His people from their graves, and
gathers His elect from the four winds of heaven; and opens the Book
of Life, and from this biographical record adduces evidence of the
reality of their loyalty, and of their love to the King; and reveals
the glory of all His dealings towards them in every age:--until, in
one word, the living Church, of which He is the Head, which "He loved"
and "purchased with His own blood," and "sanctified and cleansed with
the washing of the water of His word," shall be presented to Himself,
not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, but holy and without
blemish. His judgment of the Church will be the consummation of His
mediatorial glory, and the fulness of His reward.

As to the time _when_ Jesus Christ shall judge the world, we are
ignorant. "Of that day knoweth no man, not even the angels." We know
only that it will come suddenly--"as a thief in the night"--upon the
whole world; and that "we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be
changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last
trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised
incorruptible, and we shall be changed."

No words of man can venture upon any description of the appearance of
the Judge, or the accompaniments of that great and terrible day of
the Lord. But here are a few Scripture statements descriptive of this
solemn scene:--

"For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his
angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works,"
(Matt. xvi. 27.)

"And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; and then
shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of
man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he
shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall
gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven
to the other," (Matt. xxiv. 30, 31.)

"For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are
alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them
which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with
a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God:
and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and
remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet
the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord," (1 Thess.
iv. 15-17.)

"And to you who are troubled rest with us, when