“It is, my child,” replied the other, “a solemn subject. It will be a dreadful day to the wicked; but it will be a happy day to all God’s dear children—the happiest day in their lives.”
“Tell me, then, dear grandmamma, all that the Bible tells us about it. I shall promise to listen with great attention.”
|What it is.| “The Judgment,” answered the other, “is that great transaction which is to take place at the end of the world, when every man, and woman, and child, that ever lived, will be brought to trial before God’s ‘great white throne.’ A trumpet will sound over their graves. As I told you last Sabbath, the mouldering dust will come to life again, and the dead, small and great, will stand before God.”
“What a wonderful and awful thought!” exclaimed Emma; “but do you mean to say that all will be there, without any exception?”
“All!—all!” replied the aged lady, “from Adam to the last inhabitant of the world. There will be those who lived before the flood, and since the flood. Patriarchs, and Prophets, and Apostles—Jews and Gentiles—Pagans and Christians—rich and poor—young and old—learned and unlearned—kings and beggars—not one will be wanting; and more still, you and I will be there. Our eyes will look on that vast crowd.”
“And tell me,” continued Emma, deeply impressed with the thought, “who is the |The Judge.| Judge that will be seated on the throne you speak of? and what will He do?”
“If you refer, my child,” said her grandmother, “to the seventeenth chapter of Acts, thirty‐first verse, you will there read who is set apart as Judge of the world.” Emma turned up the passage in her Bible, and read as follows:—
“For He hath appointed a day in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead.”
“Oh, I see now!” she exclaimed, as she closed her Bible; “it is the Lord Jesus Christ who is to be Judge. It makes me glad to think of this; for if I love and serve Him now, I will not be afraid to meet Him then. |The Throne.| But why is it said that He is to be seated on a white throne?—will it really be so?”
“I cannot tell,” replied the other, “what the outward marks of majesty will be in which He will appear, although, doubtless, these will be very great; for it is said that He will come ‘in His glory,’ and that He is to have ‘all His holy angels with Him.’ But He is spoken of as seated on a great white throne, to denote His awful purity and holiness; that He will give on that day every one his due. His mercy will not interfere with the exercise of justice and holiness, and sinners will not escape unpunished.”