eat, 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." The mention made of "the
books" indicates that what is here said of the general judgment
pertains exclusively to God the Father, by whose almighty power and
omniscience, as I have endeavoured to show in the preceding paragraph,
all the deeds and experience of the present life are held in
remembrance to be brought under judgment. But it would be an error to
suppose that this general judgment is different from that the process
and results of which, as effected through the Son of man and his
attendant armies, are symbolically described in previous parts of the
Apocalypse. The judgment was ordained by decree of the Father, and
prearranged by His wisdom, and in accordance therewith it is executed
by the Son, who, apparently on this account, speaks thus of himself:
"To him that overcometh will I give to sit with me in my throne, as I
also overcame and sat with my Father in His throne" (Rev. iii. 21).
This throne {49} which the Son shares with the Father may be presumed
to be the seat of power exercised in judgment (compare Rev. ii. 26,
27). Why "the book of life" is mentioned in connection with the books
from the contents of which the dead are judged, will be shown in the
sequel of the argument.

There are other considerations relating to the future judgment which it
is necessary to enter into in order to complete the argument for the
immortality of all men. We live in a world in which sorrow and pain
and death abound everywhere and at all times, and although these are
actual consequences of sin, inasmuch as they would be non-existent if
sin did not antecedently exist, it is not the less true that the _law_
which in the present time of imperfection connects suffering with sin,
tends in its operation towards bringing on eventually a state of
perfection. Thus there is a final cause for that law. I have already
(page 14) illustrated this doctrine by reference to the process whereby
the actual condition and adornment of this earth were elaborated by the
operation of physical laws out of a state of darkness and chaos. This
view is corroborated by the noticeable fact that suffering in this
life, whether caused by the three scourges, war, pestilence, and
famine, or what we call accident, or by the injustice and cruelt