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THE DAY OF JUDGMENT,

OR THE

GRAND RECKONING.

CHRISTIANS! profit by the warning,
Which the word of God supplies;
Think upon that awful morning,
When the quick and dead shall rise.

Lo! each country, every nation,
All the globe we now behold,
(Wrapt in dreadful conflagration)
Smoke and fire at once enfold!

See the works of art so curious,
Lofty cities, temples, towers!
See the raging flames so furious,
All the mighty mass devours.

You, who doat on earthly treasures,
What dismay will seize your frame,
When the sum of all your pleasures
Crackles in the general flame!

Lo! the multitudes surrounding,
Whom the grave no more can keep;
Hark! the awful trumpet sounding!
Death has broke his leaden sleep.

All that in the tomb now slumber,
How at once they burst their chain !
See, they rise, how vast their number!
All that liv'd shall live again.

Great and small together meeting,
Lo! the sea gives up her dead!

Then the sea itself retreating,

Lo! the heavens and earth are fled!

See the LORD of life descending,
Hear the dread Archangel's voice;
See the dead on Christ attending;
How the saints of God rejoice!

Myriads at that voice shall gather,

Take the kingdom long prepar'd,

"Come, ye blessed of my Father,
"Share my crown, my cross you shar'd."

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ONE, who sincerely wishes well to your best interest, now addresses you upon that subject which of all others is the most important. The number of your days is very nearly accomplished, and the things which should now occupy your attention, and with which you should be most familiar, are death, judgment, and eternity; awful subjects indeed! He that is old, should be, in his own estimation, a dying man; he should realize something of the spirit of the apostle when he says, 'I die daily.' 1 Cor. xv. 31. He should esteem himself just at death's door, and stand prepared to hear this solemn address, 'Set thine house in order; thou shalt die, and not live.' Isa. xxxviii. 1. Instead of this, how many aged persons are there in whom there is every sign of a speedy dissolution, who, in understanding, in inclination and conduct, are yet children, entirely occupied with the trifles of time, and altogether unmindful of their souls and eternity! Is this your unhappy case, reader?

Suffer then the word of exhortation. This Tract comes to you with the most friendly design; receive it as from the Lord, read it with attention, and when you have read it, kneel down and intreat him to impress it upon your heart, that it may prove a real and lasting blessing to your soul. Remember, you will soon stand before the judgment seat of Christ, there to answer for the deeds done in the body, whether they be good or whether they be evil. It will then avail you nothing to cry with the wicked Balaam, 'Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his;' Numb. xxiii. 10.; nor yet to seem righteous in the eyes of men you must have on the wedding garment; Matt. xxii. 11, 12.; you must be born again; John iii. 3-8. you must be holy. 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10.; Such only are ready for the Lord's coming; all others will be excluded, when the bridegroom cometh, and the door is shut; and in vain will they then say, 'Lord, Lord, open unto us.' Matt. xxv. 1-10. It is not only requisite to remind you of what is before you, but I recommend you carefully and frequently to lock

6

This

back upon the way which you have already come. was the injunction laid upon Israel of old: And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness.' Deut. viii. 2. The Lord had so discovered to them his holiness and justice in chastening them for sin, and such rich grace and mercy in the forgiveness of it, that they might with great propriety have determined to sing both of mercy and judgment.' Psalm ci. 1. Come, then, my aged friend, look back upon the way which you have come; trace the leadings of God; call to your remembrance what he has done for you in a way of mercy, and how frequently he has spoken to you in his judgments. You have been the subject of his constant care and unmerited bounty. In your experience from day to day, how many wants have been supplied, how many fears dispelled, how many dangers escaped, and how many deliverances wrought! If you would reckon them up in order, they are more than can be numbered. Ask now your own heart what good effect the boundless mercy of God has produced upon your soul. Do you not know that God in all these dispensations has been calling you to seek him, trust in him, and love him, as the only substantial good? Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth to repentance; but, after thy hardness and impenitent heart, treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his deeds? Rom. iii. 4-9. How have you acted toward your kind benefactor through all the years that he has spared you? Have you at all thought upon him? Have you feared, and loved him? Have you revered his holy name? Have you kept his Sabbaths? Have you attended his ordinances? Have you made his word your guide, and his glory your chief concern? If you have not, ought not your conscience to smite and reproach you today, as one of the most ungrateful of mortals, especially when you recollect how frequently and how solemnly you have resolved in the day of your affliction, that if God would spare and deliver you, you would fear and serve him till your dying day? Whereas on the contrary, you have

served the world and sin with more eagerness than ever.

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Does not this Tract find you ignorant of yourself, ignorant of God and of the Holy Scriptures, and with all your might rushing forward in the company and in the spirit of those who are crowding the broad road which leadeth to destruction? Yes, to this day, it may be, you are a stran ger to godly sorrow for sin, and to the saving power of that Gospel in which the forgiveness of it is preached through the Saviour's atoning blood. You have neither seen your own deformity in the glass of God's holy law, nor the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ as shining in the blessed Gospel, through the beholding of which, men are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.' 2 Cor. iii. 18. No, you continue to bear the 'image of the earthly.' Your thoughts, your cares, and your pursuits are earthly and sensual; hence you live in the neglect of prayer and reading the Holy Scriptures, make your attention upon the worship of God give place to your carnal indulgences and to your worldly interest, and are almost as ignorant and careless, as to every thing that concerns the salvation of your never-dying soul, as a poor, unenlightened heathen.

Ah, poor sinner! humiliating and affecting as this picture of human nature appears, is it not your own likeness? And is it really possible, is it actually true, that you should have lived so many years to so little purpose; and that in a christian country, surrounded with the light of revelation, and the faithful preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; nay more, professing yourself to be a christian, and to have a hope of eternal life?

Feeling a love for your perishing soul, and desirous of doing you good, an unknown friend asks leave to speak plainly and faithfully to you of the things which concern your present and eternal good. Know then that you are an offender against God. You have broken his righteous law; insulted his glorious perfections; and are in debt to him more than ten thousand talents. The law of God condemns you; the justice of God claims satisfaction at your hand; and the word of God thus addresses you: 'Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire, and brimstone, and an horrible tempest; this shall be the portion of their cup.'

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