The Pulpit Commentary — Revelation — Section 460

fJ,a.Ill«i,. They stand before him, feeling his presence, and aivaiting his. doom-fi,tiµ,.g wo:t'd:· This is a distinguishing feature of the retributive period. In every preceaing. period of human history, with the exception of the millennial ages, the vast majorities of all generations had no conscious contact with God. Some denied his very being, whilst others desired not a knowledge of his ways. But hence-on, for ever and ever, all the good and the bad will " stand before God "-will be in conscious contact with him •.· His felt presence will be the heaven of the good, and bis felt presence will be the hell of the evil. 1. There will be -no atheiam after this. How will the ii.theist teachers of the past ages feel now? Lucretius, Democritus, and Strabo among the ancients; Diderot, Lagrange, D'Alembert, Mirabeau, and Hobbes amongst the mcidcrns, wiH/eel now, and evermore, that the great.est reality in the 'm;i•erse was the .Being w nose existence they impiously ignored or denied. 2. There will lie tw dl!ism after tht,; The men who taught, through preceding ages, the doctrine that God had no iminediat,e, connection with his creat.ures; that he governed the universe through an inflexible system of laws; that he took no cognizal\ce of individuals, and felt no interest in them~ will_ know now that no being in the universe had been in such dQse,contact. with every, particle. and peripd of their existence as God. All the objects that intervened 1,et,weeo: God and the soul will be withdrawn now; the veil of sense and matter will be rent asunder, to'unite no more. 3. There wi'll be no ind~fferentism ofter this. God's Eei_ng, pTeSence, and claims will no lon!.(er be subjects of no importance. 'l'hey will be every~ thing to all. God's presence will fill the conscious life of all, as midday sun without a cloud the day. · IV. THIS RETRIBUTIVE PERIOD WILL SETTLE FOR EVER . THE QUESTION OF EVERY MAN'S CHARACTER AND DESTINY, "And the dead were judged out of those things' which were wrHten in the hooks, accurding to their works," etc. (vers. 12, 13). Here observe three things. 1. That the worth of a man's character wiU be <hterminecl.by his wurks. "According to their works." Not by religions position, or Greed, or profession, or office ; but by "works." "What has a man done? " will be the question. 2. Tl&at a man's works wal be determimd by recognized authorities. " Books" will be opened. God's moral and remedial laws nre books, and these books will now be opened-opened to memory, to consciel!ce, and the universe. 'l'his will be a day of moral convictwn. 3. That according to the correspondence, or non-correspondence, of man's warks with these recognized authorities will be his final, destiny. "Whosoever was not foun_d' written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire" (ver. 15). "The book of life "-the remedial law or scheme of salvation-the gospel. Whoever was not found vitally interested in this was cast into the lake of fire. , \Yhat a scene is this that has passed under review I In it& light how mean do man's highest dignities and honours appear! How ine~ably paltry the pageantry of courts I how .empty the pretensions of· sovereigns! How solemn is life, in all its stages, rela- tioua, and asrcctsl God help us to live in the light of" that day" I -D. T.