or the fall of empires, by the politeness or the barbarity of the times, by the great characters who have blazed in every age; but by the diverse triumphs of grace, by the hidden victories of the just over their passions, by ^the establishment of his reign in a heart, by the heroical fortitude of a persecuted believer. You shall see him change the face of all things, create a new heaven and a new earth, and reduce that infinite variety of people, titles, conditions, and dignities, to a people holy and a people reprobate, to the goats and the sheep.
Separation, secondly, cruel. The father shall be separated from his child; friend from friend; brother from brother: the one shall be taken, the other left. Death, which deprives us of the dearest friends, and whose loss occasions to us so many sighs and tears, leaves us, at least, a consolation in the hope of being one day reunited to them. Here, the separation is eternal; no hope of reunion shall more exist; we shall no more have relatives, father, child, friend; no other ties than everlasting flames, which shall for ever unite us to the reprobate.
Separation, thirdly, ignominious. We are so touchy on a preference, when neglected, or left blended with the crowd on any splendid occasion; we are so peevish, and so irritated, when, in the distribution of favours, we see novices carrying off the palm and the principal offices; our services forgotten, and those whom we had always seen far below us, now exalted and placed over our heads. But, on that grand day, it is that preference shall be accompanied with circumstances the most humiliating and the most galling to the criminal soul. In that universal silence, in that dreadful expectation, in which each one shall be for the decision of his destiny, you shall see the Son of Man advancing in the heavens, with crowns in one hand, and the rod of wrath in the other, to carry off, from your side, a just soul whose innocence you, perhaps, had blackened by rash discourses, or whose virtues you had insulted by impious pleasantries; a believer who was, perhaps, born your subject; a Lazarus, who in vain, perhaps, had importuned you with the recital of his wants and poverty; a rival whom you had always beheld with an eye of scorn, and upon whose ruins your intrigues and artifices had perhaps exalted you. You shall see the Son of Man place a crown of immortality on his head, seat him at his right hand, while you, like the proud Haman, rejected, humbled, and degraded, shall no longer, have before your eyes but the preparation of your punishment.
Yes, my brethren, every galling and overwhelming circumstance shall attend that preference. A savage converted to faith shall be ranked among the sheep, while a Christian inheritor of the promises shall be left among the goats. The layman shall ascend, like the eagle over his prey, while the minister of Jesus Christ shall grovel on the earth, covered with shame and reproach. The man of the world shall pass to the right hand, while the recluse passes to the left. The wise, the learned, the critic of the age, shall be driven to the side of the unclean; and the idiot, who knew not
