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Today's Devotional

We shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ—Romans 14:10 (KJV).

The Mogul of Turkey used to be weighed once a year. On the opposite side of the scales first was put silver, then gold, then jewels, and then the gold and the jewels were thrown among the people. My friends, the day comes when you and I must be weighed in scales of a different character—weighed not against the gold and the jewels of this world; but weighed by the law of the eternal right and the eternal wrong.

Painters have tried to sketch that day but always fail. It is easy to sketch a city on fire, but not a universal conflagration. ... All the mountains falling. All the seas boiling. All the stars dropping. All the heavens rolling. All the earth vanishing. Angels flying. Graves bursting. Dead rising. Thrones hoisting. God coming. The apostle Peter speaks of that day as “a great noise.” The slide of an avalanche deafens the ear; but what will it be when the Himalayas and Alps and Mount Washington tumble into the dust. A thunder storm reaches only five, ten or fifteen miles; but what will it be when all around the earth the artillery of God shall be unlimbered? The whoop of the wind; the blare of the trumpets; the chorus of the saved; the groans of the banished…

I do not pretend to tell you where the judgment hall of the last day will be; but there will be a place of judgment where we will have to meet God and answer for this day; for what we say, for what we hear; answer for all the opportunities we have had or might have had; answer for all resistances of the Holy Ghost; answer for all sick-bed vows broken; all death-bed warnings slighted; all Sabbaths, and Bibles, and communion-tables despised. For every year we will have to give answer; every month, every hour, every moment of our life we will have to give answer; and it will be under the scrutiny of that God who has seen us, and watched us, and knows all about us. Will we be ready for such a scrutiny under the eye of the all-seeing God?

About the author and the source

Rev. Thomas De Witt Talmage (1832–1902) was a famous 19th-century preacher, clergyman, author, and editor with both Reformed and Presbyterian churches.