O sinner! hear the consoling words of St. John: “If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ.” No matter how great your sins are, do not despair; have good hope and courage, for we have as our Advocate the only begotten Son of the Eternal Father, who has gone bail for us, and offered Himself as full atonement: “And He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.”[1]
So that we might imagine we have no reason to fear Him as Judge. O meekest Saviour! gentle Son of man! let me here again ask Thee, in the words that Thy precursor St. John said to Thee by his disciples, “Art Thou He that art to come?” Art Thou the Man that art to come as the Judge of the living and the dead? “Or look we for another?”[2] No, no other; I am the one! “The Father hath given all judgment to the Son.”[3] To what Son? To that very Son who, meek and patient as a lamb, had not a word of contradiction in His mouth. “Then they shall see the Son of man coming in a cloud,”[4] says St. Luke, speaking of the last judgment, as we have seen already. Away, then, with all fear and dread! I repeat: if that Man who has just been described is to be my Judge, I could not have or wish for any one better, or more favorable, or more gracious. No; it is Thou, Jesus Christ, my Saviour, and no other, whom I expect and desire as my Judge!
But He shall then be quite changed towards the sinner. But, alas! I am not over-confident when I consider my own misdeeds, and the possibility of falling unrepentant into the hands even of this Man. O sinner, do not flatter yourself with a vain hope! Yes, it is that very Man who will judge you; but ah, He will be quite changed and altered from what He was before, from what He is at present towards you. All His mildness and tenderness shall be turned into severity and bitterness; all His pity into sternness; all His meekness into anger and indignation, when you shall behold Him coming in His power and glory. All the titles He has assumed out of love for men shall then be no longer used by Him; it will not then be said of Him: “Behold the Lamb of God; behold Him who taketh away the sins of the world,”[5] but rather: behold “a lion ravening and
- ↑ Si quis peccaverit, advocatura habemus apud Patrem, Jesum Christum justum; et ipse est propitiatio pro peccatis nostris; non pro nostris autem tantum, sed etiam pro totius mundi.—I. John ii. 1, 2.
- ↑ Tu es qui venturus es, an alium exspectamus?—Matt. xi. 3.
- ↑ Pater omne judicium dedit Filio.—John v. 22.
- ↑ Tunc videbunt Filium hominis venientem in nube.—Luke xxi. 27.
- ↑ Ecce Agnus Dei, ecce qui tollit peccata mundi.—John i. 29.
