with what superb
recklessness do we abuse God's great gift of speech! "We shall all stand
before the judgment-seat of God;" yes, we know it; but when do we think
of it? What difference does it make to us?

What can indifference such as this say for itself? How can it justify
itself before the bar of reason? Do we realize that our neglect has
Christ to reckon with? These things of which I have spoken are not the
gossamer threads of human speculation; they are the strong cords of
Divine truth and they cannot be broken. "You seem, sir," said Mrs. Adams
to Dr. Johnson, in one of his despondent hours, when the fear of death
and judgment lay heavy on him, "to forget the merits of our Redeemer."
"Madam," said the honest old man, "I do not forget the merits of my
Redeemer; but my Redeemer has said that He will set some on His right
hand and some on His left." Yes, it is the words of Christ with which we
have to do; and if we are wise, if we know the things which belong unto
our peace, we shall find for them a place within our hearts.

II

The issues of the Judgment may be summed up in a single
word--separation: "He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the
goats on the left." Stated thus broadly, the issue of the Judgment
satisfies our sense of justice. If there is to be judgment at all,
separation must be the outcome. And in that separation is vindicated one
of man's most deep-seated convictions. As right is right and wrong is
wrong, and right and wrong are not the same, so neither can their issues
be the same. "We have a robust common-sense of morality which refuses to
believe that it does not matter whether a man has lived like the Apostle
Paul or the Emperor Nero." We can never crush out the conviction that
there must be one place for St. John, who was Jesus' friend, and another
for Judas Iscariot, who was His betrayer."[58] This must be,

"Else earth is darkness at the core,
And dust and ashes all that is."

We must be sure that God has a right hand and a left, that good and evil
are distinct, and will for ever remain so, that each will go to his own
place, the place for which he is prepared, for which he has prepared
himself, or our day would be turned into night and our whole life put to
confusion.

So far, Christ's words present no difficulty. To many, however, it is a
serious perplexity to find that Christ speaks of but two classes into
which by the Judgment men are divided. There are the s