than all modern schoolmasters, He who is the Truth, has proclaimed its falsehood. Light is come into the world, and men are guilty, He tells us, who shut their eyes against it. Whenever they "love darkness rather than light," it is "because their deeds are evil." The darkened understanding obeys the secret bias of sinful desires in the heart. Man is responsible to his Maker for the whole state of his moral being, his beliefs, his habits, his desires, his words, and his actions. A moral unity runs through the whole. The understanding guides the volition, and the bias of the will reacts on the understanding. The disposition leads to the act. Acts form habits of action, and these habits strengthen and confirm the disposition. And the future account, revealed in Scripture, answers to this voice of sound philosophy. The process is not maimed and partial, but entire. The word, by which man is judged, pierces “even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of the joints and marrow" of man's inward life, and is a critical discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. All things alike, the actions, the words, the secret springs on which both depend, are open to the eyes of the Righteous Judge with whom we have to do. Man, we thus conclude finally, is responsible, not only to his own conscience, but to the Most High God, the Supreme Creator, from whom all his high and noble gifts were at first received. It is the parting voice of the wisest of men-" God will bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or evil." This great truth has, doubtless, its solemn side, on which it has been assailed with many doubts and strong aversion, and on which the space and object of this lecture forbid me to dwell. But, seen from a truer and higher point of view, it is cheering, blessed, and glorious. Man is not the sport of Chance, the slave of some blind and heartless Fate. The world is not abandoned to the hopeless anarchy of human passions, to the despotism of selfish and brutal tyrants, or the clamorous and suicidal follies of ungodly multitudes, who despise all authority, and scoff at laws both human and divine. One who is perfect in wisdom and goodness, One who is supreme in might, sitteth upon these waterfloods, and remaineth a King for ever. He is Judge of all the earth, and He will do right. The dark shadows, that veil His uprightness from sinful eyes, will be cleared away. Man, by the fact that he is called to stand in judgment, will assume the dignity which a false philosophy obscures, of a being made in the likeness of his God. The mystery of the long-endurance of evil will then be explained. The fragments of Providence, that seemed trivial and worthless, will be gathered up, and none be lost. No tear of repentant sorrow, no breathing of desire after the good and right, will be forgotten. No cup of cold water, given in genuine charity, shall lose its due notice and reward. The moral gems that were hidden in darkness will be brought to light, and help to form a royal diadem for the King of kings. The flowers of tender affection and loving thoughtfulness, the gentle charities of domestic life, with every variety of the delicate fragrance of Christian love, shall blush unseen no longer, nor be buried in the darkness of the grave; but will shine in garlands of immortal beauty, transplanted to the Paradise of God. The light that has been sown for the righteous in the painful discipline of this mortal life, and watered so often with tears of bitter sorrow, shall then yield its full harvest of blessing. That solemn account must be to every child of man most deeply humbling; to the sinful and unholy it may be solemnly severe. But it will be, and must be, worthy of Him who is wonderful in counsel, spotless in holiness, and perfect in love. From the thick clouds and darkness which now surround His throne, a light surpassingly wonderful will break forth on an admiring universe. Then will be seen inscribed on the arch of this world's dark history, as in letters of celestial fire, a glorious inscription, to be repeated with wonder and admiration by all the moral and intelligent universe-" He is the Rock, His work is perfect, all His ways are judgment—a God of truth, and without iniquity, just and right is HE!" |