ers), of the
distress, and the anguish, as the hour of death draws nearer, of the
impending sentence of God, of the angels moving on rapid wing, of
the soul fearfully agitated by all these things, and bitterly
tormented by a guilty conscience, and clinging pitifully to the
things here below, and still under the inevitable necessity of
taking its departure. Picture to thy mind the final dissolution of
all that belongs to our present life, when the Son of Man shall come
in his glory, with his holy angels; for he "shall come, and shall
not keep silence," when he shall come to judge the living and the
dead, and to render to every man according to his work; when the
trumpet, with its loud and terrible echo, shall awaken those who
have slept from the beginning of the world, and they shall come
forth, they that have done good to the resurrection of the life, and
they that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation. Remember
the divine vision of Daniel, how he brings the judgment before our
eyes. "I beheld," says he, "till the thrones were placed, and the
Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the
hair of his head like the pure wool; his throne was like the fiery
flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and
came forth from before him; thousand thousands ministered unto him,
and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him; the judgment
was set, and the books were opened," revealing all at once in the
hearing of all men and all angels, all things, whether good or bad,
open or secret, deeds, words, thoughts. What effect must all these
things have on those who have lived viciously? Where, then, shall
the soul, thus suddenly revealed in all the fullness of its shame in
the eyes of such a multitude of spectators--Oh, where shall it
hide itself? In what body can it endure those unbounded and
intolerable torments of the unquenchable fire, and the tortures of
the undying worm, and the dark and frightful abyss of hell, and the
bitter howlings, and woeful wailings, and weeping, and gnashing of
teeth; and all these dire woes without end? Deliverance from these
after death there is none; neither is there any device, nor
contrivance, for escaping these bitter torments. But now it is
possible to escape them. Now, then, while it is possible, let us
recover ourselves from our fall, let us not despair of restoration,
if we break loose from our vices. Jesus Christ came into the world