Judgment Day

1910

Judgment or Blessing Today Yours To Choose — Matthew 25:31-46

That there is a day of judgment is a fact, but it is difficult, and not so important to decide the exact nature or time of the coming of the Lord to judgment. It is said in Matt 24:29-34 that "this generation shall not pass away till all these things be accomplished," and it is repeated in Mark 13:30, Luke 21:32, and again in Matt. 16:28, "there are some of them that stand here, which shall in no wise taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom," when "the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then shall he render unto every man according to his deeds."

This must refer to the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the old dispensation or age, and the coming of the gospel dispensation. But it does not exclude the great and final coming and judgment day at the end of that age.

There is really a judgment day at every great crisis of the nation or of our lives, at death, at the coming of rewards or punishments for our actions, at every time of decision. For instance, we have seen within the last few years many persons who have been for years growing rich by graft and dishonesty and have suddenly met their judgment day, while others have been reaping the rewards of faithful service. So young men who have been going on in course of drinking and rioting for a long time, suddenly find themselves drunkards, in ill health, incapacitated for their best work. They have been brought up at a judgment day; while those who have resisted temptation and been faithful and true are also reaping their rewards.

Then shall the king say unto them on his right hand. The sheep, the righteous. Come. Draw near to your Elder Brother, to your Father, to your home, for here is the place for you. Ye blessed of my Father means exactly "my Father's blessed ones," denoting not simply that they have been blessed by him, but that they are his. Blessings innumerable had come to them through their being willing to become his children and accept the kind of blessings he had to bestow, such as his loving care, the bestowal of the Holy Spirit, the experiences of the gospel, the renewal of the heart, the bestowal by the Spirit, the power to become children and heirs of God, the gifts and fruits of the Spirit, eternal life, the favor of God, the rest in the everlasting arms, the pavilion under the shadow of his wings.

Receive not by purchase, or by labors, but by becoming children of God, like God, and therefore heirs of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ Every one must be the heir of him whose child he is. He that is a child of sin is an heir of sin; a child of the devil inherits from the devil; a child of goodness and of God inherits from God. The kingdom of heaven, the kingdom which consists in righteousness, peace, joy in the Holy Ghost (Rom. 14:17), in which saints reign over infinite forces and powers to make them minister to happiness and good: "All things are yours," because "ye are Christ's."

Ye have done it unto me, the poor and needy and sick, and all the classes whom Jesus helped in Palestine are his representatives now on earth. The only visible expression of our love to him is through them. What a privilege this is to show our love to our Master. How it enriches our life if we keep in mind that we are not only helping the needy, but expressing our love to our Master. The unconsciousness of the righteous shows that their virtues were sincere and true. Whosoever does good deeds for the sake of the reward deserves no reward, and will obtain none, for the soul of goodness is left out of such deeds.

Unconscious goodness is the highest form of goodness. The beginner in music counts his measures, and studies on what note he shall place each finger; but the perfect musician strikes the right notes and expresses the right emotions almost as naturally as he breathes or as the birds warble their morning songs.

The cause of the doom was the refusal to do the deeds that belong to the heavenly kingdom and to be ruled by its motives. They refused to be fit for heaven. They decided to live selfish lives. The plan of their lives was such that all the evils of society — graft, child labor, poverty, degradation, crime, oppression, drunkenness, disease, could go on without any effort on their part to put an end to them.

The punishment is like the sin: it omits heaven and joy and God and the companionship of the good from our lives, and adds the everlasting fire.

This is a warning of love. It is a statement of the fact that by the very nature of things sin leads to ruin, and righteousness to heaven. No evil can enter heaven, for if it did heaven would not be heaven any longer.

President Eliot of Harvard, in an address to medical men, said that however people might refuse to believe in a future hell, it was the doctor's business to show young men that if they persisted in certain vices they would find a hell in this life. It is for each of us to make the choice, and start on the way which leads where we wish to go and live forever.

The law of the harvest is "to reap more than you sow."