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The Judgment

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 20, 1875

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 45, No. 21.

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The Judgment.

By Joseph Clarke

WE are now amid the scenes of the Judgment; each of us has a case pending, unless we have already decided to disbelieve what God has said in his word; in that case, it is probably settled, unless we speedily reconsider.
Often do I spend the wakeful hours of night in looking over my past life, and trying to call up my many sins and errors, and with the help of the Spirit of God, I deeply humble myself before God for every sinful act I can recollect. Sometimes my mind seems held for a long time in deep sorrow and remorse for sins of one kind; and at other times, I seem to feel most deeply another class of sins, and I entreat of God to blot them out of his book. Though the sight of so much of evil in one heart is very painful, yet I feel thankful, more than words can express, that God's Spirit has not done striving with me. Every instance of such conviction and repentance is followed by a morning of joy and gratitude. As one has written, “weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.”
I joined the Congregational church of Gorham, Maine, Sept. 4, 1831, at the age of thirteen. I enjoyed the Spirit of God at that time, and never have I denied, or wholly grieved it away. But there have been many long periods of declension and backsliding from God since that time, and it seems a continued miracle of grace that the Spirit of God has forgiven my many sins and weaknesses, and that, at the age of fifty-seven, when I ought to be perfect, I am still imperfect and sinful.
It may seem egotistical, thus to speak of one's self to the public; but it is not to magnify or justify, or do honor to self, but to laud and magnify the grace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ, who, by his Spirit, still calls after his wandering sheep that are scattered up and down the earth, and is calling them to test themselves by the perfect law, which requires truth in the inward part.
JOSEPH CLARKE.