SERMON XIX

“For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God; and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?  And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?” 1 Peter iv:17, 18.

Upon this passage, the believers in endless misery lean for the support of that sentiment, and on many occasions it is quoted with an air of triumph as though the passage itself, without comment, were sufficient to silence all objections.  Here they have one advantage of Universalists; and of this advantage they do not forget to avail themselves—­viz:  the prejudices of early education.  But we sincerely call their application of this passage in question, and shall stand forth in defense of the triumphs of Jesus Christ over all sin, and pain and death, fully believing that the hand of heaven “shall wipe tears from off all faces.”  We will attempt to show,—­

First—­What we are to understand by judgment beginning at the house of God.

Second—­Who were the righteous, and in what sense they were scarcely saved.

Third—­Show who were the ungodly, and where they appeared.

First—­What we are to understand by judgment beginning at the house of God.  Jesus Christ chose him twelve disciples and commenced the great work the Father sent him to do.  To them he disclosed many events, that God would in a future day bring upon the world.  He pointed them forward with more than human accuracy into the approaching revolutions of time, and painted out in noon-day light those astonishing disasters that would one day burst like a thunderclap on the thoughtless nations.  He marked their certainty, and warned them accordingly.  Among the many things, that lay buried in the vista of future years, was the destruction of Jerusalem.  This was a point that most solemnly concerned the disciples of Jesus.  It was no less than the destruction of their nation.

Christ was with his disciples in the temple, that splendid edifice which was forty and six years in building, and, in their presence and for the last time, addressed the stubborn Jews.  He pointed out the many crimes of which they and their fathers had been guilty in shedding the blood of the prophets, and persecuting those who were sent unto them as the messengers of Jehovah.  They had also made void the law of God through their traditions.  While pointing out these things, and setting them home like a thunderbolt to their hearts, he pronounced them hypocrites, blind guides, devourers of widows’ houses, and declared that all the righteous blood shed upon the earth should be required of of that generation.  While rehearsing these things to them, Jesus had a perfect view of all their approaching sufferings.  Many of them were to be starved to death.  He saw by a prophetic eye the indulgent father and fond mother weeping over their infant train,