Judgment

The axe. This is judgment; destruction. The axe is not for planting, or pruning, or dressing, or propping, or protecting, but for cutting down. It is spoken of as used for trees; for the carved work of the temple; for towers; for a whole forest; for a battle-axe. In all cases for overthrow, utter overthrow. The axe against Israel was the Roman host, and many such axes has God wielded, age after age. ==Every judgment is an axe; pestilence is God’s axe; famine God’s axe; adversity God’s axe. At Christ’s second coming will be the uplifting of the axe against antichrist, against Christendom, against every false church. There is a great difference between the axe and the pruning knife. Yet some of God’s judgments are both in one. An axe to the ungodly; a pruning knife to the saint. It is God’s axe, not man’s; its edge is sharp; it is heavy; it will do its work well. ==

He is speaking, not of a tree, but trees; a forest. He is likening Israel to a forest. It may be an olive-wood or a palm-wood, the oaks of Bashan or the cedars of Lebanon. Israel is the forest, God’s forest, planted by God, on God’s own hills and valleys. So also is the church; and each member is a tree in that forest. On that forest God has his eye; from its trees God comes seeking fruit. From the forest of Lebanon trees were once cut down for the temple; but this is for destruction, not for building nor ornament.

Christ, at his first coming, laid the axe there; at his second coming He will lift it up and smite! The axe was laid down when Israel least thought of such a thing; when they were boasting of privilege, and calling themselves children of Abraham; so it shall be lifted up to smite, when men are saying “peace and safety”; boasting of progress and reform, and deliverance from the bigotry of narrow-minded men. Now is the age of trial, of probation. Israel’s forest was found barren, and was cut down. Now Christendom is on its trial. Shall it be cut down? It has been long spared. Is it fruitful? Thou, O man, art on thy trial? What is to be the issue when the Lord comes?

Verse 1

And must I be to judgment brought,
And answer in that day,
For every vain and idle thought,
And every word I say?

Verse 2

Yes, every secret of my heart
Shall shortly be made known,
And I receive my just desert
For all that I have done.

Verse 3

How careful then I ought to live!
With what religious fear,
Who such a strict account must give
For my behavior here.

Verse 4

Thou awful Judge of quick and dead,
The watchful power bestow;
So shall I to my ways take heed,
To all I speak or do.

Verse 1

Called to the feast by the King are we,
Sitting, perhaps, where his people be,
How will it fare, friend, with thee and me,
When the King comes in?

Refrain

When the King comes in, brother,
When the King comes in!
How will it fare with thee and me
When the King comes in?

Verse 2

Crowns on the head where the thorns have been,
Glorified he who once died for men,
Splendid the vision before us then,
When the King comes in.

Verse 3

Like lightning’s flash will that instant show
Things hidden long from both friend and foe,
Just what we are will each neighbor know,
When the King comes in.

Verse 4

Joyful his eye shall on each one rest
Who is in white wedding garments dressed,
Ah, well for us if we stand the test,
When the King comes in.

Verse 5

Endless the separation then,
Bitter the cry of deluded men,
Awful that moment beyond all ken,
When the King comes in.

Verse 6

Lord, grant us all, we implore thee, grace,
So to await thee each in his place,
That we may fear not to see thy face
When thou comest in.

Verse 1

Come, Lord, and tarry not;
Bring the long-looked-for day;
O why these years of waiting here,
These ages of delay?

Verse 2

Come, for Thy saints still wait;
Daily ascends their sigh:
The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come”:
Dost Thou not hear the cry?

Verse 3

Come, for creation groans,
Impatient of Thy stay,
Worn out with these long years of ill,
These ages of delay.

Verse 4

Come, and make all things new;
Build up this ruined earth;
Restore our faded Paradise,
Creation’s second birth.

Verse 5

Come, and begin Thy reign
Of everlasting peace;
Come, take the kingdom to Thyself,
Great King of Righteousness.

Verse 1

Day of wrath! O day of mourning!
See fulfilled the prophets’ warning,
Heaven and earth in ashes burning!

Verse 2

O what fear man’s bosom rendeth,
When from heaven the Judge descendeth,
On whose sentence all dependeth.

Verse 3

Wondrous sound the trumpet flingeth;
Through earth’s sepulchres it ringeth;
All before the throne it bringeth.

Verse 4

Death is struck, and nature quaking;
All creation is awaking,
To its Judge an answer making.

Verse 5

Lo, the book, exactly worded,
Wherein all hath been recorded:
Thence shall judgment be awarded.

Verse 6

When the Judge His seat attaineth,
And each hidden deed arraigneth,
Nothing unavenged remaineth.

Verse 7

What shall I, frail man, be pleading,
Who for me be interceding,
When the just are mercy needing?

Verse 8

King of Majesty tremendous,
Who dost free salvation send us,
Fount of pity, then befriend us.

Verse 9

Think, kind Jesus, my salvation
Cost Thy wondrous Incarnation;
Leave me not to reprobation.

Verse 10

Faint and weary Thou hast sought me,
On the cross of suffering bought me;
Shall such grace be vainly brought me?

Verse 11

Righteous Judge of retribution,
Grant Thy gift of absolution
Ere that reckoning-day’s conclusion.

Verse 12

Guilty, now I pour my moaning,
All my shame with anguish owning;
Spare, O God, Thy suppliant groaning.

Verse 13

Thou the sinful woman savedst;
Thou the dying thief forgavest;
And to me a hope vouchsafest.

Verse 14

Worthless are my prayers and sighing;
Yet, good Lord, in grace complying,
Rescue me from fires undying.

Verse 15

With Thy favored sheep O place me;
Nor among the goats abase me;
But to Thy right hand up-raise me.

Verse 16

While the wicked are confounded,
Doomed to flames of woe unbounded,
Call me, with Thy saints surrounded.

Verse 17

Low I kneel with heart-submission;
See, like ashes, my contrition;
Help me in my last condition.

Verse 18

Ah, that day of tears and mourning!
From the dust of earth returning,
Man for judgment must prepare him;
Spare, O God, in mercy spare him:

Verse 19

Lord, all pitying, Jesus blest,
Grant us Thine eternal rest.

Verse 1

Great God, what do I see and hear!
The end of things created!
The Judge of mankind doth appear,
On clouds of glory seated!
The trumpet sounds; the graves restore
The dead which they contained before:
Prepare, my soul, to meet Him.

Verse 2

The dead in Christ shall first arise,
At the last trumpet’s sounding,
Caught up to meet Him in the skies,
With joy their Lord surrounding;
No gloomy fears their souls dismay;
His presence sheds eternal day
On those prepared to meet Him.

Verse 3

But sinners, filled with guilty fears,
Behold His wrath prevailing;
For they shall rise, and find their tears
And sighs are unavailing:
The day of grace is past and gone;
Trembling they stand before the throne,
All unprepared to meet Him.

Verse 4

Great God, what do I see and hear!
The end of things created!
The Judge of mankind doth appear,
On clouds of glory seated!
Beneath His cross I view the day
When heaven and earth shall pass away,
And thus prepare to meet Him.

Verse 1

How sad would it be, if when thou didst call,
All hopeless and unforgiven,
The angel that stands at the beautiful gate,
Should answer, No room in heaven.

Refrain

Sad, sad, sad would it be!
No room in heaven for thee!
No room, no room,
No room in heaven for thee!

Verse 2

How sad it would be, the harvest all past,
The bright summer days all over;
To know that the reapers had gathered the grain,
And left thee alone forever.

Verse 3

Oh, haste thee, and fly, while mercy is near,
Remember the love that he gave you;
The love that has sought thee is seeking thee still,
And Jesus now waits to save you.

Verse 1

Lift up your heads, rejoice,
Redemption draweth nigh;
Now breathes a softer air,
Now shines a milder sky;
The early trees put forth
Their new and tender leaf;
Hushed is the moaning wind
That told of winter’s grief.

Verse 2

Lift up your heads, rejoice,
Redemption draweth nigh;
Now mount the laden clouds,
Now flames the darkening sky;
The early scattered drops
Descend with heavy fall,
And to the waiting earth
The hidden thunders call.

Verse 3

Lift up your heads, rejoice,
Redemption draweth nigh;
O note the varying signs
Of earth, and air, and sky;
The God of glory comes
In gentleness and might,
To comfort and alarm,
To succor and to smite.

Verse 4

He comes, the wide world’s King,
He comes, the true heart’s Friend,
New gladness to begin,
And ancient wrong to end;
He comes, to fill with light
The weary waiting eye:
Lift up your heads, rejoice,
Redemption draweth nigh.

Verse 1

Light of those whose dreary dwelling
Borders on the shades of death,
Come, and by Thy love’s revealing,
Dissipate the clouds beneath.

Verse 2

The new heaven and earth’s Creator,
In our deepest darkness rise,
Scattering all the night of nature,
Pouring eyesight on our eyes.

Verse 3

Still we wait for Thine appearing;
Life and joy Thy beams impart,
Chasing all our fears, and cheering
Every poor benighted heart.

Verse 4

Come and manifest the favor
God hath for our ransomed race;
Come, Thou glorious God and Saviour,
Come and bring the gospel grace.

Verse 5

Save us in Thy great compassion,
O Thou mild, pacific Prince;
Give the knowledge of salvation,
Give the pardon of our sins.

Verse 6

By Thine all-restoring merit
Every burdened soul release;
Every weary, wandering spirit
Guide into Thy perfect peace.

Thus there are two cities, one of the wicked, the other of the just, which to endure from the beginning of the human race even to the end of time, which are now intermingled in body, but separated in will, and which, moreover, are to be separated in body also on the day of judgment. For all men who love pride and temporal dominion together with empty vanity and display of presumption, and all spirits who set their affections on such things and seek their own glory by the subjection of man, are bound fast together in one fellowship; and even though they frequently fight one with another for these ends, still they are flung headlong by an equal weight of desire into the same abyss, and are united to one another by the likeness of their ways and deserts. And again, all men and all spirits who humbly seek God’s glory, not their own, and who follow Him in godliness, belong to one fellowship. And yet God is most merciful and long-suffering toward ungodly men, and offers them room for repentance and amendment.