Year: 1867

sacrificed. No man can calculate
the effect Of his words. The Judg-
ment will take them up as the
foundation of evils. The great du.
ty of life is to be so careful in our
language that no idle word shall be
spoken. How great is the respon.
sibility Of fstatesmeh andpoliticians
in this respect? Perhaps you have
never thought of this matter, or
have regarded words and acts Of a
political character as not subject
to be measured by morals, and
therefore not subject of Judgment.
But not cnly the facts, but the eff.
tects Of our political life, will be
scrutinized in the Day of Judg-
.ment. Suppose your acts and
words, thought apparently triffling
in themselves, have brought pow
erty and distress on Others, or
have encouraged pride and wick
edness, is the man who has been
the author of these results to be
discharged simply because he is a
politician? Ihave sometime thought
there was wanting some further in.
structions in the Scriptures on the
responsibility of men, from whose
apparently trifling acts and words
great evils have resulted.


Let us now, for a few moments,
notice some of the circumstances
connected with the Judgment, and,
first of all desire you to divest
your minds of the notion, that the
Judgment is too mysterious for the
comprehension Ofthe human mind.
Iknow that, in the early years of
my life, l was disposed to invest
the subject with mysteries beyond
my reach. But for the last thirty
years Of my life I have regarded
the Scriptures and the Christian re.
ligion as part ofhuman experience;
and l read the Bible as Iwould
read any other book, taking into
consideration the different circum-
stances under which it was written.
And in its Interpretation, 1 apply
the same llules that / do in inter
preting other books. L claim that
it-comes clearly within the circle
and domain Of human experience.
If suchis the case, why can not a
Christian be just as certain in his
Comprehension of Scriptural doc
trines as he can of worldly affairs 2
1 wish you to take this inquiry
home with you and examine it.
There used to be a class of men in
Cincinnati, and they may be here
yet, who refused to receive any
thing that their reason could not
approve. They thought religion
did not come within the domain of
human, experience and reason. /
may turn aside a little further by
saying that since abandoning my
early visionary ideas of Judgment
and religion, and adopting, as my
basis of Interpretation, human ex-
perience, | have read and could
read a hundred thousand times,
with renewed JOY, "Thathaving re-
ceived the spirit of adoption,
whereby we cry Aba, Father, (that
is my Father), the spirit itself bear
ing witness with our spirit that we
are the children of God. There is
no mystery about this passage. We
receive the spirit of adoption,
whereby, we cry Aba, Father. Why
should we call God our Father if
he is otsucha The spirit beareth
witness with, our spirits that we
are the children of God. l say af.
ter many years experience of my
own, and after hearing the exper-
ience of others, | am here this
morning to say that the doctrines
of the Christian religion, are with
in the domain of human experience
and as easily understood as any
other part of human experience.
The Christian may with certainty
say, 81 know that my Redeemer
lveth." Such has been Christian
experience in all ages of the world
The Christian may say know, |
feel that l am child of God. How
does he know it? The answer is
by his experience, just as you know
ordinary things connected with the
world. You men of the world have
no right to deny the experience of
tie Christian, because you know
nothing about it. Having now di-
vested myself of these visionary
views of the Judgment, l have
learned to comprehend it as a part
Of human experience. ~


The first circumstance OF the
Judgment is the fact that the Lord
Jesus Christ is to be the Judge