Twenty-fourth Sunday After Pentecost.
Judgment.
"There shall be then great tribulation, such as hath not been from the beginning of the world, neither shall be." — Matt. xxiv. 21.
SYNOPSIS.
Ex.: I. Protestants as to fear of God. II. Worthy motive. III. Church's liturgy.
I. Last day: i. Sudden, certain, uncertain. 2. Great day. 3. Day of the Lord.
II. Commotion: 1. In earth and heaven. 2. In souls of men. 3. The resurrection.
III. Judgment: 1. Trembling criminal. 2. Rendering of verdict. 3. Sentence and execution.
Per. : 1. Faithful servant. 2. Parable of fig-tree. 3. Holy indifference and fear.
SERMON.
Brethren, Catholic pulpits excepted, the preaching of the fear of the Lord has become a thing of the past. It is a harsh subject, equally offensive to the refined and the sinful, and besides, say the reformers and the reformed, it makes of sinners hypocrites still more displeasing to God. Yet Holy Writ has it that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, that it drives sin from the soul, and that without it no one can be sanctified. St. Augustine compares fear of God and the grace of God to a needle and thread, it being utterly impossible for God's grace to enter the soul unless the fear of the Lord precede. No vice was more roundly rated by Christ than hypocrisy; yet He frequently pointed to death and judgment and hell as objects of dread, and He bade
