recalls the part which he performed. Herod, who slew the innocent
children of Bethlehem that he might destroy the King of Israel; the base
Herodias, upon whose guilty soul rests the blood of John the Baptist; the
weak, time-serving Pilate; the mocking soldiers; the priests and rulers
and the maddened throng who cried, "His blood be on us, and on our
children!"--all behold the enormity of their guilt. They vainly seek to
hide from the divine majesty of His countenance, outshining the glory of
the sun, while the redeemed cast their crowns at the Saviour's feet,
exclaiming, "He died for me!"

Amid the ransomed throng are the apostles of Christ, the heroic Paul, the
ardent Peter, the loved and loving John, and their true-hearted brethren,
and with them the vast host of martyrs; while outside the walls, with
every vile and abominable thing, are those by whom they were persecuted,
imprisoned, and slain. There is Nero, that monster of cruelty and vice,
beholding the joy and exaltation of those whom he once tortured, and in
whose extremest anguish he found satanic delight. His mother is there to
witness the result of her own work; to see how the evil stamp of character
transmitted to her son, the passions encouraged and developed by her
influence and example, have borne fruit in crimes that caused the world to
shudder.

There are papist priests and prelates, who claimed to be Christ's
ambassadors, yet employed the rack, the dungeon, and the stake to control
the consciences of His people. There are the proud pontiffs who exalted
themselves above God, and presumed to change the law of the Most High.
Those pretended fathers of the church have an account to render to God
from which they would fain be excused. Too late they are made to see that
the Omniscient One is jealous of His law, and that He will in no wise
clear the guilty. They learn now that Christ identifies His interest with
that of His suffering people; and they feel the force of His own words,
"Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren,
ye have done it unto Me."(1160)

The whole wicked world stand arraigned at the bar of God, on the charge of
high treason against the government of heaven. They have none to plead
their cause; they are without excuse; and the sentence of eternal death is
pronounced against them.

It is now evident to all that the wages of sin is not noble independence
and eternal life, but slavery, ruin, and death. The wic