p. 211 | Judgment to Come by Alexander Maclaren

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 2, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 14.

Judgment to Come.

By Alexander Maclaren

FUTURE judgment is distinctly a part of the Christian revelation. Jesus Christ is to come in bodily form as he went away. All men are to be judged by him. That judgment is to be the destruction of opposing forces, the sweeping away of the carrion of moral evil. It is therefore distinctly a part of the message that is to be preached under penalty of the awful condemnation pronounced on the watchman who seeth the sword coming and gives no warning. It is not becoming to make such a solemn message the opportunity for pictorial rhetoric, which vulgarizes its greatness and weakens its power. But it is worse than an offense against taste, it is unfaithfulness to the "preaching which God bids us," treason to our King, to suppress the warning—"the day of our Lord cometh."

There are many temptations to put it in the background. Many of you do not want that kind of preaching. You want the gentle side of divine revelation. You say to us in fact, though not in words, "Prophecy to us smooth things. Tell us about the infinite love which wraps all mankind in its embrace. Speak to us of the Father God, who hateth nothing that he hath made. Magnify the mercy and gentleness and tenderness of Christ. Do not say anything about that other side. It is not in accordance with the tendencies of modern thought." So much the worse, then, for the tendencies of modern thought. I yield to no man in the ardor of my belief that the center of all revelation is the revelation of a God of infinite love, but I cannot forget that there is such a thing as the "terror of the Lord," and I dare not disguise my conviction that no preaching sounds every string in the manifold harp of God's truth which does not strike that note of warning of judgment to come.

Such suppression is unfaithfulness. If a traveler is about plunging into some gloomy jungle infested with wild beasts, he is a friend who sits by the wayside to warn him of his danger. Surely you would not call a signal-man unfeeling because he held out a red lamp when he knew that just around the curve beyond his cabin the rails were up, and that any train that reached the place would go over in horrid ruin; and surely that preaching is not justly charged with harshness which rings out the wholesome proclamation of a day of judgment when we shall give each account of ourselves to the divine-human Judge.

Be sure that judgment to come is no mere figure dressed up to frighten children, nor the product of blind superstition, but it is the inevitable issue of the righteousness of an all-ruling God. You have to face it, I have to face it, and so have all the sons of men. "Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment." Betake yourselves, as poor sinful creatures who know something of the corruption of your own hearts, to that dear Christ who has died on the cross for you, and all that is obnoxious to the divine judgments will, by his transforming life breathed into you, be taken out of your hearts; and when that day of the Lord shall dawn, you, trusting in the sacrifice of him who is your Judge, will "have a song as when a holy solemnity is kept." Take Christ for your Saviour, and then when the vultures of judgment, with their mighty black pinions, are wheeling and circling in the sky, ready to pounce upon their prey, he will gather you, "as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings," and beneath their shadow you will be safe.—Rev. Dr. Alexander Maclaren.