“I think I now remember, dear grandmamma,” said Emma, “of reading in that same chapter in Revelation which speaks of the throne of the Judge, that He is to have |The Books.| some books lying open before Him.”
“Yes, my child, you are right; ‘the books,’ we are told, are to be ‘opened.’ What these books may be we cannot tell; but perhaps they may be the books of the Law and the Gospel—the books of Conscience, and Memory, and Privilege; and especially the Great Book of Remembrance, in which all |The Book of Remembrance.| our words, and deeds, and actions, are preserved. All that every individual has ever done will be found recorded in it. Many will wonder when they come to see how faithful the pen of God has been in writing down all;—heart sins, and tongue sins, and life sins. I fear not a few suppose that there are many trifling faults (or, as they call them, ‘little sins’) which they imagine God does not think it worth while to take notice of. They will find every one of them recorded. They may have forgotten them long ago; but they will all be brought to light again on that Great Day.”
“If this,” exclaimed Emma, “be indeed the case, who is there but must tremble at the thought of that day?”
“The wicked, my child,” continued her grandmother, “will and must be afraid to think of it. All who have not known the salvation of Jesus, and fled to His precious blood, must be covered then with confusion and shame. They will then be led to see, what they never saw before, what an evil thing sin is, and what a holy being God is. But His own people will have nothing to fear. They can say now, in the words of the beautiful hymn—
‘Bold shall I stand on that great day;
For who aught to my charge can lay,
While by Thy blood absolved I am
From sin’s tremendous guilt and shame?’
Yes, dear Emma, they will be able to look up with joy in the face of their Judge, and say, ‘It is God that justifieth, who is he that condemneth?’”
“But what! Do you mean, grandmamma, that God does not take account of the sins of the righteous?”