And ing to be Christians. Very imperfect ones, often falling back, but never forsaken of the Lord Jesus Christ, doers of his will, bearers of his name. now our eyes are lifted up, and we discover, as Paul did, that Christ is with us; that he is going to abide with us always. So we go about our business, we travel, we go to our homes, our offices; we have trial, and perplexity, and bodily pain, and the heart is rent, and the will has to be summoned, and we wonder what all God's strange providences mean; and here comes back the assurance that Jesus Christ, the living Christ, is with us every day; that we are doing his business, that we are working together with him, that he is by our side and in our hearts, and we can almost feel the touch of his hand; and we take courage, and go on. We now understand the wonderful exhortations with which the epistle closes. Looking unto Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, himself the new and living way and the great high priest over the house of God, we are to run our race and do our work. We are not alone, nor have we found a God of the thunder and tempest and darkness. We are come "unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable hosts of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better than that of Abel." Therefore we cast away our feebleness, as the apostle says; we cast away our fears and uncertainties. We receive Jesus Christ as a very present help in every time of need, and putting our hand in his, proceed to live with him, as the disciples lived with him when they first forsook all that they might follow him and be with him forever. From thence He shall come to judge the Quick and the Dead” "Looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ." TITUS 2: 13. "For we must all be made manifest before the judgment-seat of Christ; that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad.” 2 Cor. 5: 10. CHAPTER X THE AFFIRMATION OF THE COMING JUDGE The characteristic of the Christian Church as distinct from the world about it is that it stands with expectant and upturned face, looking for that event. which is to be the crown and triumph of the Christian life; whereas the world about us faces the unknown. Carlyle has stated the common thought: "We are marching forward into the mists of the future tense." There ought to be a future life; but all the world's experience and philosophy, its history and its speculation, give it only guesses as to what lies beyond the grave. Over against this stands the Church with its positive teaching and sure hope, waiting for the coming and triumph of its Lord. There is that in us which makes it hard for us to believe that death ends all. We find a necessity for much posthumous readjustment. Without a future life, this world would be the greatest enigma, the most inconsequential existence, that the mind of man can conceive. Sin is a fact that cannot be annihilated by oblivion. Forgiveness does not undo it. Its consequences remain in our life, its memory abides in |