly are doomed, he would not have one of the righteous absent: he would have them now to forestall that day-to feel, by anticipation, that they are speaking with the universe for their audience, and acting in the great theatre of the judgment; and then, he would have them depart to their respective allotments, bearing away with them impressions of the hatefulness of sin, and the beauty of holiness, which shall remain uneffaced through all the scenes of eternity. "The Son of man shall come in his glory, and before him shall be gathered all nations." "The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment to the |