In order to this general assize, “the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God,” (John v. 25, 28, 29;) “and many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” (Dan. xii. 2.) The “sea, death and hell,” or the grave, (or rather, the place of souls as separated by death from their bodies,) which are thus awfully, but beautifully personified, shall surrender their respective tenants, that they may stand before the Son of man in judgment.—­Only such as have died are mentioned here:  but some will not die, but “remain alive unto the coming of the Lord,” the judge; and these, it is probable, will be the “camp of the saints” which have been miraculously delivered from the rage of Gog and Magog, (vs. 8, 9.) There is a beautiful order in the final resurrection.  “The dead in Christ shall rise first.” (1 Thess. iv. 16; 1 Cor. xv. 23.) Next will be raised the wicked; for “like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them, and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning.” (Ps. xlix. 14.) The dead, being all raised, those who shall be alive will undergo a change equivalent to death,—­“in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye;” for these “shall not prevent (anticipate) them which were asleep;” that is, they will not be changed until their companions are called from the grave, etc.  All being now “before the judgment seat of Christ,”—­the “books are opened!” Oh, what emotions will swell and heave the bosoms of the righteous!—­“joy unspeakable and full of glory:”  for before the sentence of acquittal is publicly pronounced, their position on the Judge’s right hand indicates the sentence.  And next what terror insupportable will now seize the wicked!  What “fearful looking-for of judgment and fiery indignation,” when in breathless suspense, they await the just sentence,—­“Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels!” (Matt. xxv. 41; Heb. x. 27.) The righteousness of this sentence will be attested by the “opened books,”—­of the divine omniscience, the human conscience, and in the case of gospel-rejecters, the Bible. (2 Thess. i. 7, 8.) And the like condemnation would pass upon the righteous, but that “another book is opened,” in which are inscribed the names of all the objects of God’s electing love:  and this will be the key-note in their songs of praise to all eternity. (Jer. xxxi. 3; Rev. i. 5.) All are “judged according to their works,” as these are witnessed by the books,—­for “their works do follow them,” (ch. xiv. 13.)

“Death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.”  Death, or the grave; hell, or the separate state, will never again be needed, as prisons to keep their inmates for trial.  “The lake of fire” is the place of ceaseless and endless torment for all who are not “found written in the book of life;” and this place seems to be distinct from the “bottomless pit,” Satan’s “prison,”