dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were
opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the
dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books,
according to their works."(1159)

As soon as the books of record are opened, and the eye of Jesus looks upon
the wicked, they are conscious of every sin which they have ever
committed. They see just where their feet diverged from the path of purity
and holiness, just how far pride and rebellion have carried them in the
violation of the law of God. The seductive temptations which they
encouraged by indulgence in sin, the blessings perverted, the messengers
of God despised, the warnings rejected, the waves of mercy beaten back by
the stubborn, unrepentant heart,--all appear as if written in letters of
fire.

Above the throne is revealed the cross; and like a panoramic view appear
the scenes of Adam's temptation and fall, and the successive steps in the
great plan of redemption. The Saviour's lowly birth; His early life of
simplicity and obedience; His baptism in Jordan; the fast and temptation
in the wilderness; His public ministry, unfolding to men heaven's most
precious blessings; the days crowded with deeds of love and mercy, the
nights of prayer and watching in the solitude of the mountains; the
plottings of envy, hate, and malice which repaid His benefits; the awful,
mysterious agony in Gethsemane, beneath the crushing weight of the sins of
the whole world; His betrayal into the hands of the murderous mob; the
fearful events of that night of horror,--the unresisting prisoner, forsaken
by His best-loved disciples, rudely hurried through the streets of
Jerusalem; the Son of God exultingly displayed before Annas, arraigned in
the high priest's palace, in the judgment-hall of Pilate, before the
cowardly and cruel Herod, mocked, insulted, tortured, and condemned to
die,--all are vividly portrayed.

And now before the swaying multitude are revealed the final scenes,--the
patient Sufferer treading the path to Calvary; the Prince of heaven
hanging upon the cross; the haughty priests and the jeering rabble
deriding His expiring agony; the supernatural darkness; the heaving earth,
the rent rocks, the open graves, marking the moment when the world's
Redeemer yielded up His life.

The awful spectacle appears just as it was. Satan, his angels, and his
subjects have no power to turn from the picture of their own work. Each
actor