ment is committed, it is eminently fitting that they should frequently refer to and clearly set forth the truth concerning that event. Again and again in their writings they speak of Jesus as the One who shall act in the capacity of Judge. "Jesus Christ shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom" (2 Tim. 4:1). In the language of Peter, it is He that is "ready to judge the quick and the dead" (1 Peter 4:5). He is the "Lord of the dead and of the living" (Rom. 14:9), having acquired this lordship, this authority to judge, by perfect obedience to the will of the Father. The Father was pleased with Him, exalting Him, after a life of obedience, ending in His death on the cross, to His own nature, which is spirit, and, intrusting Him with the work of taking out of the gentiles a people for His name (Acts 15:7, 14). Having obtained power over all flesh that He should give eternal life to as many as the Father shall give Him (John 17:2), He will sit in judgment in the cases of those who are amenable to His judgment, dispensing, after account rendered by each one, eternal life to the worthy, and punishment, ending in death, to the unworthy.

THE SUBJECTS OF CHRIST'S JUDGMENT

This brings us to the question, Who shall be the subjects of Christ's judgment, as taught in the foregoing passages of Scripture? Do these passages refer to the "judgment" or ruling of the nations, or do they contemplate the individual appearing and judgment of everyone, living or dead, faithful or unfaithful, who runs the race for eternal life and the kingdom of God? Undoubtedly the latter. Here is, first, the Scripture which clearly indicates who shall appear for judgment. The apostle Paul says, "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that everyone may receive the things in body according to that he hath done, whether good or bad (2 Cor. 5:10). According to this testimony there is to be:

I. "The judgment-seat of Christ." A judgment-seat is a tribunal, an institution at which cases are tried and decided according to established law. Appearing before a judgmentseat does not necessarily mean that the persons appearing will be condemned or acquitted. This will depend upon the facts with which the judge shall deal. Christ will have a judgmentseat or tribunal before which persons shall stand or be manifested, and receive according to their deserts (Rom. 14:9-12; 2 Cor. 5:10).

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true character as seen by the righteous Judge. "God shall judge the righteous and the wicked: for there is a time there for every purpose and every work" (Eccl. 3:17). "The Lord shall judge His people," says the apostle Paul (Heb. 10:30). "God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil" (Eccl. 12:14). There are also allusions to the judgment of both righteous and unrighteous in the Psalms (see Ps. 50:4; 135:14). Thus holy men of different times are in agreement upon this phase of an important gospel truth.

3. Why shall all, whether faithful or unfaithful, appear before the judgment-seat of Christ? First, because He who has been appointed as Judge has decreed and announced that it shall be so. But why the decree? Because with the judgment probation ends. Until then there will be those who are running with patience the race set before them, and those who do not endure as seeing Him who is invisible. Some of the racers are awake, while others have fallen asleep in death; but the result of their race is not declared, the sentence is not pronounced, the recompense not given. They must first stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Why? That "everyone" may "give account of himself to God" (Rom. 14:12). Why this "account"? Because "everyone" has done either good or bad, and the account is necessary to a reckoning or settlement. This is the place for an official account, and the place where an official public sentence will be given in accordance with the account thus rendered. Thus the character developed during probation will form the basis of the account; this account will form the basis of the verdict; and the verdict will declare whether the persons appearing are approved or rejected. Not that the account is for the purpose of giving information to the Judge as to character, for "the day" in which these transactions shall be had "shall declare every man's work of what sort it is" (1 Cor. 3:13). The Lord knoweth them that are His, but until then they are not manifested as to their real character, and the time for their public acknowledgment or rejection has

not come.

Even the faithful will have need of "boldness in the day of judgment" (1 John 4:17). Why this "boldness"? Because of the account which everyone shall give of himself, and the issues related to that account. If the character formed during probation is such as to show that good was done, if love was made perfect, no doubt there will be boldness; but if that which

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communicate; laying up for themselves a good foundation
against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life”
(1 Tim. 6:18, 19). In our Lord's parable of the sheep and the
goats "eternal life" and "everlasting punishment" depend upon
whether the appearers have "done" or not done certain things
in relation to Christ (Matt. 25:31-46). It will doubtless be
readily granted that they who fail to meet the conditions en-
joined in the gospel, will reap corruption and go down in the
second death, and that they receive this result in a mortal body.
We come then to consider the receptacle in which the approved
at the judgment-seat of Christ shall receive eternal life. The
apostle says, "We shall receive in body good or bad." If we
receive eternal life in or through a body, that body is one re-
quiring, and capable of receiving, eternal life. It is a mortal
body awaiting immortality; a corruptible body awaiting in-
corruption. Then if "we must all appear before the judgment-
seat of Christ," whether "we" lived in Paul's day and fell
asleep centuries ago, or whether "we" are of those who "shall
not sleep"; whether ultimately approved or rejected; we are
all in the same bodily condition while standing before that tri-
bunal. Are these premises sustained by the testimony of the
Scriptures? What is it that shall put on incorruption and im-
mortality? That which is corruptible, mortal; and that is a
body. Paul styles it a "natural body," and proves that it is
such by his citation of Gen. 2:7, where it is said that "man
became a living soul" (1 Cor. 15: 44, 45). So, then, a natural
body is a living soul, and a living soul is a natural body. This,
the apostle says, is corruptible, dishonorable, weak (vss. 42,
43). He further says, it is "of [ek, out of] the earth," and
In order that this body may be incorrupti-
styles it "earthy."
ble, glorious, powerful, heavenly, it must be "changed," and
this change will be accomplished by having the corruptible body
put on incorruption, the mortal body put on immortality
(vss. 51-54). Such is the condition of the body as it stands
before the judgment-seat of Christ, and such, if worthy, will be
the change when "we shall receive in body" the good. Where
is this body before it stands before the judgment-seat of
Christ? It may be moving upon the earth as a living soul,
either patiently continuing in welldoing, or else living in indif-
ference and sin. But what of the bodies which have long ago
died and ceased to be living souls, or natural bodies? Where
are those bodies now? They are not in existence, only a life
was lived, a character formed, a record made. Besides this