n after all He suffered of shame and agony for us; but that
makes no difference; He will say, 'Enter thou into the joy of thy
Lord.' It is true we made fun of Christians, and mocked at prayer and
sneered at faith; but that is not much to be afraid of. It is true we
hated our neighbour, and would not forgive an insult; but that is a
little thing. It is true when the Holy Spirit pleaded with us a year
or six months ago to confess Christ in public we told Him to leave us;
we were ashamed to do it in the presence of men, to confess Him who
spread out His arms on a cross of bitterest agony for us; but for all
that we feel sure that when we march up to the judgment seat of Christ
He will treat us just the same as He treats the disciples who have laid
down their lives for the Master.

"Then let us tear out of the Bible every line that speaks of
retribution or punishment or judgment--for we don't like those
passages: they hurt our feelings,--and let us leave only those words
that speak of love and mercy and forgiveness: for those words are the
only ones that can be true; for those words don't make us feel
uncomfortable.

"Away with everything that hurts our feelings, that makes us anxious,
that sends us to our knees in prayer, that makes us confess Christ and
live a life of self-denial and service! for when the judgment seat is
prepared and Christ sits down there and we appear before Him, He will
receive us just as we come before Him--the pure and the impure; the
self-sacrificing and the selfish; the humble and the proud; the
believer and the unbeliever; infidels and scoffers and cowards and
despisers of God's love on the earth; all the class of men who point to
weak and imperfect Christians as an excuse for their own weak lives;
the drunkards and the liars and the oppressors of the poor; the people
who heard a thousand sermons full of Gospel truth and despised them
because of some imperfection in delivery or elocution; all those men
who went through life the betrayers of the home; the selfish
politicians, who betrayed their country; the men who read the Bible and
believed only the parts that didn't hurt their sensitive feelings; the
young men who lived fast lives and sowed wild oats because a wicked and
false public sentiment made them think it was excusable and perhaps
necessary; and all other men and women who lived as they pleased,
regardless of God and eternity--when all these shall appear before the
judgment seat of