By LATE REV. WILLIAM COOKE, D.D.
Never since the foundation of the earth has there been a day like this, in the surprise and terror with which it will break upon the thoughtless millions of the population. Business and pleasure will occupy the minds of men as usual up to the close of the preceding day. The sun will rise and set with the same placid majesty, and fling his smiling radiance with the same bountiful profusion on this devoted world as he sinks beneath the horizon. Myriads will go to rest in peace, dreaming of future years of wealth and happiness. But at
midnight the loud blast of the archangel’s trump will awake them to sleep no more, and rushing in consternation to their window, they will see the heavens on fire. The worldling elated with schemes of opulence and splendour, will suddenly find his visions dispelled by the light of eternity and the despairing cry, “The Judge is come!” The nuptial ceremony will be broken off half done, and the rejoicing banquet scattered by the terror-striking spectacle of the great white throne. The astounded senate will suddenly break up at the crash of the conflicting elements, and hurrying away in wild confusion, see that the Great Legislator is come.
The ermined judge and the manacled prisoner will hear themselves alike summoned with ceremony to the great tribunal. The voluptuary, plethoric at the glutton’s feast, drunken at the bacchanalian orgies, or giddy at the midnight dance, or folded in the harlot’s embrace, will be startled, Belshazzar-like, from his sensual stupor by the pealing thunder and the trumpet’s sound. The miser, counting his gold, or reckoning his profits, will be panic-struck by the knells that tell him gold has no more value, and his priceless soul is lost, forever lost, in seeking a bursted bubble. The procrastinating trifler, dreaming of mercy after years of worldly pleasure, will be filled with dismay to see that the day of grace is past and the hour of retribution come. The anxious speculator, the busy merchant, the thriving tradesman, racking imagination with schemes of gain, panting to reach the goal of wealth, and revel in earthly aggrandisement, without one thought of God or eternity intruding on the vision of anticipated bliss, will be petrified with terror to find the delusive mirage break up before the glare of the flaming skies and the catastrophe of a ruined world.
The atheist, who denied God’s being, will be appalled at the sight of His Person; the faithless steward who said, “My Lord delayeth His coming,” and the sceptic, who sneeringly asked, “Where is the promise of His coming?” will alike be struck with horror when the rending heavens reveal His presence. The Demases who have forsaken Him for the world, the Judases who have betrayed for silver, and all the herd of apostates and blasphemers who have despised His name and trampled on His blood, will stand aghast when the great day of His wrath shall break upon their sight.
No day was ever equal to this in the awful scenes it ushers in, and the sudden terror and the despairing agony it excites. It was an awful night in Egypt when every family rose up to bewail its first-born struck with death. It was a day of awful vengeance when the siege of Jerusalem closed with the crash of a ruined city over 1,100,000 dead bodies. It was a day of anger when the deluge burst upon a degenerate world and overwhelmed its despairing millions in one common grave. But this day far exceeds them all, for it is the day when time has run its course, when universal retribution shall be rewarded, when God Himself shall come down to take vengeance on them that know Him not, and pent-up fires of divine wrath shall envelop the earth in a general conflagration.
Suipeir an Tighearn.
LE EANRUIG GROVE.
(Air a leanruinn bho h.d. 312.)
Earrann I.
(1) Tha na sàcramaidean so (1) A ciallachadh gu soilleir gu’m bheil an duine ann an staid claonaidh agus fadachd-as bho Dhia. Tha ciall nan sàcramaidean so ga nochdadh, oir, Ciod e th’anns a bhais-teadh? Cha’n e eur air falbh saileachar na feoladh, ach a bhi air ar deanamh glan agus neo-thruaillich ann am fianuis Dhe. Tha e air a ràdh mu Chriosd gu’n do ghràdhaich e’n eaglais, agus gu’n d’thug “se e fein air a son; chùm gu naomhaicheadh, agus gu’n glanadh e i le ionnlaid an uisge tre an fhoceal. Chùm gu’n euireadh e’ na lathair fein i ‘na h-eaglais ghldormhor, gun smal, gun phreasadh, no ni air bith d’an leithidibh sin; ach chùm gu’m biodh i naomh, agus neo-lochdach.” Tha’n naomhachadh, na’n glanadh so, “tre’n fhoceal,” na teagasg an t-sogseil, air a chompanachadh le obair an Spioraid Naoimh, agus maille ri ionnlaid le h-uisg, na’m baisteadh, mar shamhladh air glanadh moralta ‘s an taobh a stigh, Ach cò iad aig am bheil feum air glanadh ach iadsan a tha salach? ni tha nochdadh, gus am bheil sinn air ar naomhachadh le focal Dhe (agus an naomhachadh so air a chur an ceill le baisteadh bho’n leth a’ muigh) nach urrainn sinn Dia a thoileachadh. A rithisd, Ciod e Suipeir an Tighearn, a thaobh cuid shònraicht’ dhe ciall, ach cuimhneachan air an iobairt-reitich a bha air a deanamh le bàs Chriosd as leth dhaoine? Agus cò ach creutairean peacach agus ceannaireach a chuireadh feum air iobairt-reitich a bhi air a fairgse air an son? An fhaid so, ma ta, cha’n eil anns na h-òrduighean so ciall comhfhurtail. Ach,
(2) Tha iad na’m fianuis di-bheath-te agus shoilleir air an duine bhi ann an staid anns an gabh e bhi air a thearnadh. ‘S è sin, ged tha suidheachadh an t-sloichd pheacaich so, as eugmhais gràs agus trocair Dhe, na shuidheachadh ro-mhuladach, gidheadh, tre na ghràs so, cha’n eil e gun dòchas, ach calg-dhireach an aghaidh sin, agus tha òrduighean a bhaistidh agus Suipeir an Tighearn a dh’ao’n aobhar air an suidheachadh, ann an co-cheangail ris na meadhanon gràis eile, gu bhi ga ar toirt a stigh agus ga ar togail suas ann an staid slàinte tre losa Crìosd; is iad so seulaichean a cho-cheangail gràis sin anns an deachaidh Dia a stigh gu gràsmhor ri daoine peacach, a chum a bhi foillseachadh a tròcair neo-chriochnach a nàduir, a mhòr-thlaichd ann am fireantachd agus ùmhlachd a Mhic ro-ghràdhaich, an t-Eadar-mheadhonair mòr. Agus ann an so biodh e na aobhar aoibhnis dhuinn, agus na obhar buidheachais do ar Dia tròcaireach, a’n uair, tre pheacach a cheud duine Adhamh, agus an laigse agus a mhi-rian a dh’aobhraich sin ann an nàdur na daonnachd, agus nach robb’n còr aite do chùmhnanta neo-chiontais, gu’n d’thug an Dara Duine, an Ti is e’n Tighearn ‘o neamh, a stigh cùmhnanta a tha nuadh agus ni’s
fearr; Ní’s fearr, co dhiubh a bheachdaicheas sinn air na cumhachan a tha cho freagarach do ar nádur a tha air tuiteam, na air a ghràs agus a ghlòir a tha air a ghealltuinn. Air son a chùmhnant ro-luachmhor so tha sinn fodh fhiachaibh, fodh làimh Dhe, do eadar-mheadhonaireachd ar Fear-saoraidd truacanta, Iosa Crìosd. Choisinn a bhàs reite ri Dia; agus tha’n t-Suipeir a thug e dhùinn na cuimhneachan bunaiteach air a bhàs. Agus ‘s ann bho so a tha mi gabhail mo sheoladh ann a bhi mineachadh na sàcramaid so.
Is e ciall shònraicht agus dhìreach Suipeir an Tighearn a bhi na cuimhneachan buan air bàs Chrìosd. Tha so soilleir bho bhriathran an Abstoil Phòil (I Cor. xi. 26) “Oir eia minic as a dh’itheas sibh an t-aran so, agus a dh’òlas sibh an cupan so, tha sibh a foillseachadh bàis an Tighearn gus an tig e.” Mar sin cha’n eil againn doigh is cinnich, agus as furasda gu beachd cheart agus shoilleir a bhi againn air an òrdugh so, na bhi toirt fa’n ear bàs Chrìosd, ann an so air a chur fodh chomhair air sul,fodh ne seallaidhean fa’leth anns am bheil e comasach air beachdachadh air leinne. Tha na leanas am measg na nithean is soilleir.
(R’a leantuinn.)