So much for shame’s being a dreadful and horrible thing.  But again, it is a spiritual thing:  it grows and works not in our fleshly bodies, but in our spirits, our consciences, our immortal souls.  You may see this by thinking of people who are not afraid of shame.  You do not respect them, or think them the better for that.  Not at all.  If a man is not afraid of shame; if a man, when he is found out, and exposed, and comes to shame, does not care for it, but ‘brazens out his own shame,’ as we say, we do not call him brave; we call him what he is, a base impudent person, lost to all good feeling.  Why, what harder name can we call any man or woman, than to say that they are ‘shameless,’ dead to shame?  We know that it is the very sign of their being dead in sin, the very sign of God’s Spirit having left them; that till they are made to feel shame there is no hope of their mending or repenting, or of any good being put into them, or coming out of them.  So that this feeling of shame is a spiritual feeling, which has to do with a man’s immortal soul, with his conscience, and the voice of God in his heart.

Now, consider this:  that there will surely come to you and me, and every living soul, a day of judgment; a day in which we shall be judged.  Think honestly of those two words.  First, a day, not a mere time, much less a night.  Now, in a day there is light, by which men can see, and a sun in heaven which shows all things clearly.  In that day, that brightest and clearest of all days, we shall see what we really have been, and what we really have done; and for aught we know, every one round us, every one with whom we have ever had to do, will see it also.  The secrets of all our hearts will be disclosed; and we shall stand before heaven and earth simply for what we are, and neither more nor less.  That is a fearful thought!  Shall we come to shame in that day?  And it will be a day of judgment:  in it we shall be judged.  I do not mean merely condemned, for we may be acquitted:  or punished, for we may be rewarded; those things come after being judged.  First, let us think of what being judged is.  A judge’s business is to decide on what we have done, or whether we have broken the law or not; to hear witnesses for us and against us, to sum up the evidence, and set forth the evidence for us and the evidence against us.  And our judge will be the Son of Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing through the very joints and marrow, and discerning the secret intents of the heart; neither is anything hid from Him, for all things are naked and open in the sight of Him with whom we have to do.  With whom we have to do, mind:  not merely with whom we shall have to do; for He sees all now, He knows all now.  Ever since we were born, there has not been a thought in our heart but He has known it altogether.  And He is utterly just—­no respecter of persons; like His own wisdom, without partiality and without hypocrisy.  O Lord! who shall stand in that day?  O Lord! if thou be extreme to mark what is done amiss, who shall abide it?  O Lord! in thee have I trusted:  let me never be confounded!