on the scene at this
last verse in the only book in our Bible in which man at his best and
highest, in his richest and wisest, is heard telling us his exercises
as he looks at this tangled state of affairs "under the sun" and gives
us to see, as nowhere else can we see, the very utmost limit to which
he, as such, can attain. If this sinks down into our hearts, we shall
be the better prepared to apprehend and appreciate the grace that meets
him there at the edge of that precipice to which Reason leads but which
she cannot bridge. Oh, blessed grace! In the person of our royal
Preacher we are here indeed at our "wit's end" in every sense of the
word; but that is ever and always the place where another hand may lead
us, where another Wisdom than poor feeble human Reason may find a way
of escape, and "deliver us out of our distresses."

Then let us turn our ear and listen to another voice: "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." But stay. Is this the promised grace of which even
now we spoke? Is this the deliverance for which we hoped? A
judgment-seat still?--from which still no escape for any: and a
"reception" according to the things done, whether they be good or bad!
Wherein does this differ from Solomon's "conclusion of the whole
matter"? In just two words only--"_Of Christ_." It is now the
"judgment-seat of Christ." Added terror, I admit, to His despisers and
rejectors; but to you and me, dear fellow-believer, through grace the
difference these two words make is infinity itself. For look at Him
who sits upon the judgment-seat;--be not afraid; regard Him patiently
and well; He bears many a mark whereby you may know Him, and recognize
in the Judge the very One who has Himself borne the full penalty of all
your sins. See His hands and His feet, and behold His side! You stand
before _His_ judgment-seat. Remember, too, the word He spake long ago,
but as true as ever, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth
my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and
shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death unto life"--and
as we thus remember both His word and His work, we may be fully
assured, even as we stand here, that there must be a sense, and an
important sense, in which judgment for us is passed forever. I may not
be able to harmonize th