^| This used to be a well-known fact ; and daily still, in certain edifices, steeple-house, joss-houses, temples sacred or other, every- where spread over the world, we hear some dim mumblement of an assertion that such is still, what it was always and will forever be, the fact: but meseems it has terribly fallen out of memory nevertheless ; and, from Dan to Beersheba, one in vain looks out for a man that really in his heart believes it. In his heart he believes, as we perceive, that scrip will yield dividends : but that Heaven too has an office of account, and unerringly marks down, against us or for us, whatsoever thing we do or say or think, and treasures up the same in regard to every creature, — this I do not so well perceive that he believes. Poor blockhead, no : he reckons that all payment is in money, or approximately representable by money ; finds money go a strange course ; disbelieves the parson and his Day of Judgment ; discerns not that there is any judg-
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498 A PECULIAR TREASURE
ment except in the small or big debt court; and lives (for the present) on that strange footing in this Universe. The unhappy mortal, what is the use of his " civilizations " and " useful know- ledges," if he have forgotten that beginning of human knowledge ; the earliest perception of the awakened human soul in this world ; the first dictate of Heaven's inspiration to all men ? I cannot account him a man any more ; but only a kind of human beaver, who has acquired the art of ciphering.1
2. But there will be a judgment of services as well as of sins ; and at that judgment also many will accuse Christians. Satan will say, " Lord, their brightest deeds were marred by sin, their best by shortcoming. I marked them well, and watched them often. They never once did good and sinned not." And, as he speaks, so likewise will a multitude of others also. But God's book of remembrance will also accuse them ; for He has a book for services as well as one for sins. We read about it here, where it is written, that "they that feared the Lord spake one with another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before him, for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name" (ver. 16). This, some might say, is comforting. Ah ! but that remembrance-book of services will, of course, just show them as they are — all spotted, wrinkled, blemished, and defiled, mere rags of righteousness, and filthy rags. What, in these circumstances, will the Judge do ?
T{ Slowly and painlessly consciousness returned. He looked about him and remembered. It seemed but a moment, and yet the life he had lived on earth was as far from him as if he had died a century ago. In the stillness and the measureless quiet which enfolded him after those last agonizing hours he knew that he had already entered into rest. So deep was the peace which fell softly as if from the vast heights above him that he felt no curiosity and was without fear. He was in a new life and he must find his place in it, but he was content to wait ; and while he waited his thought went swiftly back to the days when, a little child, he looked up at the sky and wondered if the stars were the lights in the streets of heaven. One by one the years rose out of the depths of his memory and he recalled, step by step, all the way he had come ; childhood, youth, manhood, and age. He read with deepening interest the story of his life — all his thoughts, his words, the things he had done and left undone. And as he read 1 Carlyle, Latter-Day Pamphlets, No. y.
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he knew what was good and what was ill ; everything was clear, not only in the unbroken record of what he had been, but in a sudden perception of what he was. At last he knew himself. And while he pondered one stood beside him, grave and calm and sweet with the purity that is perfect strength. Into the face which turned toward him, touched with the light of immortal joy, he looked up and asked, " When shall I be judged ? "
And the answer came : " You have judged yourself. You may go where you will." l
IL
The Judgment that Spares.
"I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him."
The need of such a promise as this is very urgent, and never more so than at the present time. Saints might say, as they often do, " Ah ! but a judgment-day will be very awful — awful, whatever else. Think of its hopes as we may, we cannot forget its terrors; we cannot forget that the day when the Lord will make up His jewels will be one of scrutiny and testing trials — a day of fire that shall ' try every man's work of what sort it is ' " (1 Cor. iii. 13), "and burn up all that is not 'gold, silver, and precious stones.' It must be a dreadful, unsparing day for sinners ; and what else are we ? Our own hearts condemn us, and God is greater than our hearts ; He knoweth all things." Well, to hush these f ears, we have this promise given us of God, " And I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him."