LECTURE IV. 2 CORINTH. v. 10. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ;-that every one may receive the things done in his body,—according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. THE end of the world, with all the pomp and terror of its accompanying circumstances, has employed the most sublime efforts of the pencil and the pen ;-and as a subject of description merely might well suspend interest, independently of the reflections and resolutions which it suggests. But when we regard it as an impending certainty,-we cannot but own the expedience of realizing to our imagination, the events of that great assize. Faith has been defined-the substance of things hoped for ;-the evidence of things not seen. Each act of the mind, therefore, which connects us with the invisible world,-which transports us among things that are to be, and situations in which we must be placed hereafter, is a partial exercise of that faith, which is on our part-the bond of the covenant of redemption, and which embraces, when viewed in all its implications and consequences, the whole duty of man. 1. The first circumstance meriting notice, as very greatly heightening the awfulness of the event we are about to contemplate, is the silent and unsuspected manner of its approach. Attempts have been made, by decyphering prophecy, to ascertain the period of time determined in the counsels of God, for bringing this visible universe to an end; but these must needs be little better than conjectural: since," of that day, and of that hour, knoweth no man, no, not the ཨཏི། |