t that the same expression, 'counting worthy,' occurs in an
earlier verse of this chapter, where the reference is exclusively to the
future judgment.

So, then, we are brought face to face with this thought of an actual,
stringent judgment which God will apply in the future to the lives and
characters of professing Christians. Now, that is a great deal too much
forgotten in our popular Christian teaching and in our average Christian
faith. It is perfectly true that he who trusts in Jesus Christ will 'not
come into condemnation, but has passed from death unto life.' But it is
just as true that 'judgment shall begin at the house of God,' and that,
'the Lord will judge His people.' And therefore, it becomes us to lay to
heart this truth, that we, just because, if we are Christians, we stand
nearest to God, are surest to be searched through and through by the
light that streams from Him, and to have every flaw and corrupt speck
and black spot brought out into startling prominence. Let no Christian
man fancy that he shall escape the righteous judgment of God. The great
doctrine of forgiveness does not mean that He suffers our sin to remain
upon us unjudged, ay! or unavenged. But just as, day by day, there is an
actual estimate in the divine mind, according to truth, of what we
really are, so, at the last, God's servants will be gathered before His
throne. 'They that have made a covenant with Him by sacrifice' shall be
assembled there--as the Psalm has it--'that the Lord may judge His
people.'

Then, if the actual passing of a divine judgment day by day, and a
future solemn act of judgment after we have done with earth, and our
characters are completed, and our careers rounded into a whole, is to be
looked for by Christians, what is the standard by which their worthiness
is to be judged?

'Your calling.' The 'this' of my text in the Authorised Version is a
supplement, and a better supplement is that of the Revised Version,
'your calling.' Now _calling_ does not mean 'avocation' or 'employment,'
as I perhaps need scarcely explain, but the divine fact of our having
been summoned by Him to be His. Consider who calls. God Himself.
Consider how He calls. By the Gospel, by Jesus Christ, or, as another
apostle has it, 'by His own glory and virtue' manifested in the world.
That great voice which is in Jesus Christ, so tender, so searching, so
heart-melting, so vibrating with the invitation of love and the yearning
of a longing hea