believers themselves need to find a place for it in their thoughts of the Lord's future coming. He that judgeth me is the Lord. We must all be made manifest before the judgement seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad.2 God shall judge the secrets of men, according to my gospel, by Jesus Christ.3 Christ Jesus... shall judge the quick and the dead... the righteous judge shall give to me the crown of righteousness at that day.* As he writes these passages two scenes from the experience of his own life in Gentile cities pass before the Apostle's eyes. He sees the proconsul seated on his tribunal (Bua), administering the law with the impartial justice that was still characteristic of Roman judges; and the umpire of the races at the stadium (Bpaßeus) holding out a wreath of pine to the successful runner. Quite different from both conceptions, but perhaps even more impressive, is the great Judgement scene in the Apocalypse: I saw a great white throne, and him that sat upon it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne; and books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the Book of Life: and the dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works.1 Here there is little which is peculiarly Christian, and even the mediation of Christ is not hinted at. The imagery is almost wholly taken from the Old Testament-the opened books are from Daniel,2 and the idea of the Book of Life is already found in Exodus; both were familiar to the Jewish apocalyptic writers. It is the Eternal Father who sits on the throne, and not, as in Christian pictures of the Judgement, the Incarnate Son. There is no mention. of the living, or of the change which will pass over them at the coming of the Lord; His coming does not enter into the vision. But if in this one passage the Seer reiterates ideas about the Judgement which Jews shared with Christians, in other places he gives full expression to those which are purely Christian. The Reaper of the Harvest of the Earth who comes seated on a white cloud is one like unto a son of man. The Holy City of the Saints is seen coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband: the lamp 1Apoc. xx. II ff. 2 Dan. vii. 10, Exod. xxxii. 32. Cf. Enoch xlvii. 3, xc. 20; Apoc. Baruch xxiv. I. 3 Yet even S. Paul speaks of the ẞîμa Toû eoû (Rom. xiv. 10), as well as Toû Xpɩσтoû (2 Cor. v. 10). God will judge in and by Christ. thereof is the Lamb, and its inhabitants are they which are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Lastly, Christ is heard to say, in words which remind us of the first Gospel, Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to render to each man according as his work is.1 Thus the whole of the New Testament witnesses with one voice, although with much variety of metaphor, to the coming of a Day of Judgement, which is coincident with the coming of the Lord. It may be that all the descriptions of the Great Day are to be interpreted as symbolical pictures which await their true interpretation when the day arrives; it may be that the Day itself is an epoch in human history rather than a space of time to be measured by hours. But such considerations do not touch the central truth, which remains as S. Paul stated it when he stood in the midst of the Areopagus, facing the frivolous Athenians of his time. God... hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.2 The Resurrection and Ascension point with awful certainty to the coming Judgement of the world. 1 1 Apoc. xiv. 14 ff., xxi. 2, 23, 27, xxii. 12; cf. Matt. xvi. 27. 'We believe that thou shalt come to be our Judge. We therefore pray thee, help thy servants, whom thou hast redeemed with thy precious. blood. Make them to be numbered with thy Saints in glory everlasting. O Lord, save thy people, and bless thine heritage; govern them, and lift them up for ever.' POSTSCRIPT. IT may be asked, To what purpose is such a study of the work of the Ascended Christ? Can any subject which is so transcendent that it cannot be expressed in the terms of human experience without calling in the aid of symbolism, be of practical value to our modern life? May it not safely be left to mystical theologians, while Christians in general devote themselves to problems which lie nearer to the heart of religion and morality? To many it may not seem sufficient to answer that in the judgement of the leaders of the Apostolic age the life of Christ in heaven must have had a supreme value, seeing that it forms almost the chief subject of their teaching. Circumstances have changed, it will be said, and the present age needs to have its attention directed to matters of more immediate interest, such as the intellectual and social problems which beset us to-day, and clamour for a speedy solution. In view of this objection it may be worth while to count up a few of the religious ends which are to be |